Venice in the Seventies

This is so amazing!

There was a ladies' room and a men's room, neither with showers, naturally. My business partner, Ann Bryant, painted the flowers on the ladies' room wall, and I did the faux mexican mural, sort of a jungle with monkey and bird, in the men's room.. (I'm a woman).

I worked at UCLA during those years, and in my particular UCLA building there was a shower facility connected to the physical rehab department. I took advantage of that fairly often, luckily never got caught. I also tended to show up at friends' apartments with a beach bag with shampoo, etc.

We had the place from early '74 to somewhere in the spring of '75. It took us a while to fix it up. It had seven broken windows when we first moved in. We put in a new electric panel, and all the lights in the biggest room. That was hard as neither of us had much money. She knew more about art and art galleries, and had a part time job; I had a full time job, but no savings. We had met when we both had art studios in the St. Charles Hotel
at Windward and Ocean Front Walk. She was looking for a new studio and I helped her look.... and then we found the old Eagle's lodge, and I went in on it with her.

Among the charms of the place was the stack of marble squares and other items from an old Spanish church put in the back lot by the owner of the building. And the Comeback Inn a few doors down, where the Canaligators used to play on some Sunday afternoons.

We had a theater group from USC theater mfa program use the "big room" three nights a week, in order to help pay the lease. In the meantime, we opened an art gallery, and had a few openings - we used the big room for that and the front room for our studio. When we ran out of money to keep everything going (I think they raised the lease price) the theater group took over the space just after us, for a few months - I think on a month to month basis, but I'm not sure.

Ann and I then rented a house on Windward and (blanking on cross street name, a block towards W. Washington from the Circle) - I think it was 225 Windward, and our boyfriends were there with us most of the time. That didn't work out real well, and I started looking for my own place. It ended up that my boyfriend (he had been in the theater group) and I bought a house on Coeur d'Alene, eventually married, and lived there until the mid-nineties.

I've copied your email address and will write you there a bit, as I don't want to start naming a lot of people here..
although we could keep talking here too, as we remember things, in case anyone else sees the thread and wants to join in. I think there is one other person on a2k who lived in Venice, but I can't remember right now who is is.

I suggest you either put a space in your email address above, or take it out. Putting a space in it before the @ keeps net "spybots" from picking it up and including it in spam address lists.

Zephyr, I remember the place, and the guy who ran it.

A shower in the men's bathroom, oh how wonderful...
I still have a picture of me bathing in the kitchen sink(!). I may scan it and put it on a2k, as I am fairly covered with a grand dressing gown I bought at... Aardvark's.

Italian building facade... that is great. We heard it was Spanish, but that was from the landlord's girlfriend, who was his business person. Since then I've gone to Italy a few times, and am known here on a2k as a mad italophile, so that is nice to know about. I did a couple of paintings with those facade pieces...

I'm just thinking... you might enjoy some of the photos from the place. I will put them on a2k.. I have some of the back yard, some from our gallery, some from the art classes, some in the studio, that would be fun. However, I can't do it this week.

And yes, I bet we know a few people in common..