Saintly Street Stories In L.A.

"Street by street, from Boyle Heights to Pacific Palisades, Walker has spent the intervening years studying saints and the histories of the 103 streets of Los Angeles that bear their names. He walked the pavement to see how the two might intertwine."

"Then he created images of the saints in sumi ink and serigraph on 4-by-6-foot pieces of paper, adding his poetry in ink. Curving across the top is an arch with the words, 'Todos los Santos de Los Angeles.'"

"He learned that the vast majority of city streets with saints' names did not get those names during the Spanish-Mexican era, as many people assume, but during the great expansion of the late 19th and 20th centuries."

"Real estate developers assigned the names randomly as part of what Walker said was 'mission fantasy.'"

"Out of that randomness, Walker found meaning. Much as the British Navy once press-ganged -- or kidnapped -- young men to be sailors, the men who built Los Angeles pressed the saints into service, Walker said."