At BLVКBOOK’s new gallery inside the Beverly Center, something wild is happening and it’s not what you’d expect. The Wild West has returned, not in dusty browns and sepia tones, but in bold neons, hot pinks, electric blues, and swagger. Artist Sydney Marcus, better known as $yd, is redefining the cowboy turning stoic figures into vibrant icons pulsing with color, joy, and contradiction.
His work is loud in the best way. A Syd cowboy might wear a rhinestone jacket, stand in defiance under a fuchsia sky, or stare you down in acid green. It’s pop art meets Americana, with just enough irreverence to make you look twice and then again.
But Marcus isn’t riding solo. He’s teamed up with Ellissa Catherine, BLVКBOOK’s newly appointed gallery director, whose vision is as fearless as the artist’s brushstrokes. “Together, we are shaping an experience that transcends the very notion of a gallery,” says Catherine. “A space where stories emerge through resilience and boldness, where skill and patience reach beyond the brush, transforming vision into lasting truth.”
That energy now radiates from the walls of the Beverly Center gallery. In a city of constant motion and reinvention, Syd’s cowboys feel right at home rooted in tradition but galloping into the future. They invite you in, challenge your expectations, and leave you with the feeling that the West was never really won it’s still being reimagined.
If you’re in Los Angeles, don’t just window-shop. Come upstairs. Step into BLVКBOOK. Let Syd’s cowboys stare you down. They’ve got something to say.
Trew Love was born in Kansas City into an artistic family and received classical training from her mother, an art teacher. She initially pursued makeup artistry in Los Angeles and worked on top models backstage during New York Fashion Week for designers like Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, and Philip Lim, developing a passion for empowering women through beauty and creativity
From beauty to bold art.
Her creative evolution led her to release Trew Basics, an illustrated makeup tutorial book blending art and beauty with pop art inspiration and self-love messaging. In 2014, Trew transitioned to canvas, debuting her “Pop Life” collection nationwide alongside pop art icons like Blek le Rat, Shepard Fairey, Ben Eine, and Risk
In 2017, she joined Revolution LA (also known as Divest LA), drawn by the Standing Rock movement this deeply influenced her shift toward socially conscious art.
Her exhibit “Sugar Coated” used candy-themed motifs to tackle heavy social and political issues with humor and layered neon acrylics, ushering in her voice as a conceptual artist
As the pandemic hit, Trew branched into adult cartoons with creations like Rhyme and Reeson and SophistiCats, using humor and narrative to reflect on society
She also contributed to a graphic novel, Spray Saints, and initiated “What Would Love Say,” a global mural campaign launching in Europe in 2024 that promotes love-centered messages through public art.
The “TREW LOVE × KB” Collaboration with Karen Bystedt for BLVKBOOK
Who is Karen Bystedt?
An acclaimed photographer and mixed-media artist known for her 1982 portraits of Andy Warhol, rediscovered and transformed in her ongoing exhibition series “The Lost Warhols.” Bystedt collaborated with numerous contemporary artists to reimagine these iconic images with diverse creative interpretations
In a city like Los Angeles restless, sprawling, and constantly evolving it takes a certain eye to capture its rhythm. Joey Mason, a marker-and-pen artist, illustrator, and animation art director, has made it his mission to document that movement, one hand-drawn line at a time.
Working in traditional ink and markers, Mason doesn’t just sketch what he sees he distills the essence of neighborhoods, protests, quiet storefronts, and daily moments with the kind of clarity that only deep presence allows. His work lives somewhere between classic mid-century illustration and contemporary urban storytelling. For Blvkbook, his art is a perfect intersection of style, substance, and narrative power.
Sketching the Everyday with Purpose
Mason’s art lives outside the studio. He draws on location, which is rare in an age of styluses and screens. Whether on a folding chair in Highland Park or standing in the middle of a busy LA street, he translates real-time environments into kinetic compositions. His signature black-and-red ink work is raw, expressive, and informed by the tradition of carnets de voyage travel sketchbooks that document the world as it’s lived.
His collection “Figueroa Street Sketches” captures this spirit fully. Over 170 sketches fill the book, offering a hyperlocal glimpse into one of LA’s oldest thoroughfares from taco stands to tire shops, from early morning shadows to neon-lit nights. The result is a portrait of a street, yes but also a meditation on time, place, and community.
From Street Corners to Storyboards
Beyond the sketchbook, Mason is a respected animation professional. His work spans projects like Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated, Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., and the Annie Award nominated Playdate with Winnie the Pooh. As an art director, his storytelling instincts are cinematic; as a street artist, they are immediate and grounded.
What unites both worlds is his eye for visual narrative. Whether drawing a protest in Echo Park or designing an animated sequence, Mason’s ability to tell a full story in a single image is unmistakable.
Sketches de Resistance: Drawing for Change
Mason’s work took a powerful turn with his series “Sketches de Resistance”, a visual chronicle of social justice movements in LA. Captured in ink, the emotions and energy of these moments are preserved in a way photography often can’t convey.
It’s part of what makes Mason’s work essential: his commitment to drawing not just what’s pretty, but what’s real.
Exhibiting the Urban Narrative
Mason’s illustrations have appeared in group and solo exhibitions at Gallery Nucleus, a nexus of pop culture and fine art. He’s been featured in shows celebrating The Last of Us, Across the Spider-Verse, and God of War. These events highlight his dual identity as both a gallery artist and a pop visualist two worlds that rarely overlap as seamlessly as they do in his hands.
A Global Sketchbook
While LA is home, Mason’s sketchbooks have traveled further. Residencies in Belgrade, Galway, and the remote Aran Islands have allowed him to document landscapes and cultures beyond the west coast. Each drawing, regardless of geography, shares a consistent voice one that honors architecture, light, shadow, and spirit.
Why Joey Mason Matters to the Culture
At BLvkbook, we celebrate creators who see beneath the surface those who translate culture, community, and consciousness into form. Joey Mason does exactly that. His art isn’t performative. It’s present. It’s honest. And it’s necessary.
In a world speeding by, Mason sits still, ink in hand, and draws what most of us overlook. His work reminds us that the streets are full of stories and that sometimes, the most powerful way to tell them is simply to sit down and sketch.
