Love My Neighbor®: Love My Neighbor2Prevail Emergency Relief and Art Program

Your child is invited
to create art and well-wishing notes
to lift spirits of elder and neighbors in need

We will attach the prints of artworks to
the Emergency Relief Food Packages

We conduct this program

in the "Scottsdale" neighborhood

of the City of Carson, Ca

and

in Culver City, Ca

Project Goal

Giving home-isolated children an opportunity to participate in the collective humanitarian effort by the community

Providing emotional support to home isolated high-risk group – elderly and sick

Bringing inspiring positive messages of hope through art

***

Enjoy the digital exhibition of artwork by children

who participated in the program and whose artworks were featured

Jezus, Carson

Jeremy, Culver City

Anaires, "Scottsdale", Carson, 6 yo

Leo, Culver City, 7yo

Carson

Peter, Culver City, 7yo

"Scottsdale", Carson

Emmanuel, Culver City

Jade, Carson

Tatsu, Culver City, 7yo

Kevin, Culver City, 7yo

Christopher, Culver City

Matthew, Culver City

Cooper, Culver City

Mark, Culver City, 11yo

Culver City

Frida, Culver City, 5yo

Zooey and Melina, Culver City

Prints of artworks on emergency food relief packages

With Art We Persevere!

***

Instructions to Kids and Parents

What picture do you think can lift the spirit of another person who is lonely, who is worried, who is in need of help?
On any paper at home, sketch out with pencil your different ideas. The theme of our public art project is Love My Neighbor. Your work should be about making another person feel better.
Decide which idea is better to lift someone’s spirit. Pick one you like the most.
Think of a short message, a good wish to write on the drawing.
Once you pick the idea for your work, get any drawing or watercolor paper available in the house. Thick drawing or watercolor paper are easier to work on, but if no such paper available, printer paper would do too. Sketch out a chosen idea on it.
Have the child sketch then paint or color pencil chosen idea. If the child prefers to paint or color pencil without sketching out its great too. Main thing is that they are conscious about the intent and meaning of their work.
Sign just the first name and age on the front. Let the work dry.
With sharp pencil write the full name of the child and your full name and address on the back of the artwork legibly but not too hard not to be seen from the front.
Once your artist considers the work done, take a picture of the work on your smart phone. Best if you can set the artwork on something like book support next to the window during the daylight. Check that the light is reasonably even and no shadows are cast on the artwork.
Send the file in jpeg or phone photo with full name of artist and contact info to:

artistlaureate@yahoo.com

Here is the project flier for the "Scottsdale" neighborhood of The City of Carson, Ca

For more in-depth explanation of the project and process watch this video by
the project creator artist Alexey Steele

"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