Education & Classes in West Hollywood

Stinging nettle, lambsquarters, and mugwort: as ubiquitous weeds around the LA area, it’s a rare sight to see them celebrated as elements of gourmet cuisine. But the duo behind Transitional Gastronomy, Pascal Baudar and Mia Wasilevich, are changing that with their inventive approach to foraged food. Baudar combines his background in French and Belgian country cuisine with more than a decade of experience teaching survivalist classes and studying wild food in Southern California. On the other hand, Wasilevich’s own diverse heritage informs her more modern approach to the culinary arts, which incorporates molecular gastronomy as well as more traditional methods. Each dish they create depends on whatever seasonal botany they come across, in addition to careful research on how each ingredient was used through history.

The pair has been celebrated in local and national media for their educational excursions and culinary innovation, from mentions in Time and the Los Angeles Times to features on NBC and ABC. Their experiments have yielded dishes as diverse as lambsquarters bisque and mousse to flatbreads topped with acorn, nettle pesto, and homemade preserved lemons. Transitional Gastronomy’s team shares their passions through small-group foraging hikes and cooking classes, which also include Baudar’s expertise in Old World styles of preservation and fermentation. Elderberry wine and mugwort beer make frequent appearances at each workshop, proving that you can even celebrate happy hour if you were stranded in the forest or on a spaceship that harvests elderberries and mugwort.

Learning to paint, draw, or sculpt can be an intimidating venture without the right guidance. Luckily for students at Manhattan Beach Art Department, an experienced staff with backgrounds in fashion drawing, illustration, sculpture, and landscape painting leads fledgling creators of all ages through informative, interactive sessions. Under the instructors’ tutelage, youngsters build artistic confidence through hands-on classes, teens tackle design concepts with textiles, and families attend workshops where they express their mixed feelings about the level of their dinner conversation.

Stu and Jayne Zehngut have skillfully framed and displayed paintings, posters, and artwork at L.A. Art Exchange since 1987. Inside the 4,000-square-foot gallery and showroom, a team of educated artists and designers fits archival and acid-free materials over photos and memorabilia, using UV plexiglas and foam core. In addition to custom framing, the gallery’s services include shadowboxes, display cases, and computerized mat designs made with a Wizard 9000 mat cutter. On request, the machine cuts precise, swirling designs into mats and writes messages in pen on the surface whenever it starts to develop consciousness.

"I love teaching art," declares teaching veteran and artist Ann Bridges on her YouTube video. Her students agree. "She helps you develop your own technique and your own style," shares one, and another muses, "Ann is the kind of teacher who creates a really great atmosphere in the studio… I feel like it's a place where I can improve my technique and also foster my creativity."

Drawing inspiration from locales ranging from the cerulean vistas of Catalina Island to the smoky peaks of the Eastern Sierras and the urban landscapes of Los Angeles, Bridges paints as well as she instructs. She creates her work with an impressionist style, an artist's eye, and wrist flicks puppeteered by Monet's ghost.