Maybe it’s because our interest was piqued in the small business strip on the southeast corner of Lake Avenue and Altadena Drive by the Echo Mountain Project which just moved in, but we were driving by the other day and wondered, “What’s Studio 918?,” the property next door.

And we were pleasantly surpised to find that it’s the working studio of Altadena’s creative power couple James Griffith and Susanna Dadd.  Griffith and Dadd are well-known locally for hosting the Folly Bowl series of adventerous music and performance in their backyard amphitheatre every summer.

Griffith tells us in an email that “Studio 918 is our working studio used primarily for making my paintings.  You can check out my website … to see some of my work.  Alas it is not current with my newest work.  I am working on a series now that extends my interest (as you will see on my site) in the impact on nature by man’s use of petrochemicals.  In my new work, rather than depicting nature through a veil of plastic,  I am using tar as a paint itself and painting elements of nature with it.”

There’s also a sign advertising Dadd’s growing business creating drought-tolerant gardens (anyone who’s been to the Folly Bowl knows that her gardening powers are mighty).  No folly there!