The L.A.-born artist and her husband chose San Diego in 2008 for its landscape, climate, and outdoor lifestyle. Ball meticulously studies her subjects, photographing endangered animals at the San Diego Zoo. A Northern White Rhinoceros named Nola at the Zoo’s Safari Park—who’s one of only five left in the world—appears in several of Ball’s paintings. Although she’s not emotional by nature, Ball says watching species literally die out elicits a deep sadness she pours into the work. This month, Ball will have a solo show at Roseark in West Hollywood. To see one of her works locally, visit Sparks Gallery March 1–April 29. 530 Sixth Avenue, downtown

Artist With a Wild Imagination

Celia, 2014, is a watercolor and graphite on paper

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Hit Artist

Photo: Found Creative Studio

Art can pop up in the unlikeliest of places—take for instance the Westfield Mission Valley management office near Nordstrom Rack. It’s the latest place to be hit by artist and Oceanside native Chor Boogie. If you won’t be applying for a mall job anytime soon, you can view the artist’s work at the taco shop Puesto in La Jolla, as well as the new Puesto in The Headquarters at Seaport District. Or, maybe you’ve passed it at Westfield Horton Plaza or Body Mark’s Tattoo on El Cajon Boulevard.

But don’t call it graffiti. “I use the term ‘modern hieroglyphics’ or ‘street romantic voodoo,’” Boogie says. “Graffiti is illegal.” One identifying motif in many of his works is the “Boogie bird,” which “has the power of cuteness” and which he’s been incorporating for nearly a decade, “before Angry Birds.” He doesn’t sketch first—just freestyles layer upon layer, sometimes repeating words (look for “Westfield” in the above mural). Entitled The Boogie Bird’s Nest, the mural above is made up of about 20 to 30 layers of paint and took about five hours to complete. Boogie’s work can also be seen in other cities like Baton Rouge, San Francisco, and L.A., and abroad in Puerto Rico, Germany, China, and Australia.

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Eleanor Antin

Eleanor Antin

In Eleanor Antin’s art, she is many people. She is an iconic conceptual artist whose 100 Boots, a staged sequence of images from 1971 featuring (yes) 100 boots, is one of the wittiest works of its decade— or for that matter, any decade. She is the creator of fictive identities that take the form of staged images, performances, and films. Among those identities: a bearded man (the King of Solana Beach) and a black ballerina who was part of Serge Diaghilev’s legendary company, the Ballet Russes (Eleanora Antinova).

Then there is Antin the author, of books such as Eleanora Antinova Plays. Or Eleanor the screenwriter and director of the critically acclaimed feature-length film, The Man Without a World, made in the style of an early 20th-century silent movie and set in a Polish village or shtetl of the period. (She gives writing and directing credit to another of her alter egos: Yevgeny Antinov.)

Antin, a professor emeritus of visual arts at UC San Diego as well as an internationally celebrated artist, is better known outside San Diego than in it, even though she taught here for nearly three decades beginning in 1975. Historical Takes, her one-person exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art in 2008, partially rectified that situation. (It showcased her droll and elaborately staged photographs evoking ancient Rome and iconic themes in Westernpainting.) But many people have a hard time believing that living artists who are in the history books live and work in their own civic backyards. Antin surely fits that description.

Eleanor Antin

Given her penchant for costumed drama and imagery, perhaps it will seem surprising that Antin has produced a new book, Conversations with Stalin, whose first-person narrator is, well, Antin. More specifically, the young version of herself. It is a memoir of her childhood and teen years, growing up in New York during and immediately after World War II.

“I felt as if I had the freedom to write about me,” the diminutive artist says, during our conversation in her many-windowed Carmel Valley studio. “I wanted to find little Elly.”

Find her she did. This is a kind of coming-of-age story, narrated in the first person in a voice that slyly fuses the Eleanor of decades ago with an undercurrent of the artist she is now, at age 78.

The book conveys her parents’ belief in socialism and her ambivalence about their politics. It might seem hard to believe now that many Americans thought well of Josef Stalin—the Soviet leader for three decades beginning in 1922—before the rise of anti-Communism in the early 1950s. But the Soviet Union was a key ally during World War II, of course, and Stalin’s brutal policies were not yet as widely known.

In Antin’s book, though, he is less the ruthless dictator than her imaginary comical sidekick. “For years, we would meet up in Central Park,” she writes, “and talk about stuff. My mother would have been jealous so Inever told her.”

So she seeks advice from him on everything from her dilemmas at work to boyfriends. But what does Stalin offer? He spouts Marxist logic and dogma.

“I would ask Stalin what he would do and he would f*** everything up,” says Eleanor, underscoring the point with a laugh.

The young Eleanor tells us about the jobs she suffers through and the boys she lusts after. She ponders the complexities of family life. And there is the recurring presence of Stalin, always ready to be the confidant who gives her some bad advice.

Does this memoir encourage her to do a sequel? She doubts it. As much as she loves writing, there are images and films to be made, exhibitions to plan. And she isn’t about to let Stalin have his say on the matter.

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Colorful Library

GOING GREEN

Welcome to the bright and colorful world of Shannon Lerach and Todd Murphy. The young Solana Beach couple was inspired by photos of an old library and coral reefs with bright blues and greens. This space, complete with his and her chairs, serves as the main entry. Before the remodel, it was a formal dining room. “I knew that we didn’t need a formal dining room,” Lerach says. “But I love to read and knew I wanted a library or office.” She credits Murphy, an artist and DJ by trade, with the bold color choices. “I knew I’d want to wake up every day to something that made me happy and inspired me,” explains Murphy, who’s been drawing and painting since he was a kid. Together, the couple worked with Sol Quintana Wagoner of Jackson Design & Remodeling to realize their vision. Here, books become the art. A welder created the shelving system, with reclaimed wood and long threaded poles. The low-voltage pendant is by LBL Lighting, and the blue desktop is made of Silestone.

The rendition of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss by Stacy Vosberg was meant to be an actual surfboard, but instead, the couple decided to hang it in their stairwell.

CURB APPEAL

The couple got rid of the white-picket and painted-yellow exterior. They chose a seaside blue-gray for the overall color, and added a natural stacked stone wall, customizing its height to accommodate their three dogs. The landscaping is laden with plants that thrive in a beach environment, and the design was kept simple for easy maintenance.

PUP PORTRAITS

Murphy painted these colorful pop- art portraits of the couple’s three dogs (from left to right): Chloe (a white boxer), Francis (a red Boston terrier), and Pig (a French bulldog). Inspired by graffiti street art and the works of Andy Warhol, Murphy says, “Having a house reflects your creativity.” This converted garage is his favorite spot to hang out. The designers added engineered vinyl flooring to make it feel more like an art studio. Murphy stores his paint supplies and DJ equipment in there—plus the couple’s wide assortment of bikes, surfboards, wetsuits, and tools. “I love that all my hobbies and interests can live in one room,” he says. “I like to open the garage doors and let the ocean breeze in.”

RUNNING WITH IT

Yep, they have that many pairs of running shoes—and they’re all just as colorful as the house itself. “We aren’t 18 shades of beige. We like bright colors,” says Lerach, who jokes that Lululemon is her stylist and REI is her Mecca. It’s worth noting that the closet, along with the rest of the home, is always this organized. The self- proclaimed Container Store junkie adds, “I love to organize, alphabetize, and label!”

INDOOR SUNSET

The couple was thrilled when they discovered NYC- based wallpaper company Flavor Paper. Now almost every room in their house has a state- ment wall with a different pattern on it. “We didn’t just want to cover our walls with stuff,” Lerach says. “The wallpaper gives character to the rooms.” The upstairs hallway mural is called Undertow, designed by Steve Ellis.

SLIDING DOORS

Rustic barn doors serve as the entry to the upstairs master suite and a downstairs guest room. The wood adds warmth to the space, and complements the new stair railings. “It was a very collaborative project, with lots of custom details,” says designer Sol Quintana Wagoner.

SOFT SILENCE

Cozy and quiet, the master suite is Lerach’s favorite room in the house. “I love the bright colors in the rest of the house,” she admits. “But there’s nothing like taking a big exhale in here at the end of the day. You just fall into the room.” The wintery wallpaper mural behind the bed is called Soft Silence, designed by Boone Speed (available at Flavor Paper).

Check out the house before it was remodeled here!

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