[alta] CHAT

Picture Perfect at Loma Alta

Loma Alta Park has always served West Altadena well. It has been home to a community garden, a weekly farmers market (where I’d sometimes paint), and countless picnics and gatherings.

This colorful seating area was a post-fire addition. Its comfortable Adirondack chairs invited Altadenans to relax and do just what the sign suggested: chat.

But I wasn’t there to chat nor relax. I was on a scouting mission, trying to work out how a documentary could be shown on a large screen in the park in broad daylight. I didn’t figure it out, but I did get a painting out of it.

The next day, people brought their lawn chairs to the park to watch the documentary Reimagining Altadena.

Every detail appeared in vivid, crisp color, with theater-quality sound. How far technology has come since the drive-in theaters of my youth, with washed-out movies projected from the concession stand over the tops of cars onto a faraway screen and crackly audio piped into a wired speaker in a gray box hooked onto the window of my mom’s car.

The documentary, in which I was interviewed, was directed by Judith Green, filmed and photographed by John Wege and Mayra Vasquez and produced by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.