COMING IN MARCH 2008

All the Saints of the City of the Angels: Seeking the Soul of L.A. on Its Streets

J. Michael Walker

Paperback with flaps, ISBN: 978-1-59714-075-1, $35.00
230 pages (9 x 12)

An artist’s homage to everyday Angelenos.

One fateful afternoon in August of 2000, while flipping through his trusty Thomas Guide, artist J. Michael Walker began to notice how many L.A. streets began with the letter S. Upon further inspection, he discovered that something else was repeating itself: “Santa Clara Avenue,” “St. Andrews Place,” “San Pablo Street”….They were all named for saints!

Thus began Walker’s quest to find and document every “saint-street” in L.A.

• Who named these streets after saints and why?
• What elements of the saints’ stories can still be found on the grid?
• Where and how does contemporary life intersect with traditional Western lore?

Playfully borrowing from various artistic genres—from illuminated manuscripts to comic strips—and encased in a sumptuous gold cover, All the Saints of the City of the Angels combines meticulous research with creative inspiration to depict, in paint and ink, Angelenos both historical and contemporary. Populated by the portraits of both the famous and the forgotten and filled with stories and secrets from every age, this beautifully offbeat volume peels back layers of western history to reveal the humanity underneath.

Walker’s large-scale paintings, which were the source for All the Saints of the City of the Angels, will be the subject of a major exhibit at the Autry National Center in the spring of 2008.

About the Author:

Born and raised in Arkansas, J. Michael Walker came to Los Angeles by way of Mexico—a critical stopover that “explained” L.A. to him: its historical, thriving roots churning beneath the asphalt. Since 1984, he has participated in more than one hundred exhibitions; received a dozen grants, fellowships, and artist residencies; and has enjoyed solo shows in both the United States and Mexico. He resides, of course, in Los Angeles.

Author website: www.allthesaints.com