Mariah Anne Johnson: Semitropic Spiritualist Tract Paintings / 7/17/09

Collected here are hastily-made images of a series of small paintings I have been working on during the first half of 2009, before leaving LA for two months in Dallas, Texas. These paintings represent my responses to the geography of my neighborhood, in particular my response to one still-unoccupied hillside in the Semitropic Spiritualist Tract area of Echo Park. This hillside has been the focus of a dispute between the landowner (a developer) and the surrounding residents. These paintings are, in part, meditations on this disputed area before its wildness is tamed.