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High in the Silverlake hills, overlooking the vast spread of urban Los Angeles, veteran producer Linda Warren has found her country-life hideaway and a satisfying way of showing fine art. After working in the motion picture industry for eight years, Warren has liberated herself from filmed entertainment by turning her home into a by-appointment-only contemporary art gallery. And she didn't do it the way you'd expect -- collecting artwork on her own, then falling into trading and selling it. Instead, as soon as Warren finished working as a producer on the film "U.S. Marshals" in October 1997, she began her art-world immersion.

Her search for artists to represent paid off when, on one scouting trip, she encountered sculptor Dale Edwards. Warren is so fond of Edwards' work that she's turned what used to be her living room into a shrine to the local sculptor and his menagerie of multiple materials. The spread includes monoprints, small porcelain sculptures, a life-size metal lion, and a rootsy, political wooden angel called "20th Century," with gorgeous, knowing lips (see photos).

Downstairs, there's "The Prophet," a similarly heart-stopping sculpture that is the centerpiece of the proprietor's former bedroom. (Warren now sleeps in a much smaller space.) "The Prophet" is cool jazz and deep soul personified. His clay face wears an inspired look. Bronze scraps become a torso. His head is adorned with sunglasses and a crooked crown; and a drum kit's cymbal serves as a Christ-like halo. In San Francisco, there's a house of worship called the Church of John Coltrane. If ever there were a perfect altarpiece for that holy place, Edwards' work is it. But until the Coltraners come calling, the prophet looks right at home here in Silverlake. -- Jeremy Rosenberg