Illustrations by Paul Rogers

A series of drawings depicting The Darjeeling Limited

Paul Rogers is a Pasadena-based illustrator and graphic designer who has worked on everything from USPS stamp lines to posters for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also has illustrated children's books such as Bob Dylan's Forever Young.

His new book, Name That Movie, features 100 sets of six drawings apiece. Each set depicts a different movie but isn't obvious about it -- depending on how big a fan you are, it might take some keen powers of observation to figure out what movie it is.

We have three different sets of drawings, each showing a different movie for you to guess. Answers are on the last page.

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Aaron Frank

Stanley Donwood

Stanley Donwood doesn't have the slightest objection to the term "commercial artist." Often considered the sixth member of the band Radiohead, the 44-year-old Essex native is responsible for all of the band's artwork since 1994 and has the commercial marketplace to thank, in part, for his success. "It's better than graphic designer," says Donwood, lounging in a leather chair at Subliminal Projects, which is scheduled to host the British artist's first exhibition in Los Angeles. Titled "Lost Angeles," the exhibition showcases Donwood's latest piece, an 18-foot-long panorama landscape of the city flooding and engulfed in flames.

Donwood began collaborating with Radiohead on their first hit record, The Bends, and has worked closely alongside the band ever since, authoring several books, holding gallery exhibitions and selling screenprints in between albums. Thumbing through stacks of vinyl as a teen, he was struck by the artwork of punk bands like the Dead Kennedys and Crass. "The record store was like the most democratic art gallery there was," Donwood explained. "There was all this artwork and it was all treated the same."

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California Arts Council

You've likely noticed this sun setting behind an iconic row of palms as it darted in front of you on the 405. But unless you've got one of these specialty plates screwed on your own Prius, it's unlikely you knew that it supports the state's art funding. "I had lived in California my whole life, and I am an artist, and I had seen it everywhere," says Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, chair of the California Arts Council. "I had no clue it was an arts plate."

The potential of that plate was on Shriver's mind when she joined the California Arts Council's board and began to understand the deplorable state of California's arts funding. In 2000 the California Arts Council's budget was $32.2 million; by 2009 it had dropped to $5.4 million. Federal and state monies had dried up, yet a small but steady stream of donations continued to trickle in due to drivers choosing the plate. "Two-thirds of our budget was coming from a license plate that no one knew about," she says. "We were skating by on the fact that some people liked the image and picked it for the palm trees."

A new campaign spearheaded by Shriver called "Create a State" hopes to raise awareness about the connection between the plate and the arts -- enough awareness to get 1 million California drivers to switch to the new plate. If a million people put this plate on their car instead of the standard-issue California plate, says Shriver, it would funnel more than $40 million into the state's arts education funds, put the California Arts Council back on track financially, and dramatically ease the arts funding crisis currently facing the state's public schools.

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Alissa Walker

Crazy Hook

At the center of the city, there is a 100-foot-long ocean liner dry-docked in a parking lot. It would seem out of place in many if not most L.A. neighborhoods. Except here. Landlocked Koreatown is bobbing with nautical-themed restaurants, and you can't walk the length of a plank without stumbling into a pirate reference. Which, on a recent Sunday night, arrrrrr-med with a sailor's tolerance and 10 mateys, was exactly what I aimed to do.

We focused on three ports of call within a one-mile radius: the H.M.S. Bounty, a gloriously divey institution anchored with tall ships; Crazy Hook, a zany, pirate-populated theme restaurant; and Café Jack, the giant ocean liner in the parking lot. There are others: a deli named Café Mermaid; R Bar, which is only abstractly boatlike (but has epic karaoke nights); beer den Hite Kwang-Jang, which has a big anchor and other ocean paraphernalia, plus a sign for Moby Dick beer; and, at Eighth and Western, a brand-new building that looks like a giant steamboat tugging the chicken joint Pollo a la Brasa in its wake. Why the porthole windows and coiled rope decor, 12 miles from the Pacific?

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Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

"A polka-dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing. Polka-dots become movement... Polka dots are a way to infinity." --Japanese polka dot artist, Yayoi Kusama

As British artist Damien Hirst unleashes more than 300 of his Dot artworks today, with simultaneous openings at 11 Gagosian galleries worldwide, including Gagosian Beverly Hills, we revisit the influence the humble polka dot has had on art, film, fashion and the universe.

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Last week saw the release of the official poster for the 54th Grammy Awards, which was designed by the patron saint of L.A. architecture, Frank Gehry.

At first, the poster seems to be another flailing attempt by the Grammys to maintain their relevance in a world where the value of music, and the award itself, is changing. It's like they wanted someone respected in another industry to say, "Hey, look, the Grammys are still cool, remember?" Imagine Picasso shilling for the Oscars. You get the idea.

On a cursory glance, the poster seems to be a Michel Gondry model for a retrofuturistic stop animation film. A kitchy, DIY experiment. But on further inspection, a much deeper, closer look, Gehry's city is really pretty rad.

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Phil Chang, Scan of Kodabrome & Photograph of Laser Prints, 2011; courtesy of the artist and Pepin Moore, Los Angeles

Holiday art doesn't have to be snowy.

Art. The greatest gift of all. Forget those cheese 'n sausage gift baskets, and get your loved ones something that won't rot their guts, like limited edition prints.

And besides, art is good for you. I'm sure some scientist somewhere is even now discovering the health benefits of a daily dose of it. Check out these upcoming art fairs, shows and auctions to get some quality work for your loved ones (including yourself) this holiday season.

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Brendan A. Murray

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School

Santa's workshop came early this year DesignerCon. On Saturday, Exhibit Hall A at the Pasadena Convention Center temporarily turned into a pop-up, pop-art fair and toy market filled with commercial designers and design fans alike.

A group of artists and toy-makers first created the Vinyl Toy Network in 2006. Since re-dubbed DesignerCon, the yearly fair now not only opens its doors to toy artists and retailers, but the public, too -- just in time for the pre-holiday season, mad-buying rush.

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Ben Goddard

Like shelter, books, art supplies and pizza, protest signs are shared at the Occupy LA campsite. Board games and eating are the most popular metaphors.

Last weekend, along with thousands of other cyclists, I clambered off my bicycle at the intersection of 1st and Main, and joined the crowds surging through the Occupy Los Angeles campsite in a public park off City Hall.

Occupy L.A. was just one stop on the CicLAvia route, so demonstrators, perhaps in a bid to court prospective campers, or even pique the interest of the few young people who haven't heard of the movement yet, toted out a dazzling array of signs.

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"To put these images on a t-shirt seems taboo, but tomorrow it's going to be completely normal," says 26 year old native Minnesotan Melissa DeBlieck, one half of business venture Culture Clash Enterprise, which she started with her boyfriend.

Recently the company launched the very racy "S Collection," a risque clothing line with graphic images of gay sex depicted on t-shirts. "We decided to start a company that brings art and fashion together, and we wanted to do something controversial. We've called it 'S' for a variety of reasons, including that 'S' stands for 'sex', and 'S' sounds mysterious."

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