For eight years, artist J. Michael Walker's life has been overflowing with saints who have filled up his notebooks, bookcases, canvases and thoughts.

Calling himself a "metaphorical archeologist," Walker has been researching, creating and meditating on the historical and spiritual aspects of saintly named city streets of Los Angeles. His work, "All the Saints in the City of Angels," is equally the story of the city's past as well as contemplation on the current state of human affairs --- all seen through the lens of the lives of saints whose streets bear their names.

Beginning as an art project for bus shelters in 2000, Walker's creative endeavor has now grown into a book and a full-scaled art exhibition, which opens this week for a seven-month run at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Many events are planned in conjunction with the exhibition including bus tours to street locales and an interactive website to the saint streets (www.autrynationalcenter.org).

The exhibition also correlates to Walker's newly published book, "All the Saints in the City of the Angels: Seeking the Soul of L.A. on Its Streets" (2008, Autry National Center and Heyday Books).

Chronicling 103 streets and stories, the book is a culmination of Phase 1, says the Northeast Los Angeles resident. "This has been so engrossing for me," Walker says with a sigh and a laugh. "It's remarkable that it has come to this. I don't know where it's all going, either."

The Autry exhibit displays about 50 detailed, large-scale mixed-media paintings, which combine image and text. Inspired by Spanish religious art, Walker's paintings will be set among precious objects and artifacts (18th and 19th century retablos and bultos) from the collections of the Museum of the American West and Southwest Museum of the American Indian. The exhibition will also feature an altar (la capilla) where visitors can reflect and leave personal offerings.

Walker's paintings are striking and complex, mystical elements intermixed with everyday realities. Many of his models are real-live people: day laborers, the homeless and the disenfranchised, people whose lives somehow reflect the saint street name on which they live and work.

For example, tiny Santa Clara Street in downtown Los Angeles (only two blocks long) is lined with razor wire atop high walls, garment factories and a never-ending supply of dust. "You see this and then think of St. Clare who took a vow of poverty and humility," explains Walker. St. Clare is also the patron saint of embroiderers --- appropriate for the seamstresses and tailors who are seen coming and going on this street. "[St. Clare] is still very much here today in these places."

Walker approached his work first as a historian and then as an artist, listening to the muse within to guide him on his creative and, often mystic, journey. He delved into city records, hagiographies, old photographs and maps. He amassed numerous books on early California history as well as a 1779 set of Alban Butler's "Lives of the Saints" and an 1803 volume Ano Christiano by Padre Juan Croiset.

Early city boosters, Walker says, named streets after saints as a way to "romanticize the area," in an effort to "sell" California to the throngs who would make their way westward.

After Walker learned as much as he could, he would spend time on the streets, observing neighborhoods and meeting people who live and work there. His goal: discover how the saints manifest themselves today.

Walker is eager to tell stories. On San Jose Street that runs through the San Fernando Valley, he noted tool trucks, RVs and basketball hoops that permeate the neighborhoods. "It's 'Dad-land'," he proclaims, describing the many modern-day St. Josephs who work with their hands, raise a family and take trips ("probably not fleeing to Egypt, though") in their rolling homes.

In the fashionable area of Bel-Air, San Ysidro Drive touts immense mansions --- and plenty of gardeners who strikingly resemble the street's namesake, San Ysidro Labrador, a poor farm laborer in the early 12th century. Walker's artwork of the street depicts a gardener unaffectedly posing with his rake.

On Santa Monica Boulevard, Walker met a support group of women from Boyle Heights who have children in prison. The mothers' strength and determination reflects St. Monica herself, explains Walker. "St. Monica is the mother of St. Augustine who was a troubled youth. She never gave up on her son. In fact, Augustine credits her in helping him turn his life around."

Overall, the connections between saint, streets and modern life are mysterious and empowering. Because of this project, Walker says he gained an appreciation of the common struggle humanity faces daily.

"We have this idea of what constitutes a saint, but the more you meditate, the more you realize that they --- like all of us today --- were doing what they needed to get them through the day. Just getting through the day," he says with a pause. "That is, in itself, a miracle."

"All the Saints of the City of Los Angeles" runs through Sept. 7 at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, L.A. Museum hours vary, Tuesdays-Sundays. Admission is $9 adults, $5 for students and seniors and $3 for children. Bus tours ($45) are March 8, April 12, May 10 and June 14, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., and reservations are required. For more information, call (323) 667-2000