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The song "LA Woman" by The Doors epitomizes the beautiful and seductive darkness of Jim Morrison's legendary songwriting.
Each artist draws inspiration from the imagery of the lyrics of LA Woman and presents a visual echo of the song's brilliant flame, adding energy, light, and meaning to something cherished by generations of existing and new fans of The Doors.
This "mini collection" of artworks has been curated exclusively for the LA Art Show, and features pieces by internationally acclaimed artists from Europe and North America, including an original painting by The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger.
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.
During the writing of the album LA Woman, Jim Morrison lived at a dumpy little motel called the Alta Cienega near the band's recording studio in West Hollywood.
Something other than its proximity to the studio obviously appealed to Jim, because the motel makes its way into his poetic characterization of the city he loves in the song LA Woman.
Toronto artist Rob Croxford incorporates his representation of a weathered, graffiti-marked facade of the actual Alta Cienega Motel in his photorealistic tribute to Jim's creative muse and home where he penned the lyrics: "Motel. Money. Murder. Madness. Let's change the mood from glad to sadness".
In its heyday in the 60's-70's, the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood was a place teeming with creative musical energy. An explosion of talent would regularly hit the numerous stages along the strip, none more legendary than those epic nights when The Doors played the Whisky A Go Go. In LA artist Stanley Silver's tribute to the song LA Woman, the scene takes on a cinematic quality as he presents a mythological moment outside The Whisky where the songwriter's vision of The Sunset Strip comes to life. Excited fans, including a couple of call girls, line up outside the venue as police keep a watchful eye over the scene, adding a bit of tension around a rock and roll concert where Jim Morrison and The Doors, and Van Morrison and his band Them are the main attractions.
Artist Daniel Maltzman grew up in Beverly Hills and spent many nights as a young man touring the Sunset Strip club scene.
While he never saw The Doors play one of their legendary concerts at The Whisky A Go-Go, he, like so many others, felt the ghost of Jim Morrison and the band as other greats took the stage during the 80's and 90's.
In Maltzman's glamorous POP tribute to the song LA Woman, the artist merges his own "love letter" to his hometown experience with that of Jim Morrison's. What you get is a contemporary story about the soul of the legendary Sunset Strip, as the flame of inspiration is passed from one artist to another.
The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger was instrumental in bringing Jim Morrison's lyrics for the song LA Woman to life. His blues-infused riffs and mesmerizing solos elevated the driving melody and inspired Morrison and the other members of the band to light a brilliant creative flame that still burns brightly to this day.
As a creative collaborator and close friend, Robby knew Jim Morrison like few others did. So when deciding to represent lyrics from the song LA Woman, Robby felt inspired by the mysterious words "Mr Mojo Risin', which is an anagram for the name "Jim Morrison".
Robby paints an expressionistic image of Morrison with snakes coming out of his head, knowing all too well what snakes meant to his friend and how they haunted him throughout his life. The illustration of the multi-colored anagram appears like the simple solution to a riddle we all know has no answer.
One thing is for certain, when you stare into the image and consider the mysteries of the riddle "Who is Mr Mojo Risin'?, one thing you'll notice in the plexiglas is your own inescapable reflection lurking in the dark background.