The "LA WOMAN" Collection

When she's not restoring religious murals in historic churches throughout Europe, Portuguese artist Sofia Simoes enjoys making paintings that look and feel like gritty street art.

Her faded and distressed figures usually focus on sexy female characters with a rock and roll edge.  They wear high fashion clothes, smoke cigarettes, carry hand guns, and  generally don't give a fuck; which makes them ideal protagonists in her tribute to the kind of city/gal Jim Morrison was musing about in his song LA Woman.

"Another Lost Angel" (1&2) incorporates collage images that depict the vibe of a time when Jim Morrison roamed the streets and alley ways of Los Angeles.  Had he bumped into Sofia's "lost angel" tagging city walls that remind us that "people are strange when you're a stranger", one can imagine he might have invited her out for a drink or two in his city of night.

When she's not restoring religious murals in historic churches throughout Europe, Portuguese artist Sofia Simoes enjoys making paintings that look and feel like gritty street art.

Her faded and distressed figures usually focus on sexy female characters with a rock and roll edge.  They wear high fashion clothes, smoke cigarettes, carry hand guns, and  generally don't give a fuck; which makes them ideal protagonists in her tribute to the kind of city/gal Jim Morrison was musing about in his song LA Woman.

"Another Lost Angel" (1&2) incorporates collage images that depict the vibe of a time when Jim Morrison roamed the streets and alley ways of Los Angeles.  Had he bumped into Sofia's "lost angel" tagging city walls that remind us that "people are strange when you're a stranger", one can imagine he might have invited her out for a drink or two in his city of night.

When Jim Morrison rolled into LA one day in 1970 and "took a look around to see which way the wind blow", his observations found expression in the song lyrics for LA Woman; a kind of "Love letter" to his hometown of Los Angeles.

British artist Niki Hare taps into her agro-punk roots for this tribute to LA Woman, attacking the canvas in layered free-hand script, mirroring the energy of Jim's primal climactic chants of "Mr Mojo Risin'" in the song.

The gold leaf lettering of

"LA WOMAN" seems to leap off the image, attracting and reflecting light, making a bold statement about Jim Morrison's obsession with his City of light.  City of night".

Even though artist Filippo Fiumani comes from Italy and lives in Portugal, his style is heavily influenced by the American surf-skate-punk scene.  Fiumani's explosive metaphoric imagery taps directly into the subconscious with his vibrant, edgy color palette, vicious brushstrokes, and vandalistic spray paint style that was born from the graffiti street scene.

His tribute to the song LA Woman features the artist's trademark stream of consciousness imagery that presents a kind of filtered, distorted reflection of the imagery that is embedded in Jim Morrison's poetry.

The combination forms an explosive scene that feels completely fresh and  personal, and yet at the same time strangely familiar in the "city of night" made famous by The Doors.

Toronto artist Eva Lewarne believes the purpose of art is "to portray mystery".  The Doors would probably agree with that statement, as evidence by the way their poetic lyrics weave and slide between multiple meanings; revealing and concealing at the same time.

The song LA Woman portrays the mysteries of a dynamic and complicated city as seen through the eyes of a dynamic and complicated rock star-poet.

In this mysterious scene, a disrobed woman with a lioness head, arms extended as if greeting us warmly into her abstract city of "holy" light, begs the question posed by Jim Morrison: "Are you a lucky little lady in the city of light, or just another lost angel"?

What we see is a contemporary response to a timeless question about the mysteries of an LA Woman - whatever that means.

British artist Niki Hare is well-known for her layered stenciled block lettering that form interesting and mysterious ways to communicate buried messages.

Similarly, when it comes to The Doors songwriting, the beauty and magic often lies in the deliberately elusive  meaning of the words.

The artist uses the line "You know they are a liar" from LA Woman as inspiration for this painting, revealing something profound about the purpose of a lie, which is often buried by those who intend to deceive, and often discovered by those who seek the truth.