More brilliant art blesses the City of Angels. The Pacific Design Center location of the MOCA has an incredible exhibition at the moment; Cameron: Songs of the Witch Woman. Film actress, and rebel Marjorie Cameron moved to the Los Angeles area shortly after WWII, where she would find herself working in the fashion industry as an illustrator. She would soon marry, and reemerge as a poet, painter, performance artist, and alongside her husband, a practitioner of the occult and various forms of alchemy.
Due to the then intense nature of her work Cameron found herself involved in the L.A. beatnik scene during the 1950's and served as a mentor to numerous great creators such as Wallace Berman, George Herms, David Meltzer, and Aya Tarlow to name a few. She would drop her first name of Marjorie and go as simply Cameron, she would make her presence felt as an actress appearing in works by the alchemist, surrealist filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Her own surrealist work evokes both European mysticism, and Latin influences, often times dealing with religious references that may strike one as having a somewhat dark or macabre tone. Either way, Cameron was extremely prolific and her work speaks for itself. The exhibit is running through January and is well worth the time.
