Saints in the city of angels

LOS ANGELES -- A museum exhibit in the city of angels is looking at the legends of saints.

"All the Saints of the City of the Angels," at the Autry National Center through Sept. 7, looks at L.A. streets named for various saints and how life on those streets relates to the saints' legends.

The artist, J. Michael Walker, researched the topic for eight years and created 50 paintings of saints, incorporating stylistic aspects of Spanish religious art but using for his models contemporary city-dwellers - workers, indigents and other ordinary people.

The exhibit looks at sacred space, neighborhood life, local history and religious traditions, with text panels in Spanish and English, video clips and an altar where visitors can reflect. The show also features 18th- and 19th-century devotional objects from the Autry collection, including artifacts from the Museum of the American West and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian.

According to Walker, a few of the streets featured in the exhibit date to the Spanish-Mexican era, like San Pedro Street in Little Tokyo, which was originally the road to San Pedro Bay; San Fernando Road, which starts in Lincoln Heights and runs northwest to the San Fernando Mission; and Santa Monica Boulevard, which starts in Silver Lake and goes to the ocean in Santa Monica.

But, Walker says, most saint-named streets in Los Angeles were actually named by Anglo Easterners in the late 19th century, such as San Julian Street in downtown L.A., San Ysidro Drive in Bel-Air and Santa Ana Boulevard in Watts.

The Autry National Center is located at 4700 Western Heritage Way. Details at http://www.autrynationalcenter.org.