Photo by Dustin Downing, Chinashopmap.com.

Nicole Pajer writes for the arts and culture blog Chinashop. What she doesn’t do is take mass transit, “Something about cramming into a tiny train car underground and being smashed up against random strangers just doesn’t sit right with me.”

Which means her tour of the Metro Red Line courtesy of Metro’s free monthly art tours was an eye opening experience – and her photographer Dustin Downing was there to capture it.

The four station tour included Hollywood/Highland, Universal City, North Hollywood and Hollywood/Vine. The latter was Pajer’s personal favorite, and if you’ve ever been curious about the yellow tiles that line that station, here’s the answer: “The artist that created this station was Gilbert Lujan (nicknamed Magu) and Adolfo Miralles was the architect.  The ceiling of the station contains over 20,000 actual 35mm film reels that were acquired from an old production studio.  The ground is Magu’s version of the Yellow Brick Road, as MGM has a patent on the original one.’

If the story inspires you, Metro Art Tours – cheekily called “Art’s a Trip” – are free, require no reservations and take place on the first Saturday, Sunday and Thursday of each month.

• Hidden Treasures: LA’s “Underground” Art (Chinashop)
• Metro Art Department (Metro.net)
• Metro Art Docent Council (Facebook)