Today we’d like to introduce you to Sandy Rodriguez.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sandy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am a Los Angeles artist, I was raised in San Diego, Tijuana, and Los Angeles. I worked as an art educator in museums and community arts organizations for 20 years. In 2016 I left my job in the education department of the J Paul Getty Museum to give my studio and civic art practice my full attention. As I worked to support local arts organizations’ abilities to serve communities, I found those critical advisors and mentors whose encouragement is crucial to success.. I found that there are no shortcuts. Do the work, pay your dues and trust that something meaningful will all come back to you.
I recently had my first solo museum exhibition, “Codex Rodriguez-Mondragon at Riverside Art Museum while my first Mapa de Los Angeles was on view at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and banners of recent works were hanging at the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County. It was a packed final quarter of 2018, but all of that came together after years of work and relationship-building
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The main challenge in the past few years has been the toxic political climate. I need to stay focused on the joy of making the work, and it can be difficult when your news alerts are “Child Detention Centers” “Los Angeles Police Shootings”
I do a lot of research while working on my paintings. For example, during one of my recent projects, “Mapa de Los Angeles- For the 21 Angelinos Killed by Police,” which was on view at the Municipal Art Gallery, it was especially challenging to read the about our neighbors being killed across the city in the LA Times Homicide report. They post a picture, describe the incident, then family and friends leave comments about them. To learn that more than a third of the officer involved killings across our state occur in Los Angeles each year is intense. When I finished the map, 21 had been killed and, by the time I did the public talk it was 35. I just checked, and there two more for a total of 37 people killed by police in 2018. I read their names during an artist talk recently at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. https://homicide.latimes.com/officer_involved/true/year/2018
Rony Josue Parras-Mendez, age 18- Valley Glen
Jose Lemus, age 57- Azuza
Christopher Deandre Mitchell age 23-Torrance
Martin Lopez age 24- Bell Gardens
Albert Ramon Dorsey age 30-Hollywood
Ivan Pena age 42- East Los Angeles
Fernando Cruz age 18- East Los Angeles
Rene Herrera age 39- East Los Angeles
Vanessa Marquez age 49-South Pasadena
Richard Mendoza age 32-North Hills
Michael Harrison age 30-Culver City
Anthony Daniel Vargas age 21-Los Angeles
Daniel Anthony Valdez age 70 Central-Alameda
Sergio Ricardo Acosta age 24-Redondo Beach
Carmelo Pizarro Jr. age 22- Pico Rivera
Rodney Lee Hunter Jr. age 27 – Pomona
Javier Desantiago age 31 – Inglewood
Elizabeth Michele Tollison, age 49- Van Nuys
Guillermo Perez, age 32-Van Nuys
Nicolas Moncada, age 29- was shot and killed in Whittier
Omar Magana, age 34-Boyle Heights
Juan Carlos Perez-Victor, age 19-Torrance
Bryan Alexander Rodriguez, age 29-Pacoima
Jose Chavez, age 25- South Park
Kenneth Lewis Ross Jr., age 25- Gardena
Grechario Tyzavian Mack, age 30- Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza mall
Daniel Joseph Carver, age 29- Winnetka
Manuel Anthony Borrego, age 40- El Monte,
Donald Douglas Lee MacFarlane, age 53- Long Beach
Santos Eris Nunez-Garcia, age 31-Gramercy Park
Cesar Bautista, age 37- East Los Angeles
Anthony Jacob “AJ” Weber age 16 Westmont
Shalun Dique Smith, age 21, Palmdale
Primitivo Macias-Rodriguez, age 46- Florence,
Vahram Kesablyan, age 55-Shadow Hills
Andy Le Vo, age 35,-Long Beach
Another different kind of challenge is trusting yourself and figuring out how to structure your time as an independent artist. I found someone to whom I would be accountable for my time and work plans before I left the security of my job at the Getty. I worked regularly over the first 18 months with this friend who served as a coach. We identified daily and weekly obstacles, goals, and challenges that arose and strategized solutions. Walking away from a salary & benefits can be scary after fifteen years, but our weekly phone check-ins helped me to remember that this was a strategic decision and a calculated risk..
Finding ways to recharge is essential, and so I take a quarterly study trip to diverse floristic regions in the US Southwest where I walk in contested land and get to know the plants and other inhabitants. I come back to the studio refocused and ready to do more research. I learn what I can about the plants from historic and currents texts, and process them for color, food, and medicine. Lastly, I make the paintings and integrate the plant-based colorant into the work to let the material support the idea.
What should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My artwork investigates the methods and materials of painting across cultures and histories. My most recent work includes the Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón, a collection of maps and series of paintings about the intersections of history, color, medicine, and cultura. My landscapes capture moments of transformation in the social, political and cultural landscape of Los Angeles, with a focus on themes of resistance, persistence and cultural regeneration.
My works are activated through artist demonstrations, workshops, they bring people together to create art, share stories, family histories and strengthen communities.
I am most proud of the national recognition from the Americans for the Arts for my work at with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and Martin Luther King Recuperative Care Center this past year. I was awarded an artist in residence at the facility, working with the Department of Health Services to develop and implement an art program that helped support patient transition into housing. I am also beyond honored to have been awarded the 2018-2019 COLA Award by The City of Los Angeles, and with their generous support I have created an epic new map of the City of Los Angeles that measures nine feet square. I hope to see you all art our opening on May 19, 2019 from 2- 5 p.m. at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.studiosandyrodriguez.com
- Email: studiosandyrodriguez@gmail.com
- Instagram: @studio.sandyrodriguez
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StudioSandyRodriguez
- Twitter @SRodriguez_Art
For a behind the scenes just published video check out a recent profile on LATimes
Image Credit:
Studio portrait by Rafael Cardenas 2019
Sandy Rodriguez
Mapa de la Región Fronteriza de Alta y Baja Califas, 2017
Hand-processed dyes and watercolor from native plants and earth pigments on amate paper,
47”w x 94.5” h
JP Morgan Chase Art Collection. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
Detail from Mapa de la Región Fronteriza de Alta y Baja Califas, 2017
JPMorgan Chase Art Collection. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
Nopalli – Opuntia basilaris, 2017
Hand-processed dyes and watercolor from native plants and earth pigments on amate paper
15.33”w x 22.75” h
JPMorgan Chase Art Collection. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
Sauco- Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea 2018
Hand-processed dyes and watercolor from native plants and earth pigments on amate paper
15.33”w x 22.75” h
Collection of the artist. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
Mapa de Los Angeles- For the 37 Angelinos killed by police in 2018
Hand-processed dyes and watercolor from native plants and earth pigments on amate paper
94.5” w x h 47”
Collection of the artist. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
Detail from Mapa de Los Angeles- For the 37 Angelinos killed by police in 2018
Hand-processed dyes and watercolor from native plants and earth pigments on amate paper
Collection of the artist. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
De las Señales y Pronosticós and I.C.E. Raids de Califas, 2018
Hand-processed dyes and watercolor from native plants and earth pigments on amate paper
47” w x 94.5” h
Collection of the artist. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
Detail from De las Señales y Pronosticós and I.C.E. Raids de Califas, 2018
Hand-processed dyes and watercolor from native plants and earth pigments on amate paper
Collection of the artist. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
De las Señales y Pronosticós and I.C.E. Raids de Califas, 2018
Hand-processed dyes and watercolor from native plants and earth pigments on amate paper
47” w x 94.5” h
Collection of the artist. Photo by J6 Creative
Sandy Rodriguez
Detail from De las Señales y Pronosticós and I.C.E. Raids de Califas, 2018
Collection of the artist. Photo by J6 Creative
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