California Coming Home — Word to Mother

San FranciscoArt & Culture

California Dreamin'

Holiday memories remain vivid for Word To Mother...

Urban artist Word To Mother was born and raised on the English seaside and is now based in London, so why is his latest collection called California Coming Home? The gallery showing the collection, White Walls, is in San Francisco, but that’s not the reason. The answer stems from a visit to The Golden State in 1996 – a particularly memorable trip for Word, as his friends and lazy typists like to call him.

Sometimes a holiday happens at just the right time, and Word arrived in California at a simpler, more carefree period in his life. The world was a simpler place too: technology was advancing but most people were yet to develop the smartphone stoop, shuffling along with eyes permanently cast downwards on their device, and online personas, if they existed at all, mirrored real life ones. In California Coming Home, all is warm and welcoming, with sunset reds and sandy browns running through Word’s loose compositions. His signature self-portaits are evident, looking down on his scenes as their creator, and the message of his work is clear to the point of being spelled out for the viewer. The wonderfully evocative exhibition runs until 7 December.

@WhiteWalls

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