LA MudPeople

I'd never been that close to the LA River.  

And I never thought I'd be spending a Sunday afternoon  with the "urban primitives" known as the LA mudpeople on an impromptu walkabout with three of its members.

The sky was stormy, and it was unusually quiet at this location, considering we were steps away from Atwater Village.  

A film crew and a small group of us watched as two men and a woman applied mud to their bodies, adorned themselves with rose petals, and stood in a circle holding hands before putting on their masks.

The whole ritual was beautiful to watch and the trio had a familiarity and fluidness to what their group leader Mollet, a renowned sculptor and poet, referred to as a "non-performance."

After about 30 minutes of exploring in the river, the group moved up to Atwater Village to interact with the locals, who seemed to accept it all in stride as another eclectic day in the village.