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Gata Galáctica recently came down from Portland this past weekend & I was stoked to see them play live at Gold Diggers in East Hollywood! If you've never heard their music, definitely check them out. They're the grooviest contemporary Latin-influenced psychedelic band out right now, whose music is very reminiscent of some of my fav chicha sounds out of 1960s South America. Bandcamp Friday is coming up this week, so consider supporting them directly & buying their music! Or, at least give them a follow on their Bandcamp or Instagram! It's FREE. 😉 I also got to grab a copy of a 7" they recently pressed — ON COLORED VINYL! 😻 Do you get their art reference below? 😎  I'm also feeling incredibly lucky that they let me photograph their set! I know they had so many photographers hit them up, so I'm glad that they let me of all people. Considering that they're a psychedelic band, I didn't want to make just any regular photos of them. So, I got a little experimental with the compositions & tried some things I'd never done outside of a studio setting. I used a new speedlight (flash) I just bought recently, a slow shutter speed & incorporated rigorous movement into the photos, like shaking the camera & zooming the lens in & out while the flash froze the colored lights during the longer exposure time. Not all the photos came out perfect, but that wasn't the goal. I wanted to let go of control a bit & see what the light was capable of painting into the compositions themselves. It was fun getting to play, & what better time to get experimental than with photos for a psychedelic band, I guess? 😅 Photos below were created with a Nikon ZF, a 24-120mm lens, a fractal filter, & a Godox Ving V860III. Click to enlarge & view from a computer for the full experience!   
  
 
 
   
 
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Last week I got to see Dark Chisme with a very dear friend. This night was so fun & every band gave such an energetic performance. They were all so good & matched each others' energy very well. I think the best part of this gig in particular was how very POC-forward, especially WOC-led, the line-up was. In a music subgenre that has historically been overwhelmingly white, it was awesome to experience such a diverse group. This is honestly one of my favorite things about living in Los Angeles. Shoutout to the organisers who put the night together, the homegirl Selene for inviting me, & huge thanks for Christine & E of Dark Chisme for approving me for a photo pass to do photography at the show. I'm looking foward to doing more events like this in the future! Here's some of my favorite compositions from Dark Chisme's set! Since the performance was so energetic, I had fun playing with a slow shutter speed in some comps. Photos were created with a Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. For the whole set of photos from the night (including Spike Hellis & Meldamore), visit the tag: Lastly, I am trying to hustle my photo work full-time. If you are in need of photography services, please visit my commercial photo website & book a consultation for events, portraiture or lifestyle photography!
Two of my absolute fav compositions from the whole set. The way the light was hitting Christine was perfection. 🤌🏽 
   
  
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Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. This was my first time seeing Spike Hellis & their set was part music performance & part art installation. I appreciated the extra bells & whistles, like the old CRT TVs playing misc video footage, as well as the surveillance camera, netting & other sculptural elements around the DJ booth. The lighting was sometimes too dark or a bit intense at times, but it allowed me to do more than just documentation. I was also able to create very artsy-looking compositions that I feel pair well with the overall aesthetic & vibe conveyed in their performance. Photos were created with a Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. For the whole set of photos from the night (including Dark Chisme & Meldamor), visit the tag: Lastly, I am trying to hustle my photo work full-time. If you are in need of photography services, please visit my commercial photo website & book a consultation for events, portraiture or lifestyle photography!
These two are some of my fav compositions from the set. I know it's not very clear what's happening or visible, but but I love the shapes & lines the lights are making.
More of my favs!
 
  
    This one is probably my fav out of the whole set. Even tho the figure may not exactly be clear, there's something truly celestial about the way the light is hitting, with a light in the back drawing attention to the surveillance camera & this idea of being watched from a greater being from above.
The last two weren't sharp, LOL. But I still wanted to include them! There's something painterly about the image on the left & the way the light is creating various layers of colors. And I converted the one of the right to B&W to create a very Xerox-style looking image that looks like it came out of a DIY zine. If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. We arrived a little later & just caught Pride Month Barbie at the end of the set. So, I didn't get any photos of them, unfortunately! But we got to enjoy a full set by Meldamor. It was my first time hearing them & the whole time I kept thinking "The dummer looks like Dave Parley" — it turns out it was! 😅 I had no idea he'd left Prayers & started a music project with his wife. Her towering figure paired with commanding stage presence made a very memorable performance & was a great introduction to the band. I'm obsessed! Below are a few of my fav compositions from the show. I created a mix of both B&W and color versions. I was really trying to go for an oldschool aesthetic edit, reminiscent of old DIY band photography. Let me know in the comments if you prefer the color or B&W photos! Photos were created with a Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. No flash in these, because I didn't want to ruin the ambience. I really loved a lot of the shapes & color palettes the lighting was creating, too! For the whole set of photos from the night (including Dark Chisme & Spike Hellis), visit the tag: Lastly, I am trying to hustle my photo work full-time. If you are in need of photography services, please visit my commercial photo website & book a consultation for events, portraiture or lifestyle photography!   
  
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I was excited to be invited to Mahjong Sosyal last weekend, organised by my good friend, fellow artist & collaborator Alex J. Cabalu.
Last week I was feeling defeated. I didn't know what to expect at the event, esp since I didn't even know how to play, but even though I didn't win any games, I ended up unexpectedly winning a raffle & it really made my week. I needed that small win to lift my spirits & it really made me feel a bit better. I'm glad I went! It was cool to see loads of young people interested in playing/learning the game, since I know many associate mahjong as an old ladies' games. But it was also just really cool to see multi-generations & cultures coming together to play & be together on a Saturday! Here are a few photos from my Nikon ZF made with a 24-70mm lens.
Sound on for Mahjong ASMR:
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Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. This was my first indie wrestling show & I had a blast! Most of you don't know this about me, but I love wrestling. Grew up watching oldschool WWF as a kid. Pro wrestling was one of my first introductions to "alternative" style of dressing & music. This was no ordinary wrestling show. It had so many things that I loved. One, it was at First Street Pool Hall, & most of you also don't know that I love playing pool. Two, punk bands. Some of you might already know that I grew up hanging out in LA's subculture music scenes in the early 2000s. Three, pro wrestling!!! With three things that I really enjoy, this was an event I didn't want to miss. It felt like being a kid again. It was so cool to be up close to the wrestlers at a DIY wrestling show in the backyard of a pool hall. And what a dream come true to be part of an audience all yelling "holy shit! holy shit! holy shit!" as someone gets gets bashed in the head with a steel chair. 🥴 This was truly oldschool wrestling: costumes, make-up, cheesy gimmicks & acting, steel chairs, trash cans, kendo sticks, blood & maybe even a little CTE. 😅 10/10 I would attend one of these events again. Now, I'm not equipped for fast-paced action or sports photography, especially not in low light. So, I did the best I could with what I've got. While this is already a very male dominant sport that usually caters to a more male audience, it was interesting to me that there were about a dozen other photographers & videographers & I was the ONLY woman photographer. To be honest, it was uncomfortable getting stares from them. I also wished there were more women wrestlers & bands. Hopefully, this is something the organisers can put together someday. It would be fun to see more women at the front of these events, both as performers & audience members. 😉 Below are some of my photos from the event! I might want to photograph more events like these in the future, so if you like these photos & want to see what I can do if equipped properly, help me buy a new lens & speed light, which will be about a $1000 investment! I publish & make a lot of work for free & welcome donations if you want to help me work towards some gear upgrades:
Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge. 
Six Shooter Scrap  
“Lost Boyz” Eli Everfly, Charming Biagio Crescenzo vs “Frontier Fight Club” Hoss Hogg, Billy Bravewolf 
     Super fun action shot I couldn't believe I got! The audience's reactions were priceless.    
Lois Grain Vs Delilah Doom
 
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To be honest, this was my fav match in the show! Felt like it embodied oldschool wrestling the most. It was so much fun to experience. I love a good old-fashioned heel! The match even spilled into the pool hall at one point. Some videos from my YouTube channel are also included below. Make sure to subscribe if you're not already!
Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge. 
If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. Some of my fav compositions from the show came from these sets! Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge. El Aguaman vs Blood Eagle
     One of my fav shots!  
Main Event: Team Zokre (Zokre, El Genio, El Chivo) Vs Team Spider (Red Spider, Warhog, Vertigo)   
    
  Another fav!!!    If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. Aside from the library punk show I went to back in December, I haven't gone out of my way to go to a show I wasn't working for years. It was fun to see All Out Attak again, whom I didn't even know were still together! They were a band I grew up watching when I was first growing up in the LA subculture music scenes in the early 2000s. They definitely still held up! Now, music photography is not really my forte & I'm not really equipped for it, but here's a couple of photos I was able to snap from their set. I was also able to get some video, but unfortunately the audio sounded like shit, so I didn't upload them to my YouTube channel, haha! Next time. I'll have to remember to get some portraits of the audience next time, too. Photos were made with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. View from a computer for the full experience! Click any image below to enlarge.
 
If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. Sharing more of the extended research & photography of my month long ARROZidency artist-in-residence. If you are just starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom to start at the beginning. View from a computer for the full experience! As another reminder, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For the full extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: It was Sunday, February 2, 2025. The rain was making its way through San Francisco & I had a ticket to the Asian Art Museum's free admission day. The rain was coming down & I remember being on the phone with my partner in the morning, asking him if I should still go, because it was raining & I wanted to be cozy. 😅 He encouraged me to go, because I may never get another chance to experience this again. I got dressed & had a short bike ride over to the museum from my sublet in Nob Hill. I was hoping that even though it was the free admission day, that not many people would be there because it was raining. I was sadly mistaken, haha! It was a bit too crowded for my taste, too noisy, I had a hard time navigating the galleries, some of the galleries were closed for installation, & from what I did get to see, I wasn't really impressed with the exhibitions. However, the main thing I wanted to experience at the museum was the lion dance performance. Having experienced my first lion dance performance just the year prior, I wanted to relive that electrifying feeling again. While the program was sadly so unorganized, the performance itself was so much fun to experience. At this time, having just left LA for this residency as the fires were erupting, I wanted to bring back some good fortune and cast off any lingering bad energy before returning to LA. 🐍 I hope everyone is feeling the energy of rebirth and renewal as we all finish shedding our skin from the year of the wood snake. Now, as we enter the year of the fire horse, I wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year, Tết, and Seollal! Fun fact: I was born in the year of the horse (in the 1900s)! The horse is known for being strong, independent & anti-authoritarian by nature. May we all channel our big fire horse energy this year as we dream of a future where authority & hierarchies no longer exist. ❤️🔥🐎 Shout out LionDanceME for their high-energy performance! Here's some photos of their performance from last year. Photographs were created with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. Click any image below to enlarge.
  
  
    
     
 Additional photos & research from the rest of my residency are forthcoming & will be tagged under ARROZidency.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. This is the last section of the second part of my VENERATING AN ICON documentary photo essay. If you are starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom of this series & starting from part 1. In case you missed it, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For an extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: For this project, I was really excited to go back to my documentary photo roots. In my earlier photo work, I focused on documenting multicultural communities, sometimes with a special focus on their spiritual practices. I've documented many communities from Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism, Khmer Buddhism, Krishna Consciousness, to precolonial ritualistic practices of Mesoamerica, to Native American pow wows. Religion and spirituality weren’t central to my upbringing, but it was always present. Though I wasn’t raised Catholic, I was excited to document a community tied to my culture & the history of the Philippines. There's some major reasons why my parents decided not to raise me religious, which was a bold move for immigrant parents of their generation, but I'm grateful for that choice they made in raising me. Their choice allowed me to deepen my curiosity for diverse spiritual practices & led me to discover, study & practice my own spiritual & metaphysical beliefs in my day-to-day life & art. Anyways, a lot has changed since my early documentary photo days. I first started off shooting strictly black & white film. I eventually started shooting color film once I lost access to a lab & discovered color film was cheaper to process. A couple of years ago I decided to expand my toolkit and purchased a digital camera for the first time, which I've enjoyed practicing & playing with. I recently took an advanced lighting class & hoped to expand my toolkit even further. One thing I can say for sure is that these are some of the hardest photos I've ever edited. The church banquet hall had all sorts of different tinted overhead lightbulbs. I had to do so much masking to color correct different parts of the room in these photos, which was a time-consuming challenge on top of not compromising the high saturation aesthetic I go for in my color work. All this to say, after taking this lighting class, I have a new appreciation for using flash & wonder if this could have been remedied had I brought my flash with me this time? Flash still intimidated me at that time, & after taking this class, I hope I can apply the skills I've learnt to continue documenting cultural events like these & producing the best images I can each time. I'm trying not to be scared of flash anymore! Check out the photos & let me know what you would have done differently! Images were photographed using my Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. Click on an image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.  Even more people brought their Santo Niños this time & it was so cute seeing the diverse kinds that people owned! Some titas even shared interesting stories with me about how they came to own their Santo Niños. One tita told me she allegedly rescued her Santo Niño from the trash. 🤣 She legit told me this. Y'all think she was telling the truth or was she lying at church?
 
 
 
This is where all the titas got up & started dancing with their Santo Niños! France on the right with the sheer shawl dancing with the Santo Niño I brought from Cebu. 🕺🏻
       Additional photos & research from the rest of my residency are forthcoming & will be tagged under ARROZidency.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
The second part of this 3-part series is split into 3 sections, as it's quite long. If you are starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom of this series & starting from part 1.
Because these blog posts cannot support video embeds if there is a lot of media content, here is a short video from my YouTube channel that documents part of the Sinulog performance at the second Santo Niño Fiesta we attended. It was so cute seeing the titas get up & dance with their Santo Niños! The last part will have photos of the performance, but it just hits different watching the movements & hearing the sounds of the music & singing. Video was filmed on my iPhone.
And again, in case you missed it, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags:
For my main residency project only, visit:
For an extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit:
2.3 will be the last section of part 2 of my main residency project series!
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. The second part of this 2-part series will, in itself, be split into 3 sections, as it's quite long. If you are starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom of this series & starting from part 1. And, in case you missed it, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For an extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: The second Santo Niño Fiesta we visited was at Saint Augustine Catholic Church in South San Francisco (which is its own city separate from the City of San Francisco). SSF is the city next to San Bruno, where the first fiesta took place. It is also adjacent to Daly City, where a large FilAm community resides. South San Francisco was just a BART ride away from where I was staying in San Francisco proper. While the interior architecture of this church wasn't as interesting as the first church, there was a lot more to look at within the exterior church complex itself. It reminded me a lot of the churches I've visited in the Philippines. The church was also a lot more spacious, with more room for the Sinulog performance later on. I'll share those photos in parts 2.2-2.3! This event was similar to the last one, where they had a procession for the Santo Niño, Mass, & people brought their own Santo Niños to be blessed. It was actually very exciting to see more people bring their images, & to see the many diverse kinds! Images were photographed using my Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. Click on an image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.
   
   
Sections 2.2 & 2.3 of part 2 are forthcoming, which will contain both photo & video!
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. Back at the beginning of November, I got to check out one of Artronika's shows again. As some of you know, I've attended a couple of their events already & have had the opportunity to do some photography for them last year. This time, I got to check them out at the DS Night Market! I went to the night market once before, back when they were still located at Lax-C. Now they've relocated to the Chinatown Plaza & it seems like a great location for them. More foot traffic, more visibility, space, & also helps bring a little more life back to Chinatown. LA's Chinatown has seemed dead these days, among other underlying issues of gentrification that exist in Chinatown as well. With the cost of housing skyrocketing across LA County, we have vacant "luxury" apartments in Chinatown adjacent to small 1-bedroom apartments cramped with low-income Chinese seniors struggling to get by & survive — especially in Chinatown, where there are no grocery stores within walking distance. I often find myself riding the bus among Chinatown seniors on their way to Super King by our house, which is already nearly 4 miles away from Chinatown. That aside, it's nice to see community coming together in Chinatown again, united by art, music & the mouth-watering aromas of Thai street food — arguably some of the best I've had in ages, because the Thai food in Northeast LA sucks. 💀 Anyways, I'm not a food critic. I'm here to share some photography! I published a few videos on my YouTube channel as well. Check out my Artronika playlist. Unless otherwise stated, photos were created with my Nikon ZF, a 24-70mm lens & Lightpix Labs Flashq Q20ii. If interested in event photography, please send me an email! Click any image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.
 A few misc photos to start, haha. The top 4 were made using a Pocket Dispo lens. Below, we have Artronika’s Executive Director, Ireesh Lal, playing jazz trumpet over his DJ mixes of world music, with a focus on South Asian sounds. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion, while artist Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Flyght Club also joined the lineup, performing a few of his original tracks.
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If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. Happy AAPI Heritage Month! I am finally back in the states after spending a total of 4.5 months traveling. I think it's safe to say I will be here again for a while, as I finish some outstanding projects & look for new work. Throwing it back to last year, I had a wonderful opportunity to work with Artronika & the South Asian creative community doing photography for their Chakras events at the Siesta Day Club near Chinatown, Los Angeles. The events included a 7-course food experience by Bombay Beach restaurant — each course corresponding with one of the 7 chakras & their colors — as well as cultural music, dance & visual art by a number of artists from various parts of the South Asian diaspora & adjacent. It was a pleasure to work with the South Asian community, whom I feel is often forgotten from the AAPI experience. Definitely make sure to follow Artronika on Instagram & catch their next event around LA County! Artronika is a non-profit arts organization that produces immersive arts programming showcasing South Asian talent collaborating with visual artists in non-traditional performance spaces. Executive Director, Ireesh Lal, is a trumpet player and Recording Artist that has been producing events throughout Southern California for several decades. Last year I'd just gotten my Nikon ZF, & I also took out some new fractal filters for a spin for the first time. Here's a selection of photos below made using a 24-70mm lens. Click any image to enlarge. View from a computer for the full experience. May 2025This was my first Chakras event. I didn't know what to expect, other than what I'd seen in YouTube videos from prior research. I remember it being very hot that day & I was boiling alongside the artists (haha), whom were all very welcoming & seemed to be having a great time regardless. The food & music were phenomenal. It was also my first time seeing a contortionist in-person. Paired with the food & music, my mind was a bit blown. 😅 Ireesh Lal DJ'd a mix of electronic and world music while playing jazz trumpet and synths. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion. Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Choreography and dance by Lena Fumi. Body painting by Sig Aberin and Rio Sirah. Amita Batra hosted the afternoon and additional vocal performances by Arzeen Kamal & Ashwin Sriram. Several additional guest musicians were also featured throughout the event.                                                 August 2025This day was a lot cooler (in temps)! No fractal filter this time, but I came strapped with a flash unit after seeing how varied the lighting was at the last event. Plus, with the event starting later in the day this time around (after how hot the last one was!) & the sun going down, it really came in handy with the later performances. Saw some familiar faces from the last event as well as met some new artists. Also got to hang with some friends who came out, too! No food pics this time, but just understand that the food was of course remarkable once again. Ireesh Lal DJ'd a mix of electronic and world music while playing jazz trumpet and synths. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion. Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Choreography and dance by Lena Fumi. Body painting by Rio Sirah. Comedian Dhruv Singh hosted the afternoon. Local underground South Asian songwriters performed a mix of original and covers throughout the event, including Vaishali Sanas, Flyght Club & Arzeen Kamal.                                                             Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. If you are interested in hiring me for event photography, shoot me an email.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. On Saturday, March 16, 2024, I had the opportunity to join Clockshop for their walking tour of Cypress Park — the neighborhood my partner & I have lived in for nearly a decade. Clockshop's neighborhood walking series was led by Maryam Hosseinzadeh & is part of their Take Me to Your River project. We walked along Cypress Avenue & visited local legacy businesses, street murals, & more. Having explored Cypress Park on foot for so many years, it was remarkable to meet the artists behind the murals I've seen in the neighborhood for the last decade, & also learn about murals I'd never seen before! It was also lovely to learn about the historic buildings and architecture that preceded our time here, such as the original Cypress Park Library, La Morenita (a former bakery), & the old firehouse. I didn't get pics of it all, because I also wanted to learn & take it all in myself, but here's a few snaps of the event through my eyes. Funny thing is, some people thought I was there working. One of the artists thought I was a reporter & some other folks thought I was working doing photography for the event. Sometimes Capricorns do stuff for fun, too, not just for business... 🤣 Click on any image below to enlarge. Best viewed from a computer for the full experience. 
Details of Vistas de Harmony (1997) mural by Leo Limon. Located behind Metro bus division 3, by the Cypress Park Rec Center. Speaking is Joe Ibarra, who shared his memories of assisting Leo Limon with the mural (alongside other artist assistants), as he also worked as a library clerk at the original Cypress Park Library at the time.  Program host Maryam Hosseinzadeh speaking by Leo Limon's Vistas de Harmony mural.  Peter Quezada shared about the barrier put up in the 1990s due to gangs using it as a cut through by the Cypress Park Rec Center. Growing up in Pico-Union for many years, I was surrounded by MS13 gang activity. I'm no stranger to streets with barriers, since the street I grew up on myself had one & so did 3 other nearby streets going along Pico.
Rodolfo Kardona and his daughter Ximena Kardona shared how he works with local businesses, selects colors and themes for each business, and his regular inclusion of the Virgen de Guadalupe. He's painted multiple murals at Cypress Park establishments such as Lupita's Mexican Restaurant & Divine Savior church, & also St. Ann's just across the river in Frogtown. Here we were opposite Lupita's Restaurant by the Metro bus division. Unfortunately, I didn't cross the street to get a pic of his Virgen mural, but I encourage you to check it out in-person & get a meal at Lupita's Restaurant any time on Idell & Avenue 28 (90065)! 
These detailed pencil drawings were drawn by Manny (pictured in the red shirt), who would like to start creating murals in the community. He shared his artwork with us after finding us along the tour route. 
Northeast Los Angeles and Neighborhood Pride (2012) murals by Peter Quezada. Peter talked about his process of painting in alleys close to neighbors and kids, his use of Olde English, cartoon characters and experimenting with other lettering. I appreciate that he also shared why he chose to paint "Northeast Los Angeles" instead of "Cypress Park". "Cypress Park" is the name of our local gang, & he mentioned the mural would have been scratched out instantly. Painting "Northeast Los Angeles" instead was inclusive of all the neighborhoods that make up NELA. These murals were new to me — I'd never seen them before this tour! Sadly, I can't remember where exactly they were at, just that they were close to the Divine Savior church. If you happen to know their location, feel free to leave a comment & let us know.
Details of murals by Rodolfo Kardona at Lupita's Market. Located on Cypress & Merced. Rodolfo spoke about the Aztec warrior he painted on Lupita's Market in 2018, his own repair process, use of high quality house paint that doesn't fade, & the wood carved signs inside & 3D artwork, including this image of Juan Diego with the Virgen de Guadalupe on his cloak. I love Lupita's Market! For years I always wondered if Lupita's the market & Lupita's the restaurant were related or if they beefed it over the name. 😂  Flintstones (1997) by Peter Quezada. This mural was painted by Peter with kids from the neighborhood, whose names are included on the scroll. It is a neighborhood artwork. I got to connect with Peter while we were visiting this mural, & he told me Pebbles & Bamm-bamm were references to his kids, & Fred Flintstone is holding the Land Before Time book because of the movie series that was out at the time. I have probably walked by this Flintstones mural at least 100x & have always wondered about it. It was so cool to meet the person who painted it! 
Murals & signage painted by Rodolfo Kardona at El Quetzal Bird Shop. For many years, we ate at the original Tierra Caliente restaurant formerly located across the alley adjacent to the bird shop. I never knew multiple neighborhood murals were painted by one man. I'm personally scared of birds, but I still think this is a fun amenity to have in our neighborhood. 😅  Andres of Arvia LA (left) & the owners of Cypress Liquor (right). This family is local to the neighborhood & has been serving the community for years. Whether you're looking for beer, liquor, wine, a lighter or a snack, stop by & support Cypress Liquor, the last oldschool business standing on the 1200 block of Cypress & Alice.
LAST STOP: Arvia LA with Andres, Clare & Richard (the cat). Andres shared how his detailed multimedia mosaics not only changed the alley visually, but also recorded the passing of time for him. The further he created down the alley marked a certain time period or memory. Whenever I have friends visiting, I love taking them to check out what's new or ongoing at the Arvia LA alley. It's always fun to look for easter eggs & see what hidden features are around. You can access the Arvia LA murals through the alley entrance on either Cypress or Isabel, between Arvia & Granada. Keep your eyes peeled for Andres' mosaics around the neighborhood, too! If you made it this far, THANKS!
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NICA AQUINOIn this space I'll share digital photography, digital previews of my film photography, updates on new artworks in progress, upcoming programs, inspiration & my other misc interests. Archives
August 2026
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