Alejandra Hernandez's Art
See pictures of Hernandez's Art both for LA-Artist.com and things she makes on her own.
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The budget cuts in Los Angeles have eliminated a lot of funding for school art programs, which helped kids and teenagers express themselves in meaningful ways. In order to help solve this problem and allow all types of artists to be published, high school teacher and documentary filmmaker Oliver Shipley founded LA-Artist.com.
LA-Artist.com is a creative space where artists of all calibers can create art on a small, white card, and then mail it back to Shipley who in turn publishes it on the website.
Shipley recognized a problem with traditional art exhibition.
"Basically what it comes down to is money," he said. "Who has the money to be an artist and to pursue a creative art form and to push to be shown in museums and galleries and to be written about… It's privilege, artist privilege."
Shipley wanted to use the website to change that pattern and in 2009 launched LA-Artist.com. "The idea of the website was to create something that everyone could have a space to show their work and contribute toward a time and place in Los Angeles history," he said.
Not surprisingly, many of the people who take advantage of the platform are youth, and some are even Oliver's own digital journalism students.
Bijan Ross, a sophomore at Frederick Douglas Adams High School and Shipley's former student, said that the artwork she is most proud of is one that she made for LA-Artist.com.
"It was a photo of this girl… and she was crying an ocean… I just expressed her emotion in paint," Ross explained.
Vermont Square resident Alejandra Hernandez, a college student and frequent artist on the site, discovered the website when she was still in high school.
"I actually found the card at my school where I was going," Hernandez said. "I found it, and I submitted it, and I wanted to get more involved."
Hernandez reached out to Shipley, and now she passes out cards to young artists in her neighborhood. She has seen first-hand that just encouraging someone to use their after-school time to draw can make a positive impact.
"I actually came across this guy, and he was in a gang, and I told him you know you can express yourself through this [LA-Artist.com], and he was like yeah I'm going to do it," Hernandez said. "I'm hoping that made him open up his mind that he was willing to open up his mind to art and send it."
However, online sites such as LA-Artist.com don't provide the same benefits as having art programs in school because youth who submit cards often times don't have a mentor or a peer group to support them.
Hernandez, who is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology, hopes to one day start a non-profit to give art to students the way a high school teacher inspired her when she was younger.
"I had a mentor. She was this teacher who did a lot of sculpture, and she did a lot of good things, and I took that from a lot teachings" Hernandez said. "I want to create a non-profit organization where they [dropouts and school students] can go there and be creative in the arts. The place will be safe for them."
The point of art for both Hernandez and Shipley is the same though - to get artists, especially young artists, to express themselves and think in different ways.
"I think it definitely does have an impact," Shipley said. "It gives them time to reflect on the media and to create their own media for a reason, for a purpose."
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