Love My Neighbor®: June 2016

Sunday, June 19, 2016

"MY NEIGHBORS: Capturing the Soul of America's Diverse City" 2016

"Ricky of Carson" oil on canvas 36" x 24"

"Ricky" sepia on Fabriano paper 32" x 22"

Ricardo Echevarria, “Ricky” is my next door neighbor. His indoor soccer field is directly next to my studio. Ricky is a survivor of a horrendous car crash that left him in a coma for months and his face disfigured. After many months of reconstructive surgeries and recovery, he was left unrecognizable even to his neighbors. To hide from prying eyes, he covered himself in tattoos that would grab all the attention. Ricky healed fully, his face is now truly beautiful and he regrets his tattoo decision. Now, he gracefully shares with others the gratitude for the miracle of his recovery. He is supporting the local children’s soccer team and has built and runs a fully-regulated professional indoor soccer rink for the kids and adults. Ricky carries a truly noble and refined look of victory over unimaginable suffering and adversity. A local hero that every neighborhood should have.

"Mrs. O'Neal" sepia on Fabriano paper 32" x 22"

As one of Carson’s founders, Marry Ann O'Neal, is a true icon of the Carson community. A great-granddaughter of slaves who grew up on a farm in Arkansas, this 90-year-young woman leads her life by example. She believes in serving others before self and to help a neighbor in need. Mrs. O’Neal is an inspiring, vibrant and kind human being, the kind that binds the world together. A rare soul, but one that still exists in every community.

"Ukulele Player" oil on canvas 48" x 60"

"Uncle Lincoln" sepia on Fabriano paper 32" x 22"

Uncle Lincoln has been my good friend and neighbor for ten years.

He is a native Hawai'i ukulele master who, along with his wife Auntie Sissy, a hula dance teacher, is deeply involved with preserving and revitalizing the Hawaiian culture and its way of life. "Ukulele Player" is an emotionally-charged representation of a truthful and authentic dedication to one’s cultural heritage.

in ART we trust!

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Thursday, June 16, 2016

Working on "MY NEIGHBOR SERIES" - The Truth Factor and the Power of Image

One of the defining characteristics of the "My Neighbor Series" is the extensive live work with the remarkable individuals that inspire the work.

As the objective of the project is a capture of the deeply specific and personal expression within the unique character, the live interaction and study I consider a critical ingredient. "Love" is an extraordinarily difficult quality to convey and, even more so, to elicit.

Conveying the message of "Love My Neighbor" credibly requires unquestionable empathy on the part of the viewer and no one shall underestimate how hard it is to earn it in today's jaded and betrayed world.

We do not trust anyone with a slightest hint of authority and rightly so. We know empirically and for a fact that politicians of any self-professed stripe lie, selling us on themselves for a vote. Those, who don't are the vast exception to a rule. We know that corporations lie selling us something that we don't need or what will likely harm us for our own buck. Those, who don't are the vast exception to the rule. We know that anything that "sounds nice" is more often than not is a blatant, conscious and deliberate trap. Our instinct of self-preservation tells us not to take it. Society had lost faith in the institutions of society. Everything we were supposed to believe in, we now can't. Problem is that the organized society in its key components - political and economic - is a product of faith. Without faith there is no organized society. Religion used to take care of that and we know where that went. There is only one thing today outside our immediate family boundary that I see as worthy and demanding of our undisputed and unquestionable faith - it is a Love of Our Worthy Neighbor.

Love of one's neighbor today, whomever that neighbor happen to be and of whatever ethnic or cultural background, is the only hard land we can crawl on in midst of the societal deluge that is upon us.

Conveying such Love credibly and emphatically is a tall order. It is opposite to both the objective coolness and the ironic smirk that most of contemporary art is preoccupied with, it is also opposite to any trace of a sugarcoated sentimentalism that is always prevalent. That is were very specific personal and professional qualities are needed to come together in the act of eternal fusion called ART.

We can and shall envision, address and will-to-life the best in people that really is there. We can help overcome fear, anxiety and separation not by pretending it does not exist but by showing with an undeniable certainty that the alternative does exist. That is what the immense power of ART can do and that is its core Social Function.

in ART we trust!
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"MY NEIGHBORS: Capturing the Soul of America's Diverse City" a series by Alexey Steele

There is a lot of adversity to overcome in today’s world. For me the answer to many difficult questions that we presented with daily is in the simple principle "Love My Neighbor".

Loving one’s neighbor is the foundational building block in the moral fiber of our society. I make my case with ongoing "My Neighbors Series" a collection of portrayals of the people around me in our City of Carson.

Carson is a great city, statistically one of the most diverse in the nation, a community most closely reflecting our World. Carson is great because of its people and the diversity is its most important asset.

I was honored to be awarded The City of Carson Cultural Arts Commission grant for 2015/16 and then again for 2016/17 to continue working on "My Neighbors Series" in collaboration with the City of Carson.

I was also honored to be awarded 2016 and, recently, 2017 additional grants by Wells Fargo Bank.

I am grateful for a long-term support and sponsorship for my cultural outreach programs by Rand Resources, LLC

It is a great privilege to collaborate and coordinate my Carson projects with 501c3 non-profit Artward Initiative.

Art can lift aspirations and give us all an important common ground in today’s divisive times. I believe that as we are continuously exposed to the stream of escalating negative news we need to focus on people in communities that inspire us in positive ways. I take inspiration for this series from my community that overcomes adversity.

Every street and every neighborhood has its own widely loved neighbors. What I want to capture through My Neighbors is the unique, iconic and deeply human qualities that make ordinary people the true bedrock of our communities and who give us something meaningful, true and solid to hold onto in times of trouble, which is especially important in neighborhoods like Scottsdale.

At the kind of times that we live in I want ART to help people fill what I call The Dignity Gap.

I believe that strengthening community bonds by getting to know and love one’s neighbors is an answer to many of the difficult issues facing society today. I hope that My Neighbors will encourage visitors to see their own neighbors from a new perspective and take the message of love for one’s neighbor back to their own streets.

I want to capture people in these painting who you cannot help but love. Through the Love My Neighbor public art project, I want to encourage other people to notice and embrace human beacons in their own neighborhoods.

These are the overlooked heroes of our society.

I also believe in the public nature of ART. In this I am following in the footsteps of my late father, an important Ukrainian artist Leonid Steele and this project is my homage to him.

Just as my father went into remote villages of Ukraine to capture the expression of real people and share it with them, I am following this family tradition to capture in paint the strength, the dignity and the grace at the rock bottom of our society, which is so often the bedrock of our community.

Alexey