I also like to think of Los Angeles as a place where we are all on a hike together, rather than being on a ladder where you have to step on somebody to get ahead. What’s the best thing about living in LA? I had a show afterwards, and sold almost 200 pieces from that. I refired a bunch of the work that wasn’t smashed or cracked, and ended up getting a really beautiful patina on it. I had all these really futuristic-looking rocket shapes that I was really into, covered in tar and ash and melted roof and exploded LED light bulbs. Afterwards, it was like conducting an archeological dig in the future. The studio essentially turned into a giant kiln. I like the aesthetics of chance and not knowing what is going to occur. Each one was a little bit different, because they had a bit of our soul in the cup. I would always say, “You centre your day and then you centre your clay.” We would all stretch in the morning and centre ourselves, then we would sit down to create the cups. This time last year I had seven studio assistants making cups and sculpture. Mr Medansky has spent the past eight months rebuilding his business. The following day, his studio burned down due to a massive fire that had nothing to do with him. Last July he held an Up In Smoke party at his studio to celebrate his designs. The other pillar on which he established his name was clay pipes, thanks to the legalisation of marijuana in California. Ceramicist Mr Ben Medansky built his business on it, making the cups for local hotspots G&B Coffee and Go Get Em Tiger, each one an affordable work of signed art. ** Book a table with the help of MR PORTER’s Style CouncilĪ lot of people start their day with a cup of coffee. The line between what you consider work and not tends to be pretty blurred in my world, especially when you do something you love. I’m 10 years in and I’m still working with the cooks, keeping my hands in the process. At night, I’m back and forth to Gjelina, which closes at midnight. Sometimes you might find me in the bakery at 5.00am. I live in a bungalow a couple of blocks from the restaurant and five blocks from the beach. Because I didn’t work under any pedigreed chefs per se and I didn’t go to culinary school, when I started cooking professionally I sort of just developed my own point of view that incorporated all that. I grew up in an environment where sustainability and nutrition were intrinsic to food. But I have a little network of farmers I’ve been working with for the past 10-plus years. Locally sourced, farm to table – these are phrases we’re all kind of getting sick of. In what way are you shaping things for the better? I try to flow with the change and contribute to it, shape it for the better, if I can. It’s inevitable that places are going to change, so I try not to hold on too tight to what I think it used to be or what it should be. I’ve been partly blamed for it, or credited, depending on how you look at it. How do you feel about its gentrification? You’ve lived in Venice Beach for 12 years. To celebrate the launch of MR PORTER’s Made In California capsule collections, we gathered together a group of six local movers and makers – a chef, a performer, a designer, an artist, an entrepreneur and a surfer – to tell us how to make it in LA. California has always had good weather, but it wasn’t until the recent explosion of social media that the world has been reminded of this on a daily basis. Creatives are heading west in a one-way migration, attracted by affordable rents, a healthier work-life balance, to say nothing of the sun and a sunnier disposition. But a different kind of West Coast buzz has been building of late in the city that sits on the San Andreas Fault. Long derided as a soulless void where you had to fake it to make it, Los Angeles is riding a new wave of genuine innovation in the fields of food, art, fashion and tech, as well as entertainment. With its long history of earthquakes, they’re used to tremors in California. Six creatives test drive MR PORTER’s exclusive Made In California capsule collections – and explain why LA is the place to be right now.
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