Works From Love My Neighbor Public Art Progect On Vew At Natural History Museum of LA County

My three works from  

LOVE MY NEIGHBOR Public Art Project  

are in the  

California Art Club 

107th Gold Medal Exhibition   

 
at 

 

The Natural History Museum

of Los Angeles County 

 

   

June 10 - July 1, 2018

"El Rey Trabajador. Love My Neighbor public at project, The City of Carson"

72" x 48" oil on canvas

Executed with grants from The City of Carson, Wells Fargo Bank and Rand Resources LLC.

 

 

The focus of my ongoing public art project "Love My Neighbor" in the City of Carson for the last two years is the notorious, chronically underserved "Scottsdale" neighborhood.  Following my concept that special neighbors exist in every condition, I was fortunate to find a remarkable and inspiring character in Cirilo Campos, a beloved 75 year old "Scottsdale" gardener.

Cirilo's noble values, the dignity and pride of his hard work stand in stark contrast to a morally bankrupt "greed is good" creed that is shoved at us from every corner and which has torn the very fabric of our society.

"Mrs. O'Neal. Love My Neighbor public at project, The City of Carson"

29" X 22" Sepia on Paper

Executed with the grants from The City of Carson and Rand Resources LLC.

 

There is a lot of adversity to overcome in today's world. For me, the answer to many difficult questions that we are 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 my ongoing "My Neighbors Series", a collection of portrayals of the people around me in our City of Carson one of the statistically most diverse in the nation.

 

As one of Carson's founders, Mary Anne O'Neal, is a true icon of the Carson community.  A great-granddaughter of slaves who grew up on a farm in Arkansas, this 91-year-young woman leads her life by example. In a world of "it's all about me," she believes in today's "unfashionable" notions such as serving others before oneself and helping a neighbor in need.
 

 

"Mr. Lipsey. Love My Neighbor public at project, The City of Carson"

29" X 22" Sepia on Paper

Executed with the grants from The City of Carson, Bank of America and Rand Resources LLC.

Mr. Lipsey is one of the longest continuous residents of "Scottsdale" Carson.  Some old timers call him "The Seed and The Root".  He is a big man of not many words. 

 

Mr. Lipsey is from Mississippi.  He is 77.  When he was just 6 years old his Dad went to get food for him on a pouring rain, got drenched and died of double pneumonia.  As Mr. Lipsey puts it in 1947 Mississippi "antibiotics were too good for blacks".  I asked him if he remembers segregation.  He sure does.  The bathrooms at bus stops.  The movie theaters.  When him and his friends went to the movies, they'd sit in their section on a balcony.  Some white kids would go in a section above them and urinate on them.  And spit.  And throw trash.  He remembers Emmett Till's body pulled out of Tallahatchie River.

 

Remarkable in his observations, he told me at the middle of last session as I begun to develop the drawing: "It's the first time I am seeing real me".

For the first time in its 50 year history The City of Carson was acknowledged at the national level cultural institution.

 

Launching Love My Neighbor® Day "Scottdsale" With Bank of America and Victory Outreach

Enormously excited about the new great initiative and collaboration that we launched centered on my public art project in Carson’s tough “Scottsdale” neighborhood.  We started the Love My Neighbor Day as celebration of community in a unique personal collaboration with Bank of America.  

Our Scottsdale’s Love My Neighbor Day in collaboration with Victory Outreach, our Artward! Initiative and Bank of America’s Better Money Habits went better than all our expectations. 

Knowing full well how difficult it is to get any attention in Scottsdale and how even more difficult to turn it into a participation - makes what we did even more meaningful.

We had 20 to 25 kids participating in the art program.  Huge number for Scottsdale.  That included some tough and trouble kids.  It was difficult but we did it as even the hardest to get attention kids ended up getting engaged in art making.

While kids were doing art the group their parents had a unique chance to participated in the Better Money Habits with Bank of America specialists.  This group of residents took advantage of a unique opportunity to get an in-depth personal financial advise from some of BoA’s top regional and local execs.  5 executives worked with residents individually.

Huge kudos go to Victory Outreach for their work on the ground to build trust and communication with residents and kids and manage attendance while Artward and BoA provided unique additional programs.  Just as we believed, this proved to be a powerful and effective collaboration worth every bit of long hard work that went into it.

The most amazing part of BoA collaboration is that their participants are companies’ veterans of outreach, passionate about the local community and diversity, some having a multi-decade Carson experience.  They knew full well what Scottsdale is. 

This unique program left deep impression in “Scottsdale” and making serious impact.  The influence of local Piru gang on kids and residents has now a unique alternative.

 

 

Scottsdale knows it’s a new age there and that it turns the corner.

Thank you, BoA for showing what it is to engage in real community. 

Together we create impact.  It works.  Art is Power.

"El Rey Trabajador" will be unveiled June 27, 6pm at the new Artward! Gallery in "Scottsdale" Carson

Unveiling of My New Painting 

  

"El Rey Trabajador" oil 72" x 48"

from "My Neighbor Series"

at 

our newly founded

in the "Scottsdale" neighborhood of Carson, Ca

ARTWARD!  

gallery

dedicated to showcasing my 

public art project in the city of Carson 

"Love My Neighbor" 

and

run by the 501 (c) 3 non-profit 

Artward Initiative

Tuesday, June 27, 2017 

6:00 - 8:30 pm

23400 Avalon Blvd, Carson, Ca 90745

 
El Rey Trabajador" from "My Neighbor Series" 
oil on canvas, 72" x 48

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. 

   

The Study of Cirilo   

sepia on fabriano paper  

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 was honored to be awarded  Carson Cultural Arts Commission grant for 2016/17 to continue working on "My Neighbor Series" in collaboration with The City of Carson. The additional grant was provided by the Wells Fargo Bank.

 

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. 

The focus of my attention this year is the notorious Carson neighborhood called quite ironically "Scottsdale". Following my concept that special neighbors exist in every condition I was fortunate to find a remarkable and inspiring character in Cirilo Campos, a beloved 75 year old gardener who

has been working in "Scottsdale" Carson for 31 years and would not quit, a true local hero and the icon of serving community. 

Cirilo's noble values, the dignity and pride of his hard work stand in stark contrast to a morally bankrupt "greed is good" creed that is shoved at us from every corner and which had ripped the very fabric of our society, bringing us to the edge of loosing the very treasured system that gave us all that we enjoy. It is the inspiration from true people like Cirilo that will help us persevere. I decided to paint an epic life-size painting celebrating human dignity shining bright in the world of adversity. 

I decided to use the very process of art making as a community engagement tool and executed this large canvas entirely on-site in the series of over 40 live sessions each open to the public. To showcase works of My Neighbor Series to the local community and use the Love My Neighbor project as a tool of continuous community building, I established a permanent on-site Artward Gallery.

 

 

 

It was the most remarkable and rewarding project out of everything I have done so far.

 Affecting society where it is needed most is what my father believed ART suppose to do and I learned this belief from him.

 
Larga vida al rey!