Hollywood Sculpture Garden: Hidden In the Hills of Los Angeles

When I first heard of the sculpture garden I think I just looked up art museums and it said Hollywood Sculpture Garden and I remember reading the word garden, and I was like garden ? In the pictures it must have looked like a public area because I convinced myself to go on my own ( don’t think I would have made it there if I thought it was a small residential space). I looked up the address and honestly it looked like a garden in a park from the search, so I just looked up the route to get there and went. This was before I drove and I lived in Downtown LA,so i just remember the commute being a lengthy one but an easy one. I ended up at the intersection where the capital needle thing is, vine i think. I stopped to take some photos of where I was. At the time I had only been to Hollywood once, and that was for my best friends eighteenth birthday. We went to Hollywood trying to camp outside David Dobricks house (he clearly had just started his youtube career since he was still living in his Hollywood apartment with Liza Kosher ). Wow okay memory unlocked. Yeah, her dad flew out from North Carolina to see her for her birthday and she was obsessed with doberk at the time (im sure she got over him shortly after) so thats what she wanted to do so thats what we did.

The garden was nowhere near the Hollywood strip, so I ended up walking up through the hills and I surely didn’t anticipate the incline of those hills.

After what seemed like never ending turns, I ran into this grass wall with three signs that read

Scott Froschauer: His pieces are meant to be “experienced in person”.

When I saw the sign, it confirmed that I wasn’t lost and that I was closer to my destination. Surely enough I arrived at what look like any other house on the block. I only knew I was at the right place because there were statues above the house laid up across the front. It reminded me like when people put those spitkes they put for bird but like bigger because they’re just statues of people (mannequin type). They had these old school bulb lights hanging from statue to statue. Perhaps it was for it to light the way during their night time events. Each statue was unique in one way or another. No two statues were the same silhouette or design. There was this red based looking one that had what seemed like different paint splattered all over it (this style was consistent with some of the random statues throughout the garden), the second one had a blue base with different color paint all of it. The pain i assume is either oil or acrylic, the artist is named Robby Gordon, the founder of the Hollywood Garden, and he is known for his abstract mediums. “He has been cooperating with more than 60 artists who are now showing their art in this gallery.”Said sculptures were between these sculptures that looked like game pieces with arms and legs. Those i wasn’t very fond of; they remind me of a recurring nightmare i used to have when i was younger— where my childhood home would turn into a giant house and grow arms and legs, that looked exactly like those sculptures but ten times in size.

Painted Mannequins (middle) : Robin Gordon. Silver sculpture (left + right): Ed Heart

The entrance is towards the right side of the house. It was really just a staircase going down the back of the house. The house is on a hill so the back staircase goes down the hill. The railing on the staircase is made of metal molded and twisted into thin almost wire type, and used rope to create the railing. The cutest part was right before entering the staircase there was a sign, similar to the ones i passed coming up the hill, next to stone cairns that read

“WARNING: By entering this sculpture garden you assume any and all risk of injury or falls that may occur - HSG”

Garrett Waltsak - Mesh Bodies

Waltsak is an artist from Colorado and created his first “Mesh body” in 2002. It was probably the first sculpture I was obsessed with , when I saw it. I found it so interesting how it was a metal wire that was forming the outline of a woman's figure because the metal wire to me is just what the female body gives. Its moldable, fragile, and shiny. Well, to me metal has a shine. It could have also been that I enjoyed how it contrasted against the blue wall. Next to a small palm

Jeff Davis

Unity: 36” wide x 108” tall x 36” deep, Welded Steel Tubing, Price $8,500, Available.This guy sure likes his colors. . I thought it was interesting how if you looked through certain rings of Unity you you had another one of his staues right center. Hes known for his contemporary art but this piece is one he has really clean minimal lines. He went through a time where he was creating furniture and his mediums consisted of steel, wood, and glass. The multiple metal octagons are just stacked seemlessly together like DNA in a way. They have a metal base on the bottom but as the octagons get higher on the tower they sort of form in a random formation, it starts ti look like they will fall off but they just dangle at the top. I find it mesmorizing surprisingly just how they sit so still but give the illusion that they’re twisting and turning.

Robby gordon

Okay wow I didn’t realize that my favorite sculpture came from the sculpture garden man himself. “Rising Balls to the Sky”,what a crazy yet fitting name. The sculpture is made out of aluminum but you could never assume from a far. He collaborated with Angel Ironman, who has multiple sculptures in the garden, the collaboration resulted in this sculpture that in my eyes is the attraction of the garden. It’s like the Los Angeles version of the Chicago Bean, but smaller and lots of them. It just soars above the other sculptures and next to the Hollywood view it left me mesmerized, that isn’t just because I got lost in the reflection.

When I went it was during the time the pandemic when people where starting to leave their house but not fully, so when i saw a different seating as i made my way through the garden i assumed it was for people to vist. I realize now I was probably trespassing because the Holywood Sculpture Garden actually host art event and allow the space to be rented out as a venue type. From the website (https://www.hollywoodsculpturegarden.com), they seem like more intamte and private but hey if you’re someone who needs a venue.

Angel Iron Man

I captured one of his only named sculpture : Dragon Fly. However, his sculptures all have this same rustic metal style to them. My second favorite sculpture was also by Ironman. This cyborg if you will, made of metal. The arms and legs are welded

Joan Carl

Ed Heart