Pasadena Magazine is the bi-monthly magazine of Pasadena and its surrounding areas – the diverse, historically rich and culturally vibrant region that includes Glendale, the Eastside of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley all the way to Claremont.
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Award-winning artist Andre Miripolsky breathes new life into the Los Angeles art scene with his whimsical creations that celebrate the city's culture and history. STORY BY // KAMALA KIRK PHOTOS BY //PAUL MOWRY ∫ AMERICAN ART HAS BEEN ENRICHED BY ARTISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WHO IMMIGRATED TO THE UNITED STATES, HELPING TO SHAPE THE CULTURAL SCENE WITH THEIR UNIQUE CONTRIBUTIONS. AMONG THESE INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS IS ANDRE MIRIPOLSKY, WHO IS RECOGNIZED WORLDWIDE FOR HIS VIVID WORKS THAT PAY TRIBUTE TO LOS ANGELES. BORN IN PARIS, MIRIPOLSKY SPENT THE FIRST 18 years of his life abroad due to his father's job as a cultural advisor for the American Foreign Service. He credits his nomadic childhood with setting the stage for his career as an artist. "My father was also an artist and always had a studio, so wherever we lived I could go work in there," Miripolsky says. "It was a way to entertain myself and create something that people would positively respond to. The one consistency in my life that saved me was art. It's been saving me my entire life." From an early age, Miripolsky demonstrat- ed an aptitude for the arts, starting to paint at the age of eight; by the time he was 10, he sold his first piece to the American Ambassador of Indonesia. At 13, Miripolsky accompanied his father to the Venice Biennale, Italy's famed international art exhibition, where he was exposed to artists from the American pop art school like Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. But despite the promising talent he demonstrated along with the support he received from his parents, Miripolsky wanted to be an actor. "The biggest argument I had with my father was when he wanted me to go to art school and I wanted to go to theater school," he recalls. "I thought I would have a lonely life as an artist, whereas being an actor looked exciting." After VIVA LA! SEPTEMBER 2017 141