Hmmmmmm, GLOOOORIA MOLINAhhhhhhhh?

Back to the topic: There is definitely a pattern emerging when you look at the mural whitewashing, the sacrifice of mom & pop merchants to development, and last but not least, the attack on the loncheras. I’m sure there are other examples. Is it just me bring paranoid or is Gloria Molina behind all this?

I think what I find most offensive is the implied attitude of “See? We’re just like you whites! We can tone down our culture if you feel threatened by it.”

If a committee of artists/art historians are appointed to give the thumbs up or down to commissioned public art—isn’t that a whole lotta power for a few to have over an entire community of artists? I’d like to know more as to what happened that made these politicians want to pull the reigns in tight. I think the answer to all this is there, not in “what type of system should we set up to bless some and banish others?”

Yes Art, I fund all my artistic endeavors too. I think it gives me the freedom to do what I want—but the downside is that my budget limits my output. Personally, I have been banned several times by people that (I believe) know nothing about art or fear the dialog that art can open. Teaching art and art history is a crucial and an important part to opening young minds in our community. Young people may feel detached from the public art they see, because they do not understand it and thereby don’t value it. In reality it is the foundation on which they stand. Thanks for all you do.

proactive graffit abatement with a success rate well beuyond any jail sentence, I have murals running from compton to pacoima to eastlos untouched because of my community outreach and ownership program.

That being said, the whole CD14 mural drama is from a few years back when Villaraigosa was councilman. He created a program to help fix vandalized/damaged murals as well as create a pot of money for new ones from local artists; I am not sure if the signage part was a component of the original program. Anyways, some loser dipshit named armando herman felt that his personal taste in art should dictate what and what isnt acceptable public art and he got a crew of ignmorant viejitas from the community to yell enough that the program was railroaded into destroying legal graffiti murals and erasing signage done for stores in a graffiti fashion. I remember going to a meeting with the cultural affairs commission where a lot of ex writers now artists showed up to tell this pendejo herman why he was wrong, and i straight schooled him on the subject and then was able to draw out him stating he is an ex tagger now haterator himself, it was quite entertaining (and a lot of aficionados gave me credit and wanted to “do things with my org” all of which never materialized, LA is very talk a lot and do nothing in that way).

I run a small nonprofit dedicated to teaching art in the barrio and promoting positive artistic expression, be it with a brush or spraycan, and have basically detached myself from the Eastside/LA politico/activist/artist scene because Im about putting in community work and got sick of all the smoke being blown up my ass with no results. I fund our programs by taking a chunk of my earning from paid commissions I get and relying on my own volunteering and a solid crew of others dedicated to doing so ourselves, mind you our output has seriously decreased since the birth of my 2nd child and my accpetance into a rigorous planning undergrad program (which I just completed). This whole egotistic hollywood bullshit makes me hate LA, i have been treated so poorly by many politicos and supposed community activists trying to come up off our genuine conern for art empoerment in the comunidad. I got murals running in front of roosevelt and garfield highschools and begun the longest running and most successful legal graffiti sanctuary/gallery in all of Eastlos (Atlantic blvd alleys on west side of street), yet it is still a bitch, or maybe we dont have the time or capacity, to ge tthe funding to make this prgram something beyond paint in my abuelas garage and volunteering in our free time. any help would be appreciated.

agonzalez@www.elacamp.org

BTW, maybe Ill do a topic on my murals and experiences when I get the time, that Alza topic was muy firme.