Malibu Madonna - The Art of Lynn Coleman
by Ken McKnight
posted 2004-05-15

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The rainbow of colors that come flowing off Lynn's canvas paint surreal visions of life and it's surroundings in the land called Cali and she tends to paint in all directions at once. Almost like Cinerama but a lot more interesting to participate in.

Viewing one of Coleman's paintings can be akin to going to a Fellini festival showing at one of those Orange County drive-ins of the 1960's that sports five or six screens. Each showing at once with a different flick. You have to keep turning your head to see each one. The vibe is strange, yet familiar somehow. If you can't get it here you can't get it at all. Watch out for the popcorn in your teeth and the speaker stuck in the window when you try to leave!

For Lynn it started simple enough. Southern California girl grows up and calls the beach her second home. She starts drawing and painting at an early age. Witness a photo of her at four years old with her artist grandmother painting along the coast in Monterey. She's a natural.

When the lure of the sea smote her with it's salty offerings, exciting waves and textures, she knew she was home and the door was unlocked. The entry was easy and with colors abounding, Lynn knew she was right where she wanted to be the rest of her life. And it turns out that Malibu and the surrounding area was that focal point.

With great waves, as pillows to dream and drool over, the artist known as Coleman has spent her life surfing, matting and swimming in the coastal waters under the shadow of the spreading and luscious Santa Monica Mountains. She often digs deep into her inner self to paint the beach she has grown up around, and the people that frequent that wacky world. I don't know from where in the world these bizarre creatures and characters come from but you have to admit they are culled from deep inside the well of souls. And brother, some of them really out there!

"The male figures," in her art, "are usually fish," admitted Coleman. "And for many years I was a pig."

Then she shows me a painting that is so different. She calls it "Lusting Pigs."

This Southern California artist has had galleries and shows from 1969 to the current, with well over a 100 shows. Her work is prominently featured in a permanent collection of the Laguna Beach Museum of Art, the Orange County Museum of Art, as well as in private collections worldwide. And if that isn't enough she teaches continuation school at Indian Hills High School in Malibu Canyon and she paints, and paints, and paints. She lives, breathes, and paints even more.

This Val Gal is one prolific artist. Oh, and if that isn't enough she has raised two sons, Coleman and Griffith that she is so proud of.

Her work has been featured worldwide in such prestigious publications as Rolling Stone, Esquire, The New York and Los Angeles Times, The Daily News, Evening Outlook and Art Alternatives. And of course there have been numerous pieces in magazines like, The Surfers Journal, Surfer Magazine, Super X Media, and Beach Culture Magazine.

She has also been published as a writer in H2O, Thrasher, Visions, and Juxtapoz magazines. She prides herself on her degrees, a BA in Liberal Arts and a Masters of Art in Painting and Print Making from Cal State Northridge. As well, she holds a Masters of Fine Arts from California State University Los Angeles. She knows the Southern California Art Scene as well as she knows the waves at Malibu and gets the respect from both.

Lynn is particularly proud of her newest creations. A group of paintings in what she calls "surrealistic folk art." These are paintings that come from deep inside her and she is very proud of them.

"These new paintings," said Lynn over a huge cup of warm tea on a bright April day, "are what I am doing right now."

And she shows me her latest offerings.

"This is kind of primitive and were done in the backwaters of Woodland Hills," she says with a typical smirk.

"The background is actually real graffiti that my students do all the time, and I randomly cut up the boards and metal to use. The eye imagery kind of came about as a combination of when I lost my mom. It is like she is in heaven watching over me and at the same time a stalking element! The evil eye and the eye of God!"

Lynn Coleman's style is a real blend of mainlined stream-of-consciousness with a surrealistic pillow to lean on and admire. Oh and just for good measure she twists it all up with a little irony. Shaken not stirred! The perfect Val Gal, the Malibu Madonna.

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