Los Angeles

What is it about this city that just draws you in?

Los Angeles has long been an alluring place for me. I’ve never been quite sure why. I’m here now visiting with some family and I certainly feel it. I drove into the city the other night from San Francisco and I immediately felt the tug. I’m just fascinated by this place.

California, I think, is a hard place. Everything is just harder here than it is in Ohio (where I’m from). Traffic is harder. Parking is harder. People are harder. It’s grittier, dirtier and certainly more expensive. But maybe all of that is what draws me in to it. Maybe I like the challenge of this place. Challenging situations tend to yield bigger rewards. High risk, high reward, right?

Maybe there is a sense in LA that you can become whatever you want to become. I’m sure Hollywood has glamorized that for us. There are so many people trying to “make it” and this probably adds to its allure. If they can make it, so can I. Perhaps a place like LA gives us something to aspire to. You see those houses littering the Hollywood Hills and you think that maybe you could make it too. I’m still debating whether this is a good aspiration or a result of an unhealthy American view of success based on having fancy “things.” I’m also debating whether I think and debate things too much in my head.

It’s hard to be an artist and not be drawn to Los Angeles. It’s the place where dreams can come true. It’s the place of Disneyland and Lego Land. I want to walk where Walt Disney walked 75 years ago and dreamt up Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For Walt, movies were a way to imagine a world completely free of the realities of our present one.

The movie industry has always intrigued me. Such creativity. As a designer and someone working to invent the future I can’t help but be drawn to a place like Los Angeles. Whether the people here are creating a better future or a worse one, at least I can be surrounded by people who give a damn enough to try and make their version of the future a reality. And that is inspiring.

Get today’s LA-inspired wallpaper (seen above) here: www.inkdryercreative.com/daily.