"Picture Brightens for Self Help Graphics"

New projects and growing enthusiasm fuel a revival of the Los Angeles art center.

March 15, 2008

"...Today, a renewed artistic vigor has taken hold at Self Help, according to artists and supporters. The agency has a busy schedule of gallery exhibitions and new print projects in its renowned silk-screen shop run for the past 16 years by master printer Jose Alpuche.

"...'There's this excitement going on at Self Help and there are a lot of new projects coming to fruition,' says artist Yolanda Gonzalez, who is curating a new print series called 'Maestras,' featuring 10 female artists.

"...Reaching out to other cultures is also a way for Self Help to stay relevant. One of the recently completed prints from the Maestras program is a stark portrait of an elderly couple by Carol Es, a native Los Angelena born in 1968 to a middle class Jewish mother and working-class Mennonite father."

"...When I visited the print shop this week, curator Gonzalez was working with an artist visiting from Chicago. The two women met 15 years ago when both were working in Japan. 'This is a place where the community comes, and I don't see that in other studios,' says [Magda] Dejose. "'It's not just for the artists, and that's unique.'"