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LA has a new look – if you look carefully.
The final installment of Los Angeles Fund for Public Education’s #ArtsMatter public art project got underway yesterday with bus wraps and hundreds of billboards promoting the importance of creative thinking in education. The artist Shepard Fairey – think “Hope” with a picture of President Obama — developed the design, “Create Your Future,” with inspiration from LA United students.
Fairey invited students to answer the question: “What does the world look like when you take away the things that limit you?” Hundreds replied through social media, leading to “Create Your Future,” a graphic design in red, black, blue and yellow. Fairey says the design elements represent “the main themes of my LA Fund art: empowerment and future possibilities through creativity.”
The images and what they symbolize:
- plug/leaf: green energy and human harmony with the environment
- airplane: travel as part of freedom
- peace sign: diplomacy before aggression
- hand and flame: the spark and power of creativity
- diamond: material and financial success.
“Shepard Fairey has given us a powerful visual message with ‘Create Your Future’,” said Megan Chernin Chief Executive of LA Fund, which sponsors the program. “Through the arts, we can nurture creativity in our youth and prepare them to be the creative thinkers we will need tomorrow.”
Jamie Alter Lynton, founder of LA School Report, is a member of the LA Fund board.