Where anyone can make their mark
You will not see bright primary colors and chunky spill-proof furniture, characteristics one might expect of a family-oriented art space, at the Boone Gallery in LACMA. Instead, visitors walk into a capacious room bedecked with giant windows bursting with natural light. Thick, minimalist, wooden rectangular tables, worthy of a fine, rustic dining room, invite you to have a seat on their sturdy benches. Upon each table are familiar art supplies, like paper, pens, and colored pencils. But also provided are the fixings for making sumi-e art. Any workspace that places fat ink markers next to Japanese art materials sends the message of inclusiveness with a total absence of art snobbery.
Sumi-e in Japanese means “ink painting.” In this 2000-year-old art form, ink or paint is applied to paper with a bamboo brush made with animal hair. The stiffness of the hair is specially suited to creating images of bamboo or orchid leaves. Boone sets visitors up with brushes, water, and cakes of tempera paint in an array of non-primary (nontoxic!) colors. (The choice of washable paint is the one age-appropriate concession made for the youngsters.) Artists dip their brush into the water, stroke it across the multihued blocks and begin. There’s no instruction or pressure here. Those trying their hand at sumi-e can free flow or refer to any one of the technique books on a nearby shelf.
Info
Address LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036, +1 323.857.6010, www.lacma.org/kids-families | Getting there Paid on-site lots and metered street parking | Hours Mon–Fri 11am–5pm, Sat–Sun 10am–5pm, closed Wed; admission is free| Tip Walk across the street and check out the Craft and Folk Art Museum (5814 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036), cofounded by artist Edith R. Wyle, actor Noah Wyle’s grandmother. Longtime Angelenos will remember the days when the museum was still a commercial gallery and beloved cafe called the Egg and the Eye.
Whether perfecting a leaf or drawing stick figures, there’s a happy sense of community thrust upon strangers as they share paint and paper, and that’s the point. The Boone Gallery seeks to foster many connections – between people, between people and their art, and between people and the art and artists on display at the museum. The paint dries quickly and you get to take your creations home. All ages are welcome. That means adults without children too. All one needs to bring is a willingness to make a mark.
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