AVAILABLE FROM RARE BIRD:
A collection of 25 original essays inspired by Joan Didion and the West.
AVAILABLE FROM ANGEL CITY PRESS:
An illustrated history of this historic Los Angeles stained glass studio.
Los Angeles-based writer and editor Steffie Nelson explores the places where art, style, culture and history intersect. She has been published in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Alta Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, and many others. Her Red Canary Magazine profile of the artist Lauren Bon won the 2022 Feature Reporting award from the Society of Professional Journalists. She is the editor of the essay collection Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light, and coauthor of Judson: Innovation in Stained Glass.
More...NEWS
- • December 2024: My Truthdig feature on death positivity wins first place at the LA Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
- • “The Art of Reparation,” my Lauren Bon/Metabolic Studio profile wins 2022 feature reporting award from Society of Professional Journalists
- • ESCAPE TO L.A.: Los Angeles Magazine interview
- • The LA Times reviews Slouching Towards Los Angeles
HIGHLIGHTS
The Artist Formerly Known as Sister Corita
“We are God when we are creating.… We are God when we are being,” Corita Kent said to an assembly of students in 1976, after admitting that “some days I believe in what I am going to say to you this afternoon, and some days... MoreThe Secret Growing: On the New Spiritual Art Canon
IN OCTOBER 2022, I received an invitation to celebrate the Scorpio new moon eclipse with a group of creative women. The invitation was illustrated with a 1915 painting by the Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint, The Dove, No. 14—a rainbow sphere with a white... MoreThe Casita on Calle Colima: Reflections on a shape-shifting Mexico City
“HERMOSA CASITA EN LA COLONIA ROMA,” read the listing that popped up on Airbnb when I was searching for a rental in Mexico City in the spring of 2022. The main image showed an elegant, periwinkle-blue row house with white trim, beside an identical house... More
RECENT WORK
The Good Earth: Lita Albuquerque, Art’s Cosmic Explorer, Comes Home
THE ARTIST LITA ALBUQUERQUE’S PATH has taken her to the ends of the Earth — from a convent in Tunisia to the pyramids of Egypt; from the salt flats of... More
Meeting Your Maker, Plus Cake: Facing Death to Embrace Life
An early and pivotal scene in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” finds a rager underway at the Dreamhouse. Dressed in sequins and spangles, Margot Robbie leads the Barbies in a choreographed routine... More
Kitchen Consequential: Serving Rescued Meals With a Side of Rock ‘n’ Roll
A FORMER PAWN SHOP on Vine Street in Los Angeles may still promise guitars, gold and fast cash, but behind the facade is a 3,500-square-foot warehouse filled with thousands of... More
The Art of Reparation: Lauren Bon Imagines the L.A. River After Us
Inside the small, ground-floor gallery, the air is moist and fragrant with dirt and hanging bundles of sagebrush, amaranth, yerba mansa and ephedra. One wall is lined with topographic maps;... More
Heads Up: A Q&A with the Mexican American Milliner Gladys Tamez
When Lady Gaga appeared on the cover of her 2016 album, Joanne, unadorned except for a gently tapered pink felt hat, the Mexican American designer Gladys Tamez officially stepped center... More
The Floating Sound Collective Tunes In, Outside
It feels a little bit like joining a secret society — that is, if secret societies were open to everyone. “Text a cloud emoji to this number,” instructs the Instagram... More
Brother Nature: Obi Kauffman and his California Field Atlas Series
“This is a love story.” So begins Obi Kaufmann’s The California Field Atlas (Heyday), an illustrated guide to the natural world of California that sat atop the San Francisco... More
Flowers for Didion: A California Transplant Says Goodbye to Her Idol on a Visit to New York
The messages started coming in at noon, Eastern time. “Joan Didion died.” “Joan.” Heartbreak emojis. Instagram posts featuring the glamorous black-and-white portraits I can see with my eyes closed. A... More
Like A Rainbow: Ariana Papademetropoulos and the Emerald Tablet
Ariana Papademetropoulos. “Origins” (2021). Oil on canvas. 84” x 120”. Courtesy of Ariana Papademetropoulos and Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles. The artist Ariana Papademetropoulos moves effortlessly between dimensions. With her recent... More
Star 80: Nick Taggart’s LA Stories Encapsulates an Era and a City’s Electric Energy
When the British-born artist Nick Taggart came to Los Angeles in 1977, he planned to stay for three months. Four-plus decades later, he is still here, living on the same... More