All the Saints of the City of the Angels:
Seeking the Soul of L.A. on Its Streets

J. Michael Walker

Paperback with flaps, ISBN: 978-1-59714-075-1, $35.00
230 pages (9 x 12)

An artist’s homage to everyday Angelenos.

One fateful afternoon in August of 2000, while flipping through his trusty Thomas Guide, artist J. Michael Walker began to notice how many L.A. streets began with the letter “S.” Upon further inspection, he discovered that something else was repeating itself: “Santa Clara Avenue,” “St. Andrews Place,” “San Pablo Street”…they were all named for saints!

Thus began Walker’s quest to find and document every “saint-street” in L.A. Who named these streets after saints and why did they do so? What elements of the saints’ stories can still be found on the grid? Where and how does contemporary life intersect with traditional western lore? These are the questions he sought to answer as he wandered through L.A.’s 103 streets named after saints.

Playfully borrowing from various artistic genres—from illuminated manuscripts to comic strips—and encased in a sumptuous gold cover, All the Saints of the City of the Angels combines meticulous research with creative inspiration to depict, in paint and ink, Angelenos both historical and contemporary. Populated by the portraits of both the famous and the forgotten, and filled with stories and secrets from every age, this beautifully offbeat volume peels back layers of western history to reveal the humanity underneath.

Advance Praise:

“J. Michael Walker sees angels everywhere, the divine in the ordinary, saints in survivors. And that, in our era of fear and rage, is miracle enough for me.”—Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street and Caramelo

“J. Michael Walker takes us on an incredible and fascinating historical journey of discovery utilizing both his stunning paintings and his amazing stories in All the Saints of the City of the Angels. This book is a treasure found; it should be shared and cherished by all.”—Synthia SAINT JAMES, internationally exhibited artist and illustrator

“Art and history coming together at the streetscape level: inventive, erudite, and thoughtful.”—William Deverell, Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and author of Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of its Mexican Past

“Los Angeles has many faces, many dimensions, many roots. We stand on some of the most layered and interesting cultural foundations. J. Michael Walker focuses on one of the most important—the naming of streets, mountains, cities, and terrains for Catholic saints, a legacy of Spanish and Mexican rule.”—Luis Rodriguez, author of the The Republic of East LA and Music of the Mill

 “In company with 103 saints, we watch the small pueblo of Los Angeles unfold to become one of the major cities of the world. With sadness and joy, happiness and sorrow, success and failure, and yes, even life and death, Walker has given us poignant accounts of the geography of grace in the city he loves.”—Michael E. Engh, S.J., Dean of Bellarmine College and Professor of History at Loyola Marymount University

“J. Michael Walker’s book is an original, deeply empathetic spiritual geography of Los Angeles that sights present day sanctity among today’s humble and downtrodden.”—Laura Pérez, Associate Professor of Chicano Studies at University of California, Berkeley, and author of Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities

“This book does a wonderful job addressing the cultural and spiritual meaning behind the Saint named streets of L.A.!”—“Man One,” urban muralist, graffiti artist, and co-owner of Crewest Gallery, Los Angeles

About the Author:

Born and raised in Arkansas, J. Michael Walker came to Los Angeles by way of Mexico—a critical stopover that “explained” L.A. to him: its historical, thriving roots churning beneath the asphalt. Since 1984, he has participated in more than one hundred exhibitions; received a dozen grants, fellowships, and artist residencies; and has enjoyed solo shows in both the United States and Mexico. He resides, of course, in Los Angeles.

Author website: www.allthesaints.com