Ace Hotel

Indians in the photobooth at Ace Hotel New York with his new album, Magic Kids, in hand, after his set at 5 At 5, our surprise show series with Bowery Presents and Martin Guitar.

Puppets from our Summer School workshop with Abby Portner, set and costume designer for Animal Collective. Created on the fly with our Cinemagram app. Stay tuned for a percussion trip-out from Chris Johanson’s workshop.

Work Magazine and Gloria Noto are national treasures. As art, fashion, design and music become increasingly co-opted by the world of corporate marketing, we need tastemakers and champions of the underground ever more with each passing season. Gloria — like the best of the best who have come before her — follows her instinct when curating exhilarating content for Work; she knows it when she sees it because she feels it. Work Magazine can now be found in rooms at Ace Hotel & Swim Club — leaving your room with one in the morning and reading it by the pool with a Bloody Mary and French Toast breakfast is highly recommended.

We wanted to ask Gloria about her background, her work and her daydreams. She obliged.

You grew up in Detroit. Being from the archetypical blue-collar American city must have something to do with the magazine’s proletarian name.

That is a very interesting angle. It very well could have been a part of the many ingredients that make up the basis of the title and concept of The Work Magazine. Growing up in Detroit gave me a fierce work ethic and follow through with the things I set out to accomplish. To be from Detroit means to be a fighter and a hard worker. It’s tough out there, so you have to be tough with it.  

What does the magazine as a blank canvas mean to you as people, artists, citizens?

Each time I launch an Issue, the very next day, I am faced with another blank canvas and all the hopes and dreams I would like to set to accomplish with the following issue. Having the magazine be such a great platform for myself to express and connect my feelings and interests to the world is such a great feeling for me…to connect…that’s all we really want to do itsn’t it? And then there is the greater purpose of The Work Magazine, to be a blank canvas for those involved. To help them push the limits to submit something of the issues concept, but submit something that forces them to think outside the box, or get out side of their comfort zone. And now take that one step higher, and reach the reader…having them hold that once blank canvas in their hands and shown something they haven’t seen in other magazines, or in general, and to teach them something new, to give them something new to store in a crinkle of their brain. Like before mentioned, to connect. That’s what a blank canvas means to me.

Does it feel like work?

A lot of people say that if you love what you do, it will never feel like work…I disagree! Yes it feels like work, because it is work. It takes a lot of time, a lot of back and forth and searching, a lot of bumps, etc. And when you are a very small family that mainly does this as a labor of love, it takes even more work. But with that said, the work is so gratifying, and such a learning experience with every individual I meet, or bump that I encounter, that it makes the work enjoyable at even it’s harder points. I am lucky to have a strong team that keeps things together for me when I feel like I am at my last, and a team that is constantly bringing new and interesting point of views to the table.  Without them, there would be a really sad magazine. So yes, it feels like work, but who says a work feeling can’t be a good feeling!?

What has inspired you in the last 24 hours or so?

My girlfriend Ally and the little pow-wow conversations we have while taking a very long walk around the SilverLake Reservoir. We get on topics of work often and have such a great banter on back and forth ideas on what we want to accomplish and how we can do these things. And then there was the neighborhood I was walking in while having this conversation, Silverlake is such an inspiring little town full of beautiful homes, nature,  artistic people, and amazing food… Every time I walk in my neighborhood I feel a dueling sense of peace and excitement. I can feel the creative energy all around me and that makes me feel creative in return.

If you were packing your bags and leaving LA today, where would you be moving to?

Are we talking realistically here? Because I would have to take into account where I could continue to work, if that was the case. But since I have a feeling that you don’t mean a realistic answer, I would say Berlin. I haven’t been yet, but I think it would work out.  

Why did The Work need to be?

The Work Magazine needed to be because I needed an outlet to be. I am a makeup artist as well, and am constantly surrounded by these amazing individuals whom I thought deserved recognition, rather than the same bull shit that I would see over and over again in magazines, used only because the client would be paying them for product placement rather than because the item or the concept had soul. I felt that a lot of soul was missing from publications and that I also wanted to leave a mark on the transitioning magazine world. I wanted to show the world what I thought was interesting and to hopefully have them share the same view, and in doing so, share these amazing artists with the world.

Do you have a favorite magazine on airplanes?

I don’t have a specific one, but I did grab the most recent issues of BUST, LOVE, GentleWoman, and Dosier, and a new favorite Kinfolk on my last flight to NYC. They helped me through the whole flight.  

If a fictional character was curating an issue of The Work, who would it be?

Someone with a severe case of schizophrenia, ADD, and great taste. Maybe Andy Warhol.