I first learned about the art garden of Silver Lake’s Alberto Hernandez when I read about it in the L.A. Weekly back in 2004 and then again in an L.A. Times feature that came out around the time of Quinceañera last year thanks to the garden’s use as a location in that film.
After seeing the movie Susan and I were very curious about the remarkable place, but having no idea where it was we gave up on discovering it even before we got started searching… besides, we thought it was in Echo Park and even if we did find the place it’s not like we’d just barge on in to take a gander and set a spell. By all accounts this place is private and personal and only on occasion does Hernandez open things up to the public instead prefering to pretty much keep the garden to himself and his circle of friends, family and neighbors.
So it was with much pleasant surprise on a morning walkabout to the Silver Lake farmers market that I charted us a course that brought us past a house in the midst of a big yard sale and the first thing we noticed was the decorative mosaic-y stuff along the sidewalk. Then after entering the property to have a look-see, a man who we later realized turned out to be Alberto saw Susan’s camera and invited her to explore the wonderous garden and it was even more marvelous than we could’ve imagined.
Pix from the walk and the garden are here in this Flickr photoset.
Follow