It’s very rare that an artist inspires simultaneous love and confusion. Yesterday, I was introduced to the work of DJ Hall and have been trying to figure out if her work is extremely brilliant or borderline camp elegance. Regardless, her work is bright and sunny and represents the myth of Southern California ladies of leisure.

Hall’s work circles around women by the pool and in the pool, some are in their houses sipping cocktails or even chilling out reading magazines about Palm Springs. They are these photorealistic paintings that capture glimpses into this almost over-the-top Southern California vacation lifestyle. This work is where she excels–they are so great: she is our Los Angeles answer to Richard Phillips, Hilo Chen, or Terry Rodgers by she focuses on Baby Boomers relaxing in style.

The reason why I question this admiration is because some of her other work dwells in subjects like 1950s Americana childhood culture. It’s nice but not as strong as these Palm Springs characters she has created. I mean, look at the photo at the top: is it not the most brilliant painting surrounding California culture? It’s just near perfect for me. I can only dream of being the lady on the right! She is living my dream life. In any event, we have our eyes on DJ Hall and will be sure to sure to share if we find any other gems from her.