One of my favorite perks of being a dues-paying member of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition is the monthly Sunday Funday ride series. The first Sunday of each month, they organize and lead a themed social ride, exploring different parts of the Los Angeles area. So far, I have done the Tour of Historic Street Lights ride, part of a Culver City/West L.A. ride, the Northeast L.A. ride, the Exploring Faith Diversity ride, and just this month, the Street Art Ride. Even when we ride through areas with which I’m quite familiar, I end up discovering delightful new things about my city – treats that were sitting there all along; I just hadn’t known about them.
This ride started from The Crafty Pedal, conveniently only a couple miles from my house. I had no idea this little gem was there, on Valencia, just off of the 7th Street bike lane in the MacArthur Park area. The Crafty Pedal describes itself as “friendly, crafty, cozy and contagious. We are craft, art and pedal pedaler,” and as an “Urbanic” craft boutique that shares an adjacent 1,400 Square foot art gallery where they showcase local emerging artists and host monthly speak easy poetry and comedy nights. I will definitely need to return so I can spend some more time checking this place out.
It’s fun to browse the delightful combination of art pieces and bike gear. The gallery Bikie Girl Jennifer, standing in front of The Crafty Pedal and looking good in the Bike It Or Not Two Piece Dress from Bikie Girl Bloomers Hyeran of LACBC tries to get the riders organized for a group photo before the ride begins.We rode the 7th Street bike lane into downtown, headed northeast on Main, and followed that all the way through Chinatown. We were a good-sized group, and it was fun to ride though downtown L.A. with so many fellow bicyclists.
A few of our motley crew. Rolling towards City Hall. Passing the Chinatown Metro Station.We checked out a wall that depicted “painters painting painters”, a mural near the Spring Street Bridge, that is best described here.
We then worked our way into the Arts District via Little Tokyo, stopping by this recent creation by @colossalmedia:
We then headed into the garment district to check out the building most of us immediately recognized as the American Apparel factory. Although I’ve passed this building many times, I never noticed the artwork on this side:
The American Apparel Factory Sunday Funday riders gawk at the American Apparel Building from across the street.Riding back into downtown, we were treated to the recently-restored “Pope of Broadway” mural at the Victor Clothing Building, as well as more mural action on the building’s other side:
The Pope of Broadway, featuring actor Anthony Quinn The back side of the Victor Clothing BuildingWe then took the Spring Street bike lane back to 7th Street, seemingly headed back to the start. I thought the art show was over, but I was mistaken.
Waiting to cross Wilshire Boulevard, on Carondelet. Note the serious tunes set up in the cargo trailer.We continued to ride on to the west side of MacArthur Park and north a wee bit on Carondelet Street, stopping across the street from Charles White Elementary School. There we were treated to this big mural by Kent Twitchell, a graduate of Otis Art Institute:
And that was the last stop on the mural ride. Another Sunday Funday indeed.
This post is the second in a series highlighting interesting women who love to bike. Photos provided by Charlotte Hager.
Charlotte, in winter biking mode
Last month’s featured Bikie Girl Shero was Megan Jones, founder of the Hains Point 100, which has raised many thousands of dollars to support the Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA)’s Women & Bicycles program. Bikie Girl helps sponsor the event by offering a raffle prize. This month’s Bikie Girl Shero is the most recent winner of the free bloomers from Bikie Girl Bloomers, Charlotte Hager of Arte by Charlotte. When I discovered Charlotte’s artwork, I just had to find out more about her!
Bikie Girl: What inspired you to participate in the Hains Point 100?
Planeta LaFragola
Charlotte: I have been a fan of Hains Point 100 since its inception. I am in such awe of Megan and the rest of the kicka$$ lady cyclists of the Sticky Finger Team. Megan and I are both part of the Women & Bicycles group in DC – and have crossed paths many of times because, in DC’s bike world, everybody knows each other. I have watched Megan’s promotion of Hains Point 100 and have always wanted to be involved in one way or another, but the time of year never works out for me. I was so incredibly fortunate to have Megan reach out to me directly this year to ask to be involved artistically as a means of helping create fun art pieces inspired by cycling that the event could use for door prizes. I created three original “tiny paintings” for the event as well as shared some prints of a painting I completed last year called “Planeta LaFragola” where the planet’s ring around it has bicycles!
Bikie Girl: What is it about WABA’s Women & Bicycles program that makes it important to you?
Charlotte: WABA’S W&B has literally changed my life – for the best! The W&B group has been such an incredible system of support and knowledge for me as well as other women of all different backgrounds and biking styles and levels . This group has been a life saver so many times, giving me the supportive environment and encouragement to post all types of inquiries from researching folding bikes to issues I have had with sexual harassment while cycling. The W&B group literally feels like a sisterhood with nonjudgmental, never-ending support for all women. The programs and events that have come out of the W&B group have been incredible and have honestly helped me to get on two wheels more frequently and meet/encourage more lady cyclists. The W&B groups and programming are the first place I go to with any bike questions. I love my W&B sisters! Even now, I live in Baltimore, MD but still frequent the W&B facebook group and the DC-based events because I love and support this group of women so much!
Charlotte: I am all over the place with this question. I like to consider myself a pretty easy-going putzer. I use a bike for daily work commuting, running errands, and the occasional bike party. I used to ride my bike more when I lived in DC and knew the streets better – but I am learning all about my new home – Baltimore- and am hoping, come summer, a bike will be my main form of transportation! I try to wear a bunch of different types of clothing while biking. My favorite being leggings and a dress. It’s a way for me to feel “normal” while also covering my bits. One thing that’s constant: bike shorts. I slip them on over leggings, under dresses, in exchange for shorts sometimes. It just helps make longer ride my comfy for my lady bits. Lastly – sunscreen. Every time, all the time.
Bloomers Bedazzled!
I own three bikes: my first love – my daily commuter, bada$$ mama jama. Her name is “Blu Goose” and she’s amazing. A blue, with yellow accessories Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross turned into my daily commuting beast. I love her so much. I helped build her from the frame up back in 2010, and she’s been the reason I have become such a huge bicycle advocate and aficionado. Maybe I would be so easily passionate on another bike, but I don’t know. Blu Goose and I are liked bonded spirits. It’s great!
Bike to Work Day, DC, 2015
My second bike I acquired at one of WABA’s amazing annual fundraisers, “Bike Fest.” I believe the teen mechanic group out of Phoenix Bikes made this fun “tank” of a bike. I have lovingly – with much chagrin – named this bike “The Bourbon Bike” because I bought this bike during WABA’s Bike Fest “Bike Auction” after a few bourbons and a new-found sense of competition in the Bike Auction Bidding War. I later tossed the mustache handle bars, added more dutch-style up right bars (all by myself! woo!) and now have a more upright fun bike I keep around as a beater bike for easy commutes or visiting friends.
My last and most recent acquired bike is the newly reborn “Art Bike.” This is a fun step through, upright cruiser that a dear bike friend gave me before he and his family ran away to Colorado (move back Stewart and Melissa Eastep!). This is a bike I kept around for a few seasons, using it for an occasional guest or grocery run – especially when I wanted to feel Dutch and pretend I was biking in Amsterdam. Recently. however, this unassuming bike was reborn into the Art Bike. I have completed Phase One with a brand new paint job and accoutrements: a used a bunch of different colored spray paints and hot glued on beads and gems. This bike went for her full-fledged inaugural ride as the Art Bike for Baltimore Bike Party’s Halloween ride . . . and I managed to entirely destroy one of her brake cables. So this bike is in repair and will be back on the roads come Spring. She does manage to still show up in my photo shoots . . . that cheeky wench she is.
Bikie Girl: I’m a lover of bold colors. I think bold colors evoke emotions that I can’t fully express in words, and help me feel more fully alive. This makes me a fan of your art, and also curious to know what the significance of using bold colors in your artwork is for you?
Charlotte: Colors make me feel like everything is going to be okay in this world. There’s a
certain amount of pure, unadulterated joy I experience with bright, bold colors; an almost childhood innocence where the world is fun and has your best interest at heart. The world around me is alive, evolving, and brilliant. To me, color has tastes, gender, temperatures, associative numbers as well as days of the weeks (weird, I know). Colors have personalities to me. Perhaps this is why art has had such a profound effect on me since I was a child – I’ve found a way to channel this magical world I see daily into a visual form that others can experience and begin to understand.
Charlotte in action
Bike Girl: Do you ever feel as though your bicycling influences your art (or vice versa)?
Charlotte: Totally! I think art and bicycling are a really copacetic duo. When I’m cruising on my bicicletas, I feel so inspired, so connected to . . . well, really connected to everything and everyone. Being entirely exposed while producing power manifested by your own strength forces you to be super aware of yourself and everything that surrounds you. I feel more connected to the communities I venture through, the people I smile at or chat with at a light. I feel connected to the sights, sounds, and smells that resonate all around me. For the most part, my bicycle experiences are really, satisfyingly cathartic. And I think that disinhibition – that effort to put down the barriers and connect to elements around me – is what can also make art
Happy Halloween from Art Bike
such an incredibly powerful experience for me. The connectivity, the whole body experience of art parallels to a good bike ride around town. Something about both bikes and art are just so darn magical to me. Plus I feel like I’m flying – both while cycling and while painting – so that’s cool.
We then worked our way into the Arts District via Little Tokyo, stopping by this recent creation by @colossalmedia:
been such an incredible system of support and knowledge for me as well as other women of all different backgrounds and biking styles and levels . This group has been a life saver so many times, giving me the supportive environment and encouragement to post all types of inquiries from researching folding bikes to issues I have had with sexual harassment while cycling. The W&B group literally feels like a sisterhood with nonjudgmental, never-ending support for all women. The programs and events that have come out of the W&B group have been incredible and have honestly helped me to get on two wheels more frequently and meet/encourage more lady cyclists. The W&B groups and programming are the first place I go to with any bike questions. I love my W&B sisters! Even now, I live in Baltimore, MD but still frequent the W&B facebook group and the DC-based events because I love and support this group of women so much!
My last and most recent acquired bike is the newly reborn “Art Bike.” This is a 
fun step through, upright cruiser that a dear bike friend gave me before he and his family ran away to Colorado (move back Stewart and Melissa Eastep!). This is a bike I kept around for a few seasons, using it for an occasional guest or grocery run – especially when I wanted to feel Dutch and pretend I was biking in Amsterdam. Recently. however, this unassuming bike was reborn into the Art Bike. I have completed Phase One with a brand new paint job and accoutrements: a used a bunch of different colored spray paints and hot glued on beads and gems. This bike went for her full-fledged inaugural ride as the Art Bike for Baltimore Bike Party’s Halloween ride . . . and I managed to entirely destroy one of her brake cables. So this bike is in repair and will be back on the roads come Spring. She does manage to still show up in my photo shoots . . . that cheeky wench she is.
Charlotte: Colors make me feel like everything is going to be okay in this world. There’s a
light. I feel connected to the sights, sounds, and smells that resonate all around me. For the most part, my bicycle experiences are really, satisfyingly cathartic. And I think that disinhibition – that effort to put down the barriers and connect to elements around me – is what can also make art
WeLove2Bike! 