Art to Us

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you. Describe a close friend or your oldest friend.

What in your life is your greatest source of pleasure? What in your life is sacred, if anything?

Make a list of things you at first disliked but later learned to love.

Is there anything in your life that you are trying to change? What are your top 3 fears. What have you learned this year? If you could choose a person that West Hollywood would make a statue of to memorialize, who would you choose? What is your favorite place in West Hollywood?

Art to Us

Where this project came from –Alyse Emdur & Rosten Woo In the Summer of 2016, WeHo Arts (the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division and Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission) asked us to do something that they had not done before, with residents who they did not yet know. They had a lot of feedback from a small group of participants who regularly attend city events and have filled out questionnaires but they wondered how they could engage with more people like new moms, longtime residents, and maybe even loners, who do not already attend their events.

As part of their cultural plan, they asked us to produce four art events to help them understand how West Hollywood residents envision what art could be there. We started by walking around the 1.8 square miles of the city and between the two of us, coming up with a three-page list of ideas for what kind of art we could make with people who live or work in West Hollywood. In the midst of these ideas, we struggled to develop something that fulfilled the goals of both WeHo Arts and potential participants. The one hunch that we followed was to create intergenerational opportunities for folks to learn from one another.

We teamed up with Karen Cheval, the amazing artist and principal at the West Hollywood Community Day School, a secondary school for second chances, and Marisol Sanchez, the dedicated Resident Services Coordinator at the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation. We listened to them and heard that people wanted to make stuff. They wanted to get their hands dirty and be creative together.

Around the same time, we were thinking about the quintessential cultural planning tool, the questionnaire. Could we make a questionnaire for the City of West Hollywood that asked residents, not what they want to see in West Hollywood, but ask them about themselves? Could we pair teenagers with older adults who have already lived most of their lives, and have them conduct the questionnaires? Where would the conversation go when a 15 year old asks an

82 year old questions like, what are you trying to change in your life? And could these personal conversations be starting off points to make stuff and get hands dirty?

Could the things made become public art in West Hollywood? This newspaper documents our attempt to answer these questions with students of the West Hollywood Community Day School, residents of the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, and related community members.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

We would like to thank everyone who made Art To Us possible. Thank you to all of the participants who told personal stories and allowed themselves to be vulnerable in public, to Karen Cheval and Marisol Sanchez for rallying the troops, to Andrew Campbell and Rebecca Ehemann of the City of West Hollywood and Amanda Carlson, Consultant, for their ambition to find a new way, to photographer and friend Michael Parker for making the portraits, Tiffanie Tran for design, to the Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission, and particularly to Catherine Lee, Dawn Moreno-Freedman, and Madeleine Rackley of the Performing Arts and Cultural Affairs Subcommittee for their advice every step of the way.

Some ideas we did not pursue: Video vignettes of older adults talking about their relationships with their cats A class for kids to teach seniors how to play Minecraft A documentary about marijuana changing the lives of those struggling with illness Provide art services specifically designed for randomly selected West Hollywood residents Ask elementary school students to make bee costumes and a local beekeeper to choreograph dances for them based on bee behavior A pole dancing competition at West Hollywood’s only fire station where pole dancers teach firemen the physically strenuous sport and art of pole dancing Live feed public city meetings for the public A survey that asks: What is your ideal vibe?

Interviews with locksmiths who unlock cars and houses A series of conversations in hot tubs

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Jessie & Crescencia Jessie Arevalo Gomez enjoys skateboarding and walking. He would rather be outside than inside, even when it’s raining. He loves music. If it has a good beat, he will most likely listen to it. He is all about having a good time and going with the flow.

What in your life is your greatest source of pleasure?

I like skating. I don’t do much tricks but I just like getting on my board and skating from point A to point B. Because I get to feel the wind and I get to go faster than walking. The speed you get is pretty fun. That is why I let my hair grow out. The wind pushes it back. I like my hair blowing in the wind.

That’s a fun feeling. I just like to be outside. If I am outside, I am more at peace.

Is there someone or something in your life that has brought about a really big change?

Yeah, my father applied for his citizenship recently and he got a letter saying, we have not accepted you because of your past criminal offense. But then they sent him paperwork to allow him to get his citizenship because it wasn’t his fault. The courts knew that. So, recently he got another letter saying, come to court you are going to get your citizenship within the next month. His lawyer called. And I was like, hey I don’t have to worry. My father got his citizenship so he is now a US citizen, like he can stay, like he doesn’t have to worry about being deported. So that is a fear that I don’t have to live with no more, of my father leaving. Now I don’t have to worry about like one minute my dad being here and the next not. That is one less fear. Like I will have my father around.

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Crescencia Owens loves good food, music, flowers, plants, and birds.

What in your life is your greatest source of pleasure?

I guess I make my own pleasure. My whole life changed in 2005. I was married to a wonderful man for 26 years and he died. So there I was learning to be a single person and to do things on my own. So, I’ve learned to get pleasure. I guess I would say I make my own pleasure. I had to learn to get pleasure in my own way and not always with a partner. Not that I always depended on him but now I am on my own solely. I get pleasure at looking at really beautiful plants, or beautiful people, artwork, nature itself, going to the beach.

Like coming here today put a smile on my face because I am going to learn something new.

I do a lot of things with my hair. Last summer it was three colors. It was green, chartreuse, and yellow. I call it art. My hair dresser is an artist and I let him do whatever he wants but this creation of the two shades of green was mine. It was a really dark green, like a leaf green, and then chartreuse, and then sort of a light lemony yellow on top. It is a creative part of me that I collaborate with my hair dresser with.

(L-R) Crescencia Owens, Jessie Arevalo Gomez

Jessie by Crescencia

Crescencia by Jessie

I do a lot of things with my hair. Last summer it was three colors. It was green, chartreuse, and yellow. I call it art. My hair dresser is an artist and I let him do whatever he wants but this creation of the two shades of green was mine. It was a really dark green, like a leaf green, and then chartreuse, and then sort of a light lemony yellow on top. It is a creative part of me that I collaborate with my hair dresser with. – Crescencia

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I like skating. I don’t do much tricks but I just like getting on my board and skating from point A to point B. Because I get to feel the wind and I get to go faster than walking. The speed you get is pretty fun. That is why I let my hair grow out. The wind pushes it back. I like my hair blowing in the wind. That’s a fun feeling. I just like to be outside.

If I am outside, I am more at peace.

– Jessie

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Maddie by Taylor

Maddie & Taylor

Maddie Rackley can not live without music. She makes sure her world is filled with music – singing, piano, the LA Phil, her ipod, the radio, harp. She has a secret desire to learn to play the banjo.

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you.

There is a piece of music. I take piano lessons. I had a piano lesson this morning before I came here.

I don’t practice enough, but I take piano lessons.

I am learning to play a piece called, Contemplation, that my friend Glenn wrote for me. It is a beautiful piece of music. He wrote it for me a couple years ago for a birthday present and I am learning how to play it. It means something to me because Glenn wrote it for me and because I can actually participate in it. It becomes part of me because it is part of my fingers and part of what I think about.

And it is meaningful because it is hard. It is hard to play it. You have to work at it. But I think being able to be part of it and not just observe it and see it, but actually be able to be part of the art and the creative part of it is very personal, and really meaningful.

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(L-R) Maddie Rackley, Taylor Nichols-Balk

Taylor by Maddie Taylor Nichols-Balk loves to draw, read, and write.

What in your life is sacred, if anything?

I am getting into trying to be an advocate for people in the juvenile justice system. That is something that I want to help with because the stuff that goes on is so messed up and it’s just crazy how people can throw away babies or kids that are 15 for life.

They expect them to be monsters. That is how most kids get looked at.

I was in the halls for 15 months and I was fighting for what is called a fitness. That is where they decide if you are going to stay in juvenile court or adult court. I was 15 at the time, now I am 18. They were trying to charge me as an adult, which I was fighting for a while. There are other girls that I was with who are basically just kids. One, when I got there, she was already there for two years and she got locked up when she was 16 and she lost her fitness right away and was put in adult court. The news says one side, but actually when you meet the girl, you meet the kids that are going through it. It’s like, this is nothing like what the news said.

This is a girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, just trying to find someone who would love her. And it just got messed up along the way because no one was there to help her.

Honestly, before I got locked up I thought, they are juvenile delinquents, like what the heck! And then when I was actually put in that position, it opened my eyes to how messed up and how the world might paint us. What is sacred to me is what I think and how I see things. It’s sad that people think that kids who get locked up are monsters. It’s like no, they are kids, there are still kids in there.

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What is sacred to me is what I think and how I see things. It’s sad that people think that kids who get locked up are monsters. It’s like no, they are kids, there are still kids in there. – Taylor

I don’t practice enough, but I take piano lessons. I am learning to play a piece called, Contemplation, that my friend Glenn wrote for me. It means something to me because Glenn wrote it for me and because I can actually participate in it. It becomes part of me because it is part of my fingers and part of what I think about. – Maddie

Rogerio & Ken Rogerio Carvalheiro I was born in Canada to Portuguese immigrant parents. I grew up on a small apple orchard and found art at an early age which helped me cope with growing up in a small-minded community.

What in your life is sacred, if anything?

My soul is sacred. And I try to nourish it as much as I possibly can. I, like you, was raised with a religious background. We were Roman Catholic.

And I found Jesus at an early age. I think my interpretation of what Jesus said was very different from what other people were telling me he said, telling me what he believed, or telling me what his doctrines were. That personal relationship helped me get through a lot of torture and torment as a child growing up in a very small town, in the middle of nowhere, with some very conservative people around me. I reflected on that energy all the time and that energy kept me optimistic. I worked hard to get myself out of there to a place that was more accepting and open. Like you and everyone in our community, we even find some of that social injustice in our community.

And I often find myself reflecting on that same original relationship and it’s broadened much more. I have never been a religious person and I don’t like using the term spiritual. But through my own creative process, through design, architecture, drawing, meditating, and even walking my dog in West Hollywood, I find those moments of strength.

Like Michelle says, “When they go low, you go high.” That is sacred.

---Ken Jimerson I am 57 years old and from South Carolina. I first moved to West Hollywood in 1978.

What in your life is sacred, if anything?

By the time I was twenty, I already grew up with three different ideologies. And it was so confusing.

I just couldn’t be satisfied with it. So I just had to go outside of ideology. The first one was Southern Baptist. That was from my father’s parents. The second, by the age of ten, was Mormon. That was from my mother’s great grandmother. And the third

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was Jehovah’s Witness. So by the age of fourteen, I was so confused that I debunked it all and came up with my own personal religion. I could go to God anytime I wanted and leave out the ideology.

And I looked for wisdom. I see wisdom in a lot of things, in all religions. One thing I know for sure is that we have something in common. We all long to believe in something. I think that is where we have to start. We have a lot more in common than we do not in common. This last year was a breakthrough for me after the death of my sister and it hit me really hard. She got stuck in that ideology and it was so repressive that she died by the age of 49 and my brother the same way, 48. They died because they rejected medical treatment. Now I’m 57 thinking I’m going to drop dead any minute. But I stopped thinking that way. I realized it was their environment and their lifestyle, even though they were so critical and judgmental about my lifestyle.

And I would always have to bend my will to their will in order to have a relationship. And when I did, I did it whole heartedly. I even convinced myself that I was going to be a spiritual eunuch because I was not going to be a heterosexual and marry a woman with a lying heart. That was not going to be. I was not going to put anyone through that.

I love people too much to do that. I was with a woman one time and I loved her so much. I had to let her go. I had to tell her the truth. “I am gay.

I do love you but I don’t want to have sex with you.” And she asked me what that was like and I said, “It’s like this. It’s hard to describe but I am going to try to do my best. Having sex with you is like having sex with my sister.” And she got it. We were friends for the longest time. I came to LA from Miami, that’s where we met. She was talking about Florida. Oh my god, that water is like bath water.

We swam. She was a swimmer. She swam in the Venetian Pools. We swam nude at the beach. We saw the blue lagoon affect way before the movie came out. We were swimming nude in Miami Beach and that florescent bubble that looks like a black light, it is true. It happens naturally from the moon and it was such a beautiful experience.

I wouldn’t trade it for nothing in the world. It was like being a male mermaid. And it’s just like free.

I never done nothing like that since.

(L-R) Ken Jimerson, Rogerio Carvalheiro

Rogerio by Ken

My soul is sacred. And I try to nourish it as much as I possibly can. I, like you, was raised with a religious background. We were Roman Catholic. And I found Jesus at an early age.

I think my interpretation of what Jesus said was very different from what other people were telling me he said, telling me what he believed, or telling me what his doctrines were. – Rogerio

Ken by Rogerio

This last year was a breakthrough for me after the death of my sister and it hit me really hard.

She got stuck in that ideology and it was so repressive that she died by the age of 49 and my brother the same way, 48. They died because they rejected medical treatment. Now I’m 57 thinking I’m going to drop dead any minute. But I stopped thinking that way. I realized it was their environment and their lifestyle. – Ken

Victor & Dior Victor Ramos likes being alone. He likes to skate, read, and learn new things about the occult. He has had an out of body experience once.

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you?

Sacred Geometry. Everything is so perfect about it.

Dior Parks My name is Dior and I am 18. I have a passion for basketball. Some people “like” the sport or play “for fun.” I play to get out. By that I mean to get out of the hood. My constant dream of my family being set for life, is my motivation to be the best I can.

What in your life is your greatest source of pleasure?

Meditating and spending time with my friends. And going out exploring, being in nature.

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you?

Probably this painting that my dad has at his house of LeBron and Kobe.

Make a list of things you disliked at first but later learned to love.

Working out and drinking water. Making money.

What in your life is your greatest source of pleasure?

Probably basketball because I don’t have to think or talk. I can just put whatever I’m feeling into the sport.

Is there anything in your life that you’re trying to change?

My eating habits, my sleeping habits, and I guess I procrastinate a lot.

What have you learned this year?

How to make money without a diploma because I don’t have one.

What are your top 3 fears?

Getting stuck in a minimum wage job. Not being able to pay for school. My mom getting deported.

Is there anything in your life that you’re trying to change?

My social skills. I would like to be more social. I am a social person when I know you but if I don’t like, I won’t say something first. It’s not hostility it’s just like, I don’t know how to approach people.

What are your fears?

Getting old. Not being successful.

What have you learned this year?

I learned what I can tolerate and what I can’t tolerate. I learned the type of people I want to be around.

If you could choose a person that West Hollywood would make a statue of to memorialize, who would you choose?

I would choose LeBron because a lot of people underrate LeBron.

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Victor by Dior

Dior by Victor

(L-R) Victor Ramos, Dior Parks

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you?

Sacred Geometry. Everything is so perfect about it. – Victor

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you?

Probably this painting that my dad has at his house of LeBron and Kobe.

What in your life if your greatest source of pleasure?

Probably basketball because I don’t have to think or talk. I can just put whatever I’m feeling into the sport.

– Dior 21

Demiah & Alyse

(L-R) Demiah Parks, Alyse Emdur

Have you ever had this experience when you have a recurring nightmare over and over again?

My nightmare is a Tsunami. My nightmare is being in the sand by the ocean.

– Alyse

People always say that I look mean or that I have a natural mean look on my face.

I could have a mean look on my face but that’s just how I look.

I don’t mean to give people that look.

– Demiah

What in your life is your greatest source of pleasure?

I love to sing. My sister and I used to sing in the church choir with our grandma. I sing in the shower.

Sometimes I sing in my room when no one is around. But it’s like, I don’t want anyone else to hear.

Is there anything in your life that you are trying to change?

My attitude. I feel like I have a bad attitude but I feel like I have my attitude under control. But you know, I might come off to people sometimes as mean.

People always say that I look mean or that I have a natural mean look on my face. I could have a mean look on my face but that’s just how I look. I don’t mean to give people that look. So like, I am always staring. It is hard for me not to stare. Sometimes I could be staring at someone and they will take that as if I have an attitude. I am not meaning to do it on purpose. I am trying not to stare so people don’t think I am mean. It is a bad habit. So I am trying to be more open and let people into my life.

What have you learned this year?

Alyse Emdur is a Los Angeles based artist who likes to collaborate with people who may not consider themselves artists. Her work engages with the personal to ultimately explore larger social and political issues. She created Art To Us with Rosten Woo and the City of West Hollywood.

What is one of your biggest fears?

Demiah by Alyse

Demiah Parks My name is Demiah and I am 16. I love to sing and listen to music. My favorite thing to do is eat tacos.

I have a pit bull named Ivy and she has blue eyes.

Alyse by Demiah

Have you ever had this experience when you have a recurring nightmare over and over again? My nightmare is a Tsunami. My nightmare is being in the sand by the ocean. I grew up in Florida and unlike Los Angeles, the water is really swimmable.

It is really warm. It is one of my favorite places.

Swimming in the warm calm ocean, I just love. In my nightmare I am always wading in the water, just up to my knees or waist then suddenly there is this huge wave that takes me out and then I disappear.

Don’t let other people’s words bring you down as a person. I learned that if you walk away from certain situations, you feel better. Like say that some girl wants to address you or tries to talk bad about you.

If you walk away, it feels so much better. Because if you argue, you are giving them the reaction that they want. When you walk away, you are being the bigger person. And I feel like that’s important. My whole life, I always had girls that disliked me for no reason. Well I felt like there was no reason but I never got to know their reason. If you go to school and you see all of the kids hanging out and stuff it is always me sitting alone because I don’t like to be around a lot of people. I don’t know I am so just like, in a shell. I could let people in but I like being by myself. I enjoy my own company.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

I have recently been thinking about Iceland. It is so alien to this landscape where we live. I am particularly interested in geysers. Do you know what a geyser is? Basically it is a hole in the ground where water squirts up. It could squirt as high as the second or third or fourth floor. And it is a natural occurrence. I did an art project called Geyser Girls, where I made a waiting room at a geyser in the desert in Utah and people camped out with me for three days and we waited for the geyser to go off because it only goes off about once a week and no one knows when it will happen. It went off in the dark at 4:50am on our third night and we were all sleeping in our tents. It woke us up and we heard this loud sound like phka phshe phka phshe. And it was this amazing spiritual thing to just watch the earth throwing water out. In Iceland, there are a lot of geyser. I would like to see them.

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Catherine & Chris

Catherine Lee When I was young I wanted to live my life as if my entire being was a work of art and I finally feel ready to embrace that goal again.

What in your like if sacred?

Right now, family is sacred. My boyfriend who I have been with for six years, his father just passed away. I have been touched so much by the family and friends who were really there for us. More so now, I realize how important it is to have a support system. I have felt it before but never so much as now, when going through an experience of loss. It almost brings tears to my eyes to think about all of the friends who stayed with us for literally 12 hours a day in the hospital. As I have gotten older, it takes a lot of effort to keep up with friendships. There is my job, my relationship, all of my responsibilities, and the things that I want to do. I am trying to make more of a special time to spend with my family and friends. At least once a week I am going to see my mom and have dinner with her. It feels more urgent now than it has ever felt before.

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Catherine Lee

What have you learned this year?

I went to the Women’s March. I didn’t expect there to be so many people there; my mind was completely blown away. There were thousands upon thousands of people. To see that in one little space was mind blowing. In the past eight years I have not been political at all. Since the election and just seeing all of those people out there sparked something inside of me, like maybe I can make a difference. Or maybe any small action that I do can create something bigger than myself. Before I was more self-defeating like, even if I do this little thing, what difference will it make. Part of seeing all of those people at the Women’s March, each person was just one person but all of us together were a mass of hundreds of thousands of people. That was something that really sparked something in my mind.

Christopher Gonzalez

Christopher Gonzalez likes looking at new sneakers and computer hardware to buy. He enjoys watching science and quick fact videos. He is hoping to have a career in Computer Science and Technology.

I drew a bird flying from its nest to represent me moving out of the house and being on my own.

What is your greatest source of pleasure?

I love shoes, the new up and coming sneaker.

These are called Nike Foamposites. These were originally released in 1997. Not this pair specifically but the model came out in 1997. The basketball player, Mike Bibby, he was a hall of famer on the NBA. He originally wore them and then another player, Penny Hardaway, he was in the Orlando Magic’s and he brought the shoe up. This is my favorite shoe. I actually take good care of them. I want to get into collecting more but the problem with these is that their retail price is $250. I had to save for these. You can’t have everything because there are so many that come out and they are all at the same price. I have like 5 other pairs of sneakers.

I go with my dad sometimes to work. He is a contractor. It is beneficial because I can get money and I also learn so in the future if I have my own house, I can do things myself.

What is your dream, what do you want to do?

I always wanted to be in the field of science, a computer scientist or an Astronomer because I love space. Late at night when I can’t sleep, I watch space videos. Like how are black holes formed?

What is a Nebula? But in 10th grade, I grabbed an astronomy book. I opened the middle page and I was like never mind. It is a lot of math. I guess you can’t know unless you try.

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Chris by Catherine

Catherine by Chris

More so now, I realize how important it is to have a support system. I have felt it before but never so much as now, when going through an experience of loss. It almost brings tears to my eyes to think about all of the friends who stayed with us for literally 12 hours a day in the hospital. – Catherine I love shoes, the new up and coming sneaker. These are called Nike Foamposites. These were originally released in 1997.

Not this pair specifically but the model came out in 1997. The basketball player, Mike Bibby, he was a hall of famer on the NBA. He originally wore them and then another player, Penny Hardaway, he was in the Orlando Magic’s and he brought the shoe up. This is my favorite shoe. I actually take good care of them. I want to get into collecting more but the problem with these is that their retail price is $250. – Chris

Bill & Jorge

Jorge by Bill

Bilguun Badral My name is Bill. I go to West Hollywood Community Day School and am 16.5 years old.

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you.

Something that is meaningful to me is this necklace that my dad gave me when I was younger. I keep it with me all of the time. It is round and silver, not gold. I don’t wear it because I had it when I was smaller so it’s small for me now so I just keep it as a memory.

If you could choose a person that West Hollywood would make a statue of to memorialize, who would you choose?

The person I would choose is my principal, Karen Cheval. I used to go to Fairfax High but I messed up. I was behind on credits so I came to Karen’s high school, West Hollywood Community Day School and ever since I came here, I have been getting credits and she has been helping me a lot.

Describe something that you at first disliked but later learned to love.

School. I didn’t really like school because of the teachers, the way they think they can control you.

They think they have the control. But over here at West Hollywood Community Day School, it’s different, the teachers understand me.

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Bill by Jorge

Jorge Mele has a degree in music and he loves living.

What have you learned this year so far?

One of the things that I learned this year, I don’t want to get political, I don’t want to but I kind of have to because it influenced me greatly since the last election on November 8th all the way to now.

What I am learning, is that I have to have a lot of patience. There are a lot of things that I don’t like.

You know there is a lot that you can do but there is a lot that you can’t do at all. And I don’t like the way that certain things are going on in this three weeks in government. I see so many negative things, negative stereotypes. I don’t like discrimination. All of this hate and all of this. That is something that I don’t like and I am trying to do my little things to change. But the most important thing, Bill, that I learned, is to have a lot of patience with the things that I can’t change right away.

(L-R) Jorge Mele, Bilguun Badral

Chloe & Marisol Chloe Lee My name is Chloe and I am 15. I love to rap and tell stories through my music. I am a very soft spoken person but you will love me once you get to know me.

What are your top three fears?

Spiders. Being abandoned. That is pretty scary for me. I have this fear that people are going to walk out of my life and not come back. And probably being out in the ocean, far, far in the ocean by myself. If I swim out far enough, I get nervous and I just have to come back.

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you.

Music. I make music. I rap. Sounds mean a lot to me and quality of music. I have been making music since I was in the third grade. Last year I started taking it serious and I am kinda getting more into it now. Growing up, where I live, music has always been a big thing. My mom and grandma listen to a lot of music, and my aunt and uncle. My cousin is my biggest inspiration for music. He makes beats.

He is a producer. I started downloading mix tapes really young. Like I wasn’t into lipstick and make up, I was into hip hop.

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Marisol Sanchez is a proud aunt, a history lover, and an adventurer. She loves swimming and vegan chili fries on the weekends.

What is your greatest source of pleasure?

Recently I have been more and more surprised by swimming. Swimming has been an outlet for me to just tune out the world and focus on my breast strokes. That has been a great source of pleasure.

For some reason, knowing that I can like drown at any moment if I don’t take the right stroke, freaks me out but at the same time makes me just focus, if that makes sense. Just focusing on my breathing has been super satisfying.

What are your fears?

I am really afraid of not accomplishing what I want to do. I work with a lot of older adults. When we get into deep conversations, they are like, don’t regret not doing something. Take action now and live life. Like don’t doubt yourself, just do it because we have a lot of regrets and wish we had the time but we don’t have the time anymore. For me that is a fear. Like, am I doing what I need to do to make myself happy? If not, then I need to change something. If I can’t change something, then I need to change my attitude.

Marisol by Chloe

Chloe by Marisol

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Chloe Lee

For some reason, knowing that I can like drown at any moment if I don’t take the right stroke freaks me out but at the same time makes me just focus, if that makes sense. Just focusing on my breathing has been super satisfying. – Marisol

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Marisol Sanchez

I have this fear that people are going to walk out of my life and not come back. And probably being out in the ocean, far, far in the ocean by myself. If I swim out far enough, I get nervous and I just have to come back. – Chloe

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Ken & Andrew (L-R) Ken Jimerson, Andrew Campbell

Ken Jimerson I am 57 years old and from South Carolina. I first moved to West Hollywood in 1978.

What are some of you fears?

Growing up in school my anxiety was so high.

I could not sit still. I had to worry about lunch because that was the only meal I got. That food was smelling so good. And I thought about the beating I would get at home if I didn’t get the house cleaned up, or didn’t do something that I was supposed to do, or didn’t do right, or forgot to do. I got chucked until I passed out. There are so many things that happened that people say I should forget about but it haunts me in my dreams and I wake up in the middle of the night and I journal about it, trying to get it out of my head, get it out of my soul, trying to get it out of my heart.

The only thing I can do is change my environment and lifestyle and that is what I did. And that is why I am here. I am grateful for having people like you to talk to. West Hollywood has changed me a lot. I just moved my healthcare and everything to the LA LGBT Center this month. I go to the Village too. I need to get more involved but I am so scared for some reason. I don’t know, I have just been in the house for so long. That is why I am doing this. Because I have become hermitized and it’s not good. Being around people energizes me. I love the laughter of children playing. I love the sound of people practicing their instruments.

The background noise is just as important to me as what I am watching. When I was here in Los Angeles the first time in 1978, I got my GED at North Hollywood High School. I had a job downtown working in a computer room. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was a two-hour bus ride.

I would get on one bus, do part of my homework.

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Get on the next bus, do part of my homework. Ride back home, do the same thing. And it seemed like I could do my homework with all of that noise and racket a lot easier than I could do at home. I keep telling people, I got my education, my high school diploma, my GED, on the M-T-A. ---Andrew Campbell lives in “south-central” WeHo and has been a resident of West Hollywood for 25 years.

If you could choose a person that West Hollywood would make a statue of to memorialize, who would you choose?

There are so many people in West Hollywood who have had such a lasting impact. Perhaps one of the most fascinating people is Ivy Bottini. She has been a long time West Hollywood resident. She has been very active in the community. I think she is in her late 80’s maybe or her early 90’s. She was one of the original founders of NOW, National Organization of Women in New York. She kind of got booted out because she was a lesbian. She is an artist and an advocate. I know her more as a visual artist. She is actually dealing with macular degeneration right now which is that eye thing that makes it harder to see out of the center of your vision. But her artwork is still amazing. It is very bold. And I think she has been one of these people who has really led the charge in so many different ways, for social justice and for equal rights.

Ken by Andrew

Andrew by Ken

Dawn & Lauren

Lauren by Dawn

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Dawn by Lauren

(L-R) Lauren Gomez Diaz, Dawn Moreno-Freedman

Dawn Moreno-Freedman is a West Hollywood Arts Commissioner.

If you could choose a person that West Hollywood would make a statue of to memorialize, who would you choose?

I think I would want a statue of Frida Kahlo made to memorialize her somewhere in the City of West Hollywood. And maybe I would even turn it into a fountain. Frida Kahlo lived in a great deal of pain.

You know physical, mental, emotional. She was pretty broad-minded. She had a lot of lovers, both men and woman, and famous lovers, and she was determined to be an artist.

Lauren Gomez Diaz is 17 years old and she loves music. Her favorite bands are Foster the People and Twenty One Pilots. Her strengths are creating music and art. She is interested in learning about different cultures and meeting new people.

What in your life is sacred, if anything?

My family and my friends. I have two sisters and one brother. I only live with my mom. And my dad, I don’t really talk to him as much. The last time I saw him was like the beginning of this month. But I don’t really have a close relationship with him.

I live with my mom and she is a single working mother. If something where to happen to my mom, like I honestly don’t know what I would do. I don’t think I am able to live without her. Even though there are times that we argue and I feel like I don’t want to be near her, like, I still love her. She is my mom at the end of the day and she gave birth to me. She just deserves the best.

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Karen & Abel & Milleon Karen Cheval is an artist educator. Currently she is the Principal at West Hollywood Community Day School. She has found her niche as a mosaic artist.

She also enjoys story telling.

Abel Hernandez moved to West Hollywood in 1994 from Baja California. He is a former ballet dancer who got his start at the age of 13 in an experimental theater company.

Describe a work of art that is meaningful to you.

We went to Acapulco. We went to this artist’s house. He was imprisoned in the Holocaust in Germany. His house is right on the hills like a cliff hanger. We got to his house, it was so beautiful. His wife is Mexican and he is from Poland. He talked about how he was incarcerated by the Nazis. He said a guardian angel came to him in the night and helped him escape. In his house, he had these big wire sculptures of what these angels looked like that helped him escape. And I was like wow, I love this. They had a lady there that was their house keeper. I was talking to her. Most of the people don’t speak to the help. But I was talking to her and her little girl because I thought her little girl was so pretty. And I was like, “Hola Senorita.” And she was saying, “I can’t talk to you.” And I was saying, “No, it’s okay.” And then I took a picture with her and I made a portrait of her, me, and her daughter.

When I see the people that are the help, I talk to them more. Because I feel like you are supporting someone to be who they are. My mom and dad were a butler and a maid of Paris Hilton’s great grandpa, Conrad Hilton. I remember they were very nice. My mom used to tell us stories. They came from the South and they migrated to the North and then blacks migrated out here.

Make a list of things you disliked at first but later learned to love.

Myself. I used to not like myself but then I learned to know me. I learned to love me. I didn’t have a choice but to go for the right feeling always. And that feeling is that I am connected and I love that.

What are your top three fears?

My fears are being old and not being able to take care of myself. Someone has to come and change me. Someone has to turn me over in the bed.

Someone has to feed me. I would rather be dead.

I was telling my family, “Do not resuscitate.” I have to fill out that paper. However, I am going to tell you something funny. Recently, I felt like I was having chest pains. I said, “Oh my god, I am having a heart attack.” I called my friend and I said, “Remember I told you I don’t want to be resuscitated, I change that. I do want to be resuscitated.” She said, “What is wrong with you?” I said, “I think I am having a heart attack.” I was so scared to go to sleep. They said, “Oh what happened to your do not resuscitate letter?”

----

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What are your top three fears?

My fear right now is getting old. I am getting old and that is one of the things that I must love as well. That is my fear but I am working with it. And I am learning to love it too. And to walk alone with it and learn something else. And to leave things behind that are not for me anymore. My other fear is to be 80 and to be broke.

If you could choose a person that West Hollywood would make a statue of to memorialize, who would you choose?

Something to represent everyone. Or maybe a dog because dogs are very friendly and dogs have a lot to show us, to tell us, and we need to pay attention to them. Dogs can teach us, oh my god. We know very little about them. So I think a dog or another animal that represents the friend of the human being. Or a tree. A simple tree is so important. They are sensitive. Don’t make a statue of a human. We are monsters. We are very particular animals.

Milleon McCullough My name is Milleon and my mom named me Milleon because I was born in 2001 and one day I will make a million dollars.

What are your top three fears?

I found out the other day when I went to the hospital that I have, what is it called when you wake up in your sleep and your heart starts pounding? I think it’s called anxiety. Yeah, they told me I have anxiety. I think it’s because once I got older, my grandma who used to walk me to school and stuff, she had diabetes and she passed away about two years ago. She was real close to me.

When my mom goes to work, she spends the night at people’s houses because she does in-home care.

So I would stay with my grandma most of the time.

We were really close. I guess when I am sleeping, I think too much about my whole situation and everything. It is really scary waking up when my heart is beating so hard.

In his house, he had these big wire sculptures of what these angels looked like that helped him escape. And I was like wow, I love this. – Karen

Abel Hernandez

I found out the other day when I went to the hospital that I have, what is it called when you wake up in your sleep and your heart starts pounding? I think it’s called anxiety. – Milleon Karen Cheval

My fear right now is getting old. I am getting old and that is one of the things that I must love as well. – Abel

Milleon McCullough

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Karen by Abel

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Abel by Karen

West Hollywood by Milleon

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Mayaly & Michael

Michael by Mayaly Mayaly Ejcalon I am 17 years old. I like going out for walks.

What is your greatest source of pleasure?

My mom. She is always there for me even though I am always messing up. I am always doing things that I shouldn’t be doing. She won’t hit me.

Because you know most parents, like Hispanic parents, like the first thing they do is they like hit their kids. My mom, first she talks to me, and my dad comes too and they give me a lecture instead of the hitting part. And they always make me realize, they open my eyes to why I shouldn’t be doing the things I do. They are always there for me, especially my mom. I just really love my mom.

Seeing my mom happy makes me happy and I try to make her happy.

Make a list of things you disliked at first but later learned to love.

I went camping. When I got there, at first I wanted to go home. I got really sad because I live in LA and it was in Sacramento. It was the first time that I went someplace with a group of people that I barely knew and I was scared. The first day, we got into the cabins and we were putting our stuff away, I was laying down in bed and I felt like crying. But we started doing activities and I started liking it. It was a week but it felt like forever. Towards the end of the week, I ended up really liking the place and I wanted to stay for another week but had to leave.

We got to get on these swings. I think they are higher than this building. We would just go, up, up, and then they would let you go. It was like a swing at the park but way higher. You would have to cut the rope. You would get on with someone else.

The person sitting on the left would have to cut the rope and then you would just go flying.

Mayaly by Michael Michael Parker is a Los Angeles based artist who once served the City of West Hollywood as an EMT on an ambulance. He made all of the Art To Us photographs. He teaches Sculpture and 3-D Foundation at California State University Long Beach.

What are your top three fears?

The things that keep me up at night sometimes…

Nuclear war. A mushroom cloud. Hatred in general because people are ignorant and don’t reach out to get to know each other. That is a fear. I fear the oceans rising. I fear climate change. I feel like people my age, we have all been apathetic for so many years and now we have this new president who is a crazy person. That is scary.

Have you been living here your whole life?

I grew up in New York City on the 14th floor of an apartment building. In the 1980 US census, my zip code 10025 where I grew up as a kid, was literally the most diverse zip code economically, racially, and religiously in NYC, in the whole country, and because America is the most diverse country in the whole world, it was probably the most diverse neighborhood in the whole world. I think it really gave me a very open understanding of difference and the importance of difference. And the importance of thinking that there is not only one way. And if someone has a problem at some point in their life, that doesn’t mean they are bad for the rest of their life. I got to know rich kids, poor kids, middle class kids. I got to know everyone. And I realized how many policies are unequal.

I went camping.

When I got there, at first I wanted to go home. I got really sad because I live in LA and it was in Sacramento. It was the first time that I went someplace with a group of people that I barely knew and I was scared. The first day, we got into the cabins and we were putting our stuff away, I was laying down in bed and I felt like crying. But we started doing activities and I started liking it.

– Mayaly

(L-R) Michael Parker, Mayaly Ejcalon

The things that keep me up at night sometimes…

Nuclear war.

A mushroom cloud.

– Michael

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Michael & Eli

(L-R) Michael Tyndal, Eli Manzanero

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Michael Tyndal is verbose.

Describe a close friend or your oldest friend.

This close friend is actually my oldest friend.

When I first saw him, I didn’t think much about what he looked like. He just looked like a student with glasses but then afterwards I noticed that he resembled Christ. You know the pictures that are normally shown. And I discovered that not only did he resemble Christ but he really is a very spiritual person. That was my main attraction to him because I always thought of my own self as a very spiritual person. I discovered that he had a lot of the same qualities that I had. He cared about people. What fascinated me about him was that he seemed to give more of himself to people than I did. I remember one time, I was visiting him in San Diego and it must have been a gay pride celebration. A group of us were going out in the evening and there were about 4 or 5 of us.

Someone stopped him to talk to him so we all stood by waiting for this conversation to end. It took such a long time and I thought gee, this must be a very personal friend. I don’t seem to know who this is. After waiting for close to an hour, he then came up to us and I said, “Who was that?”

And he said, “I don’t know. He stopped to ask me for some money.” I said, “That was a total stranger and you kept us waiting all of that time?” And I thought wow, I would never do that. I was really amazed. Wow how strange that he would spend so much time with someone he doesn’t know. But I thought again, this is almost Christ-like that he is willing to devote himself completely to other people. And that is just how he still is. And that is the profession he choose in life. He is a therapist and helps people. I think that is maybe the nicest thing you can do, to show that kind of interest in others.

I myself spent a lot of time trying to help friends.

A lot of them became involved in drugs which I wasn’t conscious of initially. And that is something that I had a problem dealing with because I personally never liked drugs. I had a sister that did get involved with drugs and it just destroyed her life. The idea that anyone would consciously take something that they couldn’t control and that would destroy them was something that I couldn’t really understand. But I found that happened quite a bit and I found myself trying to help people get through things like that. I am far too old to deal with that now. It sounds like a cop out but as you get older, you find that energy is everything. And I don’t have that kind of energy any more.

Eli Manzanero is a non-binary first generation Latino student at UCLA who is also a cultural affairs intern for the Arts Division of the City of WeHo. They go by the pronouns, “they/them/theirs” only.

Describe a close friend or your oldest friend?

I would have to say, although unusual, I actually have this pet bird that I grew up with. He is still alive. I don’t know how he is still alive but he is.

I got him when I was six years old. I was at a flea market with my mom. When I was little, I enjoyed saving money and I saved up my birthday money.

This was back when they were not cracking down on selling birds at flea markets. We came across these cockatiels. And there were two kinds that they were selling. The traditionally beautiful birds, they were yellow and had rosy cheeks. And then there were another group of birds that were priced at a lower value that were mostly grey and also yellow with rosy cheeks. But they were seen as less desirable. I was like, “Mom, I want to get one of the birds that is less desirable.” I chose what I thought was the ugliest one because I thought no one was going to buy him and I felt bad for that bird. I was like, wow this bird is going to stay in this flea market forever. No one is ever going to want to buy this bird. She thought that I wanted the bird because it was cheaper. But I was like, “No, this bird needs to be saved.” I named him Chikorita.

I thought Chikorita was a girl but Chikorita ended up being a boy and the dad to three birds. I learned a lot through this bird. I went through a lot with him. He was there with me through it all. Despite me having gotten him at an adult age because usually when birds are already adults they are hard to tame. This bird is very gentle but would bite everyone in my family except me. He bonded with me. I am worried that he is going to pass soon. He would always play with my hair and sing to me. I would let him walk around on my back. I would do homework and my bird would be right there keeping me company. I consider him to be one of my best friends. He did give me a sense of company and like a sense of relating because I was an only child.

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Eli by Michael

I was like, “Mom, I want to get one of the birds that is less desirable.”

I chose what I thought was the ugliest one because I thought no one was going to buy him and I felt bad for that bird. I was like, wow this bird is going to stay in this flea market forever. – Eli

Michael by Eli

This close friend is actually my oldest friend. When I first saw him, I didn’t think much about what he looked like. He just looked like a student with glasses but then afterwards I noticed that he resembled Christ. – Michael

WeHo Arts Within the City of West Hollywood’s Economic Development Department sits its City-staffed Arts Division and the City Council-appointed seven-member Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission. Together the Division and the Commission become WeHo Arts and provide both oversight and delivery of vibrant arts and cultural programming throughout West Hollywood.

About WeHo Arts: The Plan WeHo Arts is engaged in anticipating the future through a community-based cultural planning process – WeHo Arts: The Plan.

The Plan’s goals are to: • Celebrate the City’s distinctive artistic and cultural identities.

• Identify and commemorate West Hollywood’s support and advancement of the arts.

• Articulate a shared vision for the future: securing the position of the arts and culture at the heart of our creative city.

Since April 2016, WeHo Arts has carried out extensive efforts to reach the city’s residents and visitors: popping up at events; hosting small group discussions and larger conversations; and leading activities throughout the city to hear the community’s visions for the future of WeHo Arts – big dreams, small tweaks, and everything in between. Art to Us is a part of The Plan’s efforts to reach new populations and learn from these individuals through arts-based contributions.

Preceding the implementation of Art to Us, WeHo Arts reviewed and selected qualifications of social practice artists from across Los Angeles before deciding on the artists Alyse Emdur and Rosten Woo. Emdur and Woo worked closely with WeHo Arts and community groups during 2016 to design and experiment with the project. Finalizing a format, Art to Us was designed as a series of workshops that could result in a new approach to making civic art.

Art to Us Goals: • Bring diverse West Hollywood groups together to work creatively on a shared project.

• Allow the project to cumulatively and organically unfold via engagements with groups.

• Provide a structure that gives participants creative autonomy but with a group purpose.

• Provide a structure for the community to work together on an artwork and spend creative time with other people.

• Engage community in switching the paradigm from being consumers to being an active group of cultural producers.

Art to Us Process: • July – December 2016: Emdur + Woo, WeHo Arts, and community groups – West Hollywood Community Day School (WHCDS) and West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (WHCHC) – work together to develop the project concept.

• January – February 2017: Emdur + Woo lead three hands-on art-making workshops with small groups from the WHCDS and WHCHC. The workshops explore the artistic and cultural identities of participants, and articulate a shared vision for the future of art in West Hollywood. Participants record intergenerational interviews and craft original works for the final publication and installation.

• March 5, 2017: Art to Us takes place – an immersive one-day art installation at Kings Road Park.

• Postscript: The Art to Us publication lives on with participants and community members. The experiences of participants, community partners, and Emdur and Woo are reflected in WeHo Arts: The Plan.

ABOUT THE PARTNERS: WHCDS West Hollywood Community Day School is a secondary, small learning community that emphasizes social adjustment and personal growth while personalizing learning to support all students in meeting the District’s achievement goals.

We are committed to educating all students to their maximum potential.

WHCHC West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation’s mission is to develop safe, decent and affordable housing for people with limited income, including those with special needs, which enhances the community and supports economic diversity.

We envision sustainable communities of healthy, diverse neighborhoods within the greater Los Angeles area.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: Alyse Emdur Alyse Emdur’s practice is inspired by the individuals and communities that she makes work with and for. Her projects empower these participants to see themselves in an alternative way and to reflect on their own unique talents, values, and social capital. Since 2005, she has produced projects that unearth the invisible, marginalized, and under-represented and ask viewers to consider the relationships between these individuals and public institutions. Her videos, workshops, and photography-based projects present people presenting themselves within these systems. She engages with the personal to ultimately explore larger social and political issues. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New York Times, Art in America, Art Papers Magazine, the Atlantic, the Huffington Post, BBC News, Cabinet Magazine, Foam Magazine, and Vrij Nederland Magazine.

Rosten Woo Rosten Woo works in long-term collaboration with grassroots and non-profit organizations to illuminate the politics of places and the mechanics of large systems. He produces public artwork for organizations like Clockshop, California State Parks, the city of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County. His work has been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and various piers, public housing developments, tugboats, shopping malls, and parks. He is interested in illuminating large systems and helping individuals participate in group decision-making.

He has more than a decade of experience designing creative projects within the context of urban planning, government bureaucracy, and community organizing, and has a distinct approach to creating collaborations that align participants who hold extremely diverse viewpoints and skillsets.

About WeHo Arts: The City of West Hollywood delivers a broad array of arts programs through WeHo Arts @wehoarts – the City’s Arts Division and the City’s Arts & Cultural Affairs Commission – including: Art on the Outside/Public Art, Summer Sounds, Winter Sounds, WeHo Reads, Free Theatre in the Parks, Arts Grants for Nonprofit Arts Organizations, Library Exhibits and Programming, One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, Artist Opportunities and more.