Long Beach Airport

Ink Series #1
Jesus Quiroz
 

The collaboration of Jesus Quiroz and Leonardo Moleiro, a Pasadena based artist, ignited the flame for reinterpreting the Able ARTS Work (AAW) annual CORE show. The two were both participants of the AAW Weekend Warrior Residency at Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles in the winter of 2019. During their residency, they worked side by side, exchanging ideas and skills, and creating opportunities to learn from one another. At the time, Quiroz was working on a series of garden drawings while Moleiro often painted abstract geometric figures. Each artist would often critique, provide feedback, or a word of positive encouragement on works in progress.

The artists took on a pen-pal style collaborative process due to distance. Quiroz began paintings that Moleiro would then complete. In this pen-pal style process, a happy accident was revealed. Moleiro had unknowingly been given Quiroz’s solo work for the exhibit rather than the pieces meant for the collaboration. Quiroz took this news in stride and created more solo work. Leo combined their styles in a way that honored Quiroz’s artwork without overtaking it. He found the perfect balance to complement Quiroz in this most unusual collaboration. This “happy accident” exemplifies what the collaborative process is truly all about.

Flowers Sky Snow
Jesus Quiroz

La Abejera
Jesus Quiroz  and Leonardo Moleiro

Julianna Gallardo, Tran Nguyen and other Resident Artists of ART Center came together in collaboration with Lawrence Yun to create these two vibrant floral masterpieces. Often in collaboration, one artist’s work can become dominant, but that is not the case here. Each artist respected the others’ talents and let those talents shine. AAW Resident Artist Tran Nguyen discusses her part in The Flowers and the Birds and what Lawrence taught her, “Yellow flower, pink rose, peacock, purple flower. Beautiful. I learned to do detail on the bird with Lawrence.”

After meeting multiple times, the artists determined the final sketch, and the real work began. Through this process, AAW Resident Artists learned to communicate in a way that advocated for their ideas, while compromising on concepts. Lawrence expressed that the contributions made by arts and culture to society are highly significant and that collaborations such as these need to be encouraged, seen and heard. In the end, all agreed that they had gained a new professional respect and understanding for one another and built new friendships.

Untitled (Tapestry)
Satchel Hayes and Aneesa Shami

Aneesa shares how the collaborative piece with AAW resident artist Satchel evolved. 

“I was really drawn to Satchel's use of color, especially the bright patches of marker that he intuitively places on paper. His work resonates with my own collage techniques and how I like to organize torn magazine pages on unstretched canvas to create a textile-like appearance. I thought it would be interesting to use Satchel's drawings and use my collage techniques to create the collaborative piece. Other paper was used to complement Satchel's drawings and use of color, which I collected when visiting CECA for the group project. After I had collaged most of the canvas, Satchel started painting directly onto the canvas, in between and on top of the collaged paper, which layered nicely with the work I had done. Once Satchel had finished painting, I finished with some collage. I think this piece is a great representation of making-while-meditating and a visual conversation between two artists. Satchel would be in his own world while drawing and painting, just as I would be in my own world when collaging. We didn't work directly on the piece side by side, but went back and forth responding to one another's mark-making.”

AAW Resident Artist Greco Ancona talks about the message behind Me Gusta Food, “Me gusta food that sounds like me or something. We like food. What comes to mind is I like working with Jazmin. She is friends with Carlos.”

Jazmin Urrea explains the collaborative process and the meaning behind Me Gusta Food, “Going into this project, my goal was to get to know every artist and staff member individually. We created contemporary still lifes. We landed on working with the themes of evil, good, and food! This installation highlights their favorite foods while exploring different art elements. In my work, I use installation, photography, video, and sculpture to explore themes of identity, class, food equity, and justice. AAW Resident Artists were interested in these elements of my work and were interested in exploring installation art and taking over space. We used photography to create our still lives, stencils as wallpapers, and audio to add another sensory element. This collaborative process has given me a new way of communicating with people of different backgrounds and abilities. It cemented for me the importance of why I pursue community-based work in my practice.”