LA & the Getty Museum

Our travel took place on the ancestral lands of the Chumash and Tongva (Gabrieleno) peoples who have stewarded those lands since time immemorial.

I have some relatives (once-removed, I think??) in the Philippines that I don’t get to see very often so I was really excited when our ‘cousin’ Ruby told my sister and I that she would be in California for about a week in November. The timing was tricky, but I was excited to see her and booked a weekend flight so I could catch her, her new husband, and a friend that was travelling with them during the tail end of their stay in LA.

Ruby and I at the canals in Venice Beach

I flew in Saturday morning and me them in Venice Beach. They had been there for about two days but had spent most of their time going to Costco and stocking up on things they can’t get in the Philippines. They had also come from a week in New York City and were all a bit traumatized by the weather — they all had to get winter coats and thermals because they had never been in such cold weather before. We strolled around Venice Beach, watched people work out in public, watched some skaters, and when they told me they hadn’t eaten Mexican food yet I freaked out, so we got tacos for lunch.

I realized on this trip that I hadn’t spent any significant amount of time in LA even though I went to college in Orange County for one year. Even for someone who grew up in California (East Bay) I found the highways and 8-lane arterials overwhelming. I took transit when I could because there are dedicated bus lanes in a lot of places, and even took the light rail/bus downtown, but I had a hard time avoiding cars and cabs because it was just so much more efficient. It took an hour to get to different neighborhoods which is just not something I’m used to, I don’t know how people do it…

My cousin and her friend actually knew a lot of people in California since so many Filipinos emigrate to the US. We went to dinner at a high school friends’ house in the Valley, and I felt embarrassed to be the only one not speaking Tagalog. Everyone was really sweet and welcoming despite me being the weird distant cousin tagging along.

After dinner everyone was insistent that we go to Porto’s. I’d never heard of it but apparently it’s a legendary Cuban bakery the everyone in LA is obsessed with, and their Filipino families were insistent that they bring back cheese balls. The line that wrapped around both inside and outside at 9pm on a Saturday made the point that the place is popular. And for good reason — the cheese and guava pastries were pretty dank.

My cousin and her husband took off early the next morning for the Bay Area (I know, they didn’t tell me until I got there — I would have much rather met them there), and their friend flew back home. I had all of Sunday to myself so I decided to go to the Getty Museum since I had wanted to go for a long time.

The Getty sits at the the foothills of Topanga State Park and looks south on Santa Monica and the rest of LA, the views are incredible and the architecture and gardens spring up out of the scrubby native landscape to awe-inspiring effect. It was a really lovely place to spend an afternoon alone with my sketchbook.

Entrance to the museum is free and they have a really awesome app that guides you through the gardens and collections. I started by touring the garden which I learned about in a number of courses during my master’s degree. The garden is notable for not only the sensory experience of water, but also the use of materials — plant, metal, pavers, etc. I was so happy to be taking in all of the gorgeous succulents that would never grow in the Pacific Northwest; it also made me a little sad to think about the succulent and cactus garden I left behind when I left California.

The garden starts under the entry pavilion where a fountain receives water from a channel up above. That water then winds through a series of planter beds which zig zag down the hill to another plaza with the iconic bougainvillea trees. The bougainvillea trees are really incredible: celebratory explosions of red flowers, sculptural artifacts, and intimidatingly tall. They create a wonderful bit of shade in the dry Southern California heat which made me glad I was visiting in November and not August. I observed the labyrinth area and sketched under the bougainvilleas before moving on.

architecture-history.org

The garden ends in a labyrinth with steel retaining walls which wind you into a view of the city and then down toward a reflecting/duck pond. It was so amazing to be in a place where the plants are so carefully chosen and cared for; it’s so unfortunate that many cities don’t or can’t prioritize this kind of care for their public realm. I think being around healthy happy plants and trees can be so uplifting and everyone should have access to that experience — not just folks who can afford to.

The labyrinth provided a number of great perspectives of the gallery structure as well. The iconic stone-clad block sits above a dining pavilion mimicking a Greek or Roman colonnade — it was a great place to sit and enjoy lunch with a little bottle of prosecco before I went to view the galleries.

When I visited Reinventing the Americas: Construct. Erase. Repeat was showing which had a number of works by indigenous Brazilian artist Denilson Baniwa (among others) which juxtaposed colonial narratives with indigenous artworks to emphasize the white supremacy in the stories and images. Some of the descriptions and assumptions which European colonizers made about indigenous peoples of the Americas were horrific, and it was both sad and hilarious to see the different reinventions of the European gaze. I took a lot more photos than what I’ve included here, and I would encourage you to read more about the exhibit and artists at the link above.

I was pretty tired after a day in the sun at the Getty, but still wanted to try and see the garment district and shop for fabric. Unfortunately, nothing was really open at 5pm on a Sunday but I did get to see Santee Alley which reminded me a lot of open-air markets in other countries. It was pretty cool to see the variety of foods and goods and be able to just walk around and enjoy all the action. Hopefully I’ll get to go back and check out some fabric stores because I hear you can get really awesome designer deadstock!