Best places to live in california if you're a weird artist? (San Francisco: living, move to)

[goodbyehollywood]

If you want to live in Venice, you'd better be a rich weird artist. And you'll have to do some looking to find the weird pocket. Most of Venice is now a mecca for celebs and upper tier Hollywood types. For the most part, weird went out when the beach shacks starting pushing $1 mil.

[lindrix]

Going a bit farther North is the Mendocino area. Lots of artists live in the less pricey Anderson Valley, Round Valley, Ukiah, Willits, or even Ft. Bragg areas and sell their wares in the town of Mendocino which has oodles of galleries. Mendocino is nice too but extremely pricey despite the real estate market being depressed.

[LASam]

Originally Posted by goodbyehollywood

If you want to live in Venice, you'd better be a rich weird artist. And you'll have to do some looking to find the weird pocket. Most of Venice is now a mecca for celebs and upper tier Hollywood types. For the most part, weird went out when the beach shacks starting pushing $1 mil.

Yeah, I don't think weird artists live in Venice anymore. They definately come there to peddle there goods, but don't live there.

[Grumbler]

Originally Posted by Janechild

@zennjen, thanks for the response, Id prefer in between maybe somewhere around santa cruz

Lived in Santa Cruz for 7-years, and absolutely loved it there, but now live in Boise, ID. Santa Cruz is ex$pen$ive, and evolved/regressed into a bedroom community for Silicon Valley commuters starting around the mid-70s. There's far too much traffic these days thanks to all the commuters *and* visitors.

There's pros and cons to each and every community. There's a popular bumper sticker being sold: Keep Santa Cruz Weird!

Have visited Arcata which reminds me of what Santa Cruz was like back in the 1970s, and my younger daughter is thinking about enrolling at Humboldt State (major in journalism) after she graduates from high school in 2009.

[elcapitan]

I would try Bakersfield or any other Valley town. They are very welcoming to folks that fit that description.

[humboldtlove]

from the oregon border all the way down the coast to san francisco. try the lost coast or the redwoods. humboldt and mendocino and del norte counties are always beautiful along the coast for pictures

[2-Live-n-Die-n-LA]

You might like Silverlake or Elysian Park.

[Sharks_fan]

Originally Posted by leavingcali

You would fit in anywhere in Santa Cruz as a weird artist. Check out Soquel, Capitola, Aptos, and Santa Cruz county. I love love love that area.

Ditto on this. Santa Cruz or SF for sure would work for you.

[Petaluma Mom]

You definitely have to check out Laguna Beach in southern Cal. It's one of the most beautiful places in California. Very expensive but a HUGE art community there. It's practically populated by a artists. There are many artist studios and work spaces there. Also many, many art festivals every year - The Sawdust Festival being a major one.

I have no idea how affordable the rents are but it is definitely a great place for artists. The artist population is the majority there, not the fringe.

Best of luck!

[Charles]

This is an old thread.

One thing we should have asked is, "Does weird artist mean an artist who is weird or a person who produces weird art?".