33 Stewart Avenue

Artists tend to draw inspiration from complex themes, be it the nature of identity, or the nature of how much money they can make off selling a canvas covered with nothing. For truly meaty inspiration, check 33 Stewart Avenue.

Really the work of just one frustrated Santa Monica-based TV editor, 33's dedicated to softly manipulated photos of mundane slices of LA life massaged into frameable genius; his most recent offering's seven prints of local taco trucks from Hollywood to Hawthorne. Once a truck's photoed for its unique aesthetic appeal, it's planted on a solid-color background, then gets its overall color palette reduced from millions of hues to just a select few, for a look similar to the bleached-out reality of a Neo-Western movie, minus Salma Hayek's awesomely incomprehensible accent, and jugs. Each piece is limited to 100 prints (at $25 each), and to avoid any lawsuits, truck names're slightly changed before printing; two pieces required even further alteration, as they didn't originate as taco vehicles -- one was an ice cream truck, and the other was a "government emergency van", which now handles emergencies like people not having tacos.

In addition to the trucks, Stewart's got gussied-up prints of more mundanity: mobile homes, apartment exteriors, and alleyways, with motel swimming pools coming soon, in which he'll explore the complex themes of what happens when people discover the warm spot.