Aside from the endless sunshine and the palm trees, life in L.A. also means putting up with the city block-sized trailers filled with makeup artists and editing docks that are squeezing the streets and blocking businesses and homes in the name of the glamorous hometown commerce. In the case of the half a dozen behemoth trailers hiding our Silverlake A+R outpost this week, the purpose was a PSA shoot about saving the rainforest. Harrison Ford was donating his time, gamely undergoing a chest wax (or so we heard) in order to prove an eco-survival point.
No doubt it proved more harrowing for our hero than fighting snakes or Stormtroopers.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, however, for Doug Murphy, the artist who cheekily goes by Plasticgod. He’s rendered hundreds of pop icons in his distinctive, two-dimensional caricature style, from Karl Lagerfeld to Henry Rollins to all nine Brady Bunch. Doug was visiting Andy to seal the details on the new Architect/Design Series A+R will be carrying. Among the new Plasticgod icons for this collection are Leoh Ming Pei, Frank Gehry and designer Charles Eames.
Without knowing who or what was going on at the next door salon, Modem, just that there was a lot of palaver, Doug and Andy spotted Harrison Ford walking by the store to his trailer.
“Holy shit!" Doug tells me. “We found out he was going to be there for a while and so I raced home to get the portrait I had done of him and raced back to beat the call time for the end of the shoot. He graciously signed one and was even happy to do it. He seemed to be amused and touched by the gesture and welcomed a photograph. What a moment!”
As a bonus, recalls Doug, one of the crew wanted to get in touch about a Steven Speilberg painting since he knows the director.
Only in L.A., of course.
Plasticgod appears at Gallery 1988, 7020 Melrose Ave., through this Monday.
His Architect Series will arrive at A+R on May 5, both at our Silverlake and Venice shops and online.
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