Paul Landacre’s Aventures in Edendale
by Pasadena Adjacent
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In the not so long ago past, during a time that more adventuress types took to the hills, talked to the dead, visited one another via hillside staircases, discussed communism and read RED books, Master woodcut printer Paul Landacre and his wife Margaret purchased a 1909 cabin above Allessandro drive near the top of a steep and winding street. During the depression, they were able to acquire the deed to the home for two thousand dollars. The profits earned from his successful publication of “California Hills.” The two Bohemians were card-carrying members of the Semi Tropic Spiritualists Association, whose notorious midnight dances, seances and spirit readings attracted the ire of city officials. Their small dilapidated mountain cabin, in the former region of “Edendale” is now City of Los Angeles landmark Historic Cultural Monument No. 839. A somewhat recent designation thanks to the efforts of local Highand Park historian Charles Miller.
Paul Landacre studied at Otis Art School in MacArthur Park and eventually taught there. He printed from a press that he kept at home. He made friends with a wounded Kestrel, that sat on his shoulder and became the inspiration for the print mark he placed next to his signature.
“California Hills is now a rare and expensive book to acquire. Two winters ago, after visiting the cabin, we at Pasadena Adjacent were able to find two copies of California Hills. One at Pasadena’s main branch and the other in Tropico (now called Glendale) at the Brand Library. The results are printed in the above grid of images. Enjoy. (The images may take a moment to download)
And if you do, we recommend you follow-up this post by seeing a rare showing of Mr Landacre’s prints titled “White on Black: The Modernist Prints of Paul Landacre” at the Pasadena Museum of Art.
trouble with Vimo? try U-tube here
The Pasadena Museum is Free the first Friday of the month (all day)
Free the third Thursday of the month (5–8pm)
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Pasadena Adjacent 
A nice little article for the craft oriented on Landacre’s tecnique
http://johnsteins.com/landacre.html
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You have me so intrigued. Your wee video takes me up a hill I’ve driven past countless times but never visited. Is the house inhabited? The map indicates the road is private.
The art is beautiful.
Plus I kind of like that restaurant.
Our Editor Responds: The house was inhabited two years ago when I made the video. This is from Sheila who inspired this search and whom I dedicated the video too.
“The neighborhood is very dear to my heart, and the project began with a conversation I had with E about the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists. E’s blog is one of the most inspiring and thoughtfully curated collection of greater L.A. psychogeography anywhere.”
Gotta love S.
Anyhow, No one stopped me from walking on the dirt road that surrounds the house. I’m hesitant to return because there has been much back and forth about developing that land. Perhaps the broken economy has put that probability to sleep for awhile more.
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You’ve introduced me to yet another artist and slice of LA history about which I knew nothing. Yes, very intrigued. I feel like I’ve driven around those hills in my early days in LA.
Gosh, wouldn’t it be fantastic to have “Sultry Day” hanging in your house? Or mine.
Thanks for the heads up on the Pasadena Museum of Art show. I definitely want to check it out.
Our Editor Responds: When your there, you can imagine Sultry Day. A dilapidated cabin, a sense of time along with the Landacreas union, represents a kind of love story. It was Sheila’s (I dedicated the post to her) mention of the nasturtiums in spring that sealed the deal for me…
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I surprisingly knew a little bit on Edendale! Even seen these, or very similar, “Hills” pictured here. Now you’ve given me much more info to chew on. Next time I find myself passing thru that area I need to slow down & observe more.
I’m sure you could also fine the CA Hills book at the Huntington, LAPL, or at one of the USC libraries. (EBay?)
Do you give tours of that artistic area?
Our Editor Responds: No tours. Just look it up on the net and drive up or walk up and visit. As for as the prints, you can go to the museum and see the real thing. I recommend it
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Beautifully done video.
The prints are wonderful; I love the one of the woman reading with a cat.
Our Editor Responds: Paul Landacrea got a bit of publicity with the recent Pacific Standard Time exhibitions. The video within the video was from one of the shows presented under that banner. A bit like the reemergence of Millard Sheets.
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I cannot the patience, skill, and precision involved in that kind of art.
I’m in the library, and knowing you, the video will be full of raucous music–sex, drugs, and rock and roll, so I’ll visit it another time.
Ditto Susan on the many introductions to artists you provide.
Our Editor Responds: Ya got that right toots! full of it
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Love those prints and everything that surrounded them.
Our Editor Responds: It was a bit of Eden outside of city limits. The “West Side” and the “East Side” have always had a different kind of vibe. Think of Pasadena (despite the brain trust) as Protestant Republican and the west side as liberal, red, jewish and Democratic. The Landacreas are west of the LA River and Pasadena is east
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Thank YOU for this bit of Eden
Our Editor Responds: My Pleasure
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You give me the best guide to places to explore, and I’ll definitely see the exhibition. His hillside cottage would have been in a truly Elysian setting before they built the 5 and 2 freeways and channelized the river.
Our Editor Responds: Ain’t it the truth…and when your there you’ll find one of the hidden stairways (it’s a long one) Found a little more info….
Incorporation for the Semi Tropic Spiritualists’ Association shed some light on the the design of the tract. The Articles of Incorporation clearly state the purpose of the Association was “to acquire, operate and maintain permanent camp grounds in the County of Los Angeles.” (In 1905, the Semi Tropic Spiritualists’ Tract was just outside Los Angeles City limits.) The purpose of such campgrounds was to hold meetings “devoted to the maintenance and spreading of the religion of Modern Spiritualism, its philosophy and its phenomena.”
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Such an interesting tale. I will definitely see the exhibit. Yet another fabulous Wee Video. Thanks!! It adds so much to the text. I too want to know if the house is inhabited. (Someone is recycling the “green” trash!)
Our Editor Responds: Two years ago it was – but I don’t know who owns it. The woman I dedicated it to is someone who shares a time with me, but on different sides of the river. I was a child of the Arroyo from the age of eleven on and she grew up in the Elysian Park area. She put this post on her FB page and had this to say.
“I spent a lot of my youth and young adulthood in the area, playing or exploring. I have the most achingly moving dreams about those neighborhoods to this day.”
While Sheila was living in Austin, I kept her in touch with her roots here by taking photos of Echo Park, Mount Washington etc.
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Wonderful prints. And Carl Sandburg is a local boy!…sort of…he’s from Galesburg, 40 miles NW of us. I happen to love the part of the video where you’re heading down around a curve and the FedEx van is in the right place at the right time and just stays in the frame. Sometimes it’s the littlest things that capture my fancy. Would love to come across that book in a garage sale sometime.
Horrible day here. We had to have Shana euthanized, she went irreversibly downhill very quickly in the past few days. B is brokenhearted and so am I. The vet came to our house to do it. What a kind gesture it was for all of us. Shana didn’t experience the stress and indignity of having to be carried into the cold strange office but was able to stay in her own bed and pass away peacefully at home; there’s a kind of sweetness in that. Sorry to be a downer.
Our Editor Responds: I sent you an e-mail. Not a downer – sad news and thank you for letting me know.
Did you notice the stop where we took a break to look at the expanse of freeways? It was because we didn’t take a tight enough curve to make it around. Those streets are narrow.
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D., my heart is for you and B tonight.
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Thank you! Nicely presented. Things like this make me wonder if I was born in the right era.
Our Editor Responds: Welcome James. Yes, back in the days when craft had merit and you knew who your outsiders truly were. lol I too would have loved to have been apart of this era
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Thank you for sharing these gorgeous images. However, darn you for cursing me with a fierce desire for my own shoulder-perching wounded kestrel.
Our Editor Responds: I had my chance at one when I found him/her limping about our downtown studio parking lot 20 or more years ago. (bebe shot- I took her to a bird lady) I noticed that the Kestral wasn’t on any of the prints I presented… but I did find it on the net. On the eaves of his home. You could do this, yes?
http://www.alwaysmorequestions.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Landacre-Petrel.jpg
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What a great introduction to an artist I had not been aware of till now. It’s like we have our own Gauguin or Rousseau! I love the variety and rhythm of the marks building the forms while revealing the moving, undulating energy of life…
Our Editor Responds: I know he’s referenced to as a wood cut master but the clean and sharp lines he was capable of producing remind me more of linolium cuts. I love his work and his attachment to nature. Your description of an LA Rousseau is apt. He fought against city ordinances that allowed for eliminating trash through burning. One of the images in the grid references that.
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“Semi Tropic Spiritualists…” Now, there’s a moniker! Striking work, and I think I love the idea of the kestrel on his shoulder most of all.
Our Editor Responds: Don’t you love that? He even used the design of a kestrel on the wooden eves of his cabin
and I liked this in terms of the Semi Tropic Spiritualists Land Tract
“devoted to the maintenance and spreading of the religion of Modern Spiritualism, its philosophy and its phenomena.”
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These hills have always struck me as full of secrets, and now I know one of them. Any idea which gallery at the Huntington has the woodcut?
Our Editor Responds: Sheila has stories of hanging out in the mid-centuries growing up, radical thinkers, even that caucasian woman who followed her Japanese husbands into one of the camps. So different from my experiences on the other side of the river. About the Huntington. Can’t tell you what image. On older on-line articles, they remove photos. Most of PL’s prints were nature based. It’s free next Thursday night. It’s part of a larger show that promises not to disappoint
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Sheila is one I’d love to have a bowl of soup with someday. This post is earthy and inspiring. I remember the printmaking show at the Norton S and all the stuff about Gemini really fascinating. The vid reminds me of the places up in Cedar Glen before the fire…and our little enclave of painters, mystics, woodcarvers, etc. only instead the loud din of the freeway was the sound of Hook Creek. Funny how similar the sound. Di
Our Editor Responds: Soup with Sheila sounds like a date. Yes about the sounds of freeways and rivers. I file road noise under ambient. I grew up on main thourogh fair San Gabriel Blvd. I would have rather grown up here or Cedar Glen.
I had to hunt this baby down, but yay – you must read! this is an interview of June Wayne at the time of the Maplethorpe controversy, Jesse Helms, endowment for the arts…. If your not familiar with her, she’s an interesting print figure. She started Tamarind which (I believe) was the launching pad for other print shops.
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-07-01/opinion/op-1139_1_june-wayne
This article outlines the history of feminist struggle in Los Angeles, Wayne’s included. A good outline
http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1294088538&archive=&start_from=&ucat=28&
This entry relates to the Norton Simon / Pacific Standard Time print exhibition
This is her obit (a Cal Tech connection)
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The prints are wonderful. I did happen to see that print making exhibit at the Norton Simon. It was great.
Our Editor Responds: You do realize that it makes me very happy to know that you visit museums. BTW – Check out the second link to Princesses HaHa. I think you’ll find it interesting. Never mind, I’m fetching it for you.
http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1294088538&archive=&start_from=&ucat=28&
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A wonderful post and I do love the prints! I must go see them for real.
btw – I heard June Wayne speak a few years back in her studio. She was a powerful speaker even at that age.
Our Editor Responds: Lucky you. I thought her response towards the politics of an ever increasing right leaning party were so brilliant. Especially the recognition of artist not as a large cohesive body but one of cottage industries therefor easy targets of these assholes
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Reblogged this on Silver Lake Adjacent.
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The Landacre property is literally around the corner from the bungalow on Allesandro we began renting in October, a neighborhood we truly love. Almost every day, thanks in large part to E’s Corralitas Red Car Property blog, I learn more and more of the lush history of Edendale and Echo Park. Volumes of history in this little pocket of Los Angeles near Chavez Ravine.
Our Editor Responds: I was introduced to the Corralitas blog through Sheila whom I dedicated the film too. Then seeing an entry on Paul Landacre started my own search.
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Love this post on Paul Landacre. I wrote a post about the Landacre cabin this past July. Here’s the link, http://www.gentleartofwandering.com/wandering-to-the-paul-landacre-cabin/
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I am lucky enough to have sultry day hanging in my house. I saw it an an estate sale maybe 5 yrs ago of a famous art collecting couple here in mpls…it spoke to me…I knew nothing about the artist or it’s value…but I knew I loved it…and I bought it!!!!
Our Editor Responds: That is a huge score. I hope you saw the show in Pasadena. As beautiful as his work is in published form, in person, the sharpness of each line comes out. Lucky you
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