Christopher Chinn

I went to the opening night of the Christopher Chinn exhibit at Overtones Gallery. The exhibit was entitled "On the Row." The exhibit displayed various portrait paintings of the homeless on Skid Row. There was a nice selection of paintings on display. I'm not into portraits that much, but I found the exhibit interesting. I suppose I found it interesting, because of my limited experience with Skid Row. I'm sure that those who drive around Downtown Los Angeles find themselves driving down Skid Row more than a few times. I found myself walking down Skid Row one day -- not done on purpose, but simply because I was trying to get from point A to point B and happened to end up in the middle of Skid Row. I always find it interesting learning about what is behind the paintings. There were a couple books on the counter of the gallery that had an interesting interview with the artist. I didn't read it all, but the parts I did read, I found interesting. For example, how he didn't pay the people on Skid Row he painted with money if he felt they'd use the money for drugs, but that he'd try to reimburse them in other ways.