I didn't have a whole lot going on Wednesday so I decided to head up to Venice Beach and sell some photos. Sales were slow, but not bad for the middle of the week.

My space on the boardwalk was next to a public bench which happened to be Sunny War's regular playing spot. Sunny is a crab claw picker from Nashville, Tennessee. Now 18 years old, she has been playing guitar since she was 7 and playing on the boardwalk since she was 12. Just about any day of the week, you can find Sunny on the Thornton Street bench performing her original work and selling CDs for $10. With a Gibson sponsorship and a record deal in the works, bright skies are on the horizon for Sunny; however, times have been tough on the boardwalk. She'll be the first to tell you that donations are down, especially since she has grown out of her "cute little kid" appeal. You can check out her music at http://www.myspace.com/sunnywarmusic.

Oh yeah, you might be wondering . . . where did she get the name "Sunny War"? It turns out, when she was a kid she stared at the sun for a really long time and ended up burning her retinas. This left her with severe vision loss and possibly the coolest nickname with a story attached. The "War" part appears to be a variation on her last name.

After staring at the Thornton Street bench for the better half of Wednesday, I began to take interest in all of the benches on the boardwalk. Most of the benches have colorful mosaics pressed into their concrete sides that commemorate different time periods in Venice Beach history. It's interesting to look at the side of a bench, see what Venice was, then look up and see what it has become. I can't help but wonder what it's going to be.

Since photographing this bench, I've decided to do a series that catalogues all of the benches on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Stay tuned for more . . .