David Brill California adventures
The September 2026 opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles was the spur for our first visit to Southern California. The Lucas Museum now owns the Lamb Panorama, an extraordinary 50 metre long watercolour painting by my forebears John Lamb Primus and John Lamb Secundus, who were my great-great grandfather and my great grandfather respectively. Although the Panorama is not yet on display, we were keen to see the new home of our treasured family heirloom, so we attended a members’ preview on 6th September.
For more information on the Lamb Panorama see here (click image below)
The Lucas Museum building is extraordinary, itself resembling a Star Wars spaceship, and the collection of unfamiliar paintings gave us a good impression of the artistic tastes of museum founder and film director George Lucas.
Lucas Museum entrances
Lucas Museum exhibits L-R: Children playing musical instruments (Clara Miller Burd, 1922), Couple on Easter Walk (J C Leyendecker 1912)
As we were staying in Pasadena, we met up with Robert and Diane Lang who showed us their developing rebuilding work in nearby Altadena: they had experienced the catastrophic loss of three houses during the wildfires of January 2025. We saw the progress of their first project which is the reconstruction of their main home, and also the site of Robert’s hilltop studio, on which rebuilding had not yet commenced.
Robert and Dave at the studio site in Altadena
We were also very fortunate to attend an origami meeting and lunch hosted by Joel and Susan Stern at their house in West Los Angeles. Both Assia and I taught to the group of about ten local folders, most of whom we had never previously met. All were enthusiastic and knowledgeable: altogether we had a great time.
LA folders L-R: DB, Joel Stern, Lisa Mayekawa, Anita Reinehr, AB, Robert Lang, David Pacheco, Marti Reis, André van Meulebrouck and Chris Alexander.
Moving on to San Diego for the final days of our trip, we visited the Mingei International in Balboa park… where my own work was exhibited in 2003-5. We spotted a catalogue with a photo of a certain horse…
At Mingei International, it was also a privilege to see first-hand Robert Lang’s exhibit Vertical Pond III: from the Ashes. The moving story behind this is revealed below:
(photos by Assia Brill)
