Why I enlisted in Guerilla Gardening

I always aspired to return to graduate school but could never find a program that met all of my interests in the arts, until I discovered the public practice program at Otis. Finally there was a program that welcomed and actually encouraged multiple interests. I applied and was accepted within a couple of weeks of starting the program.
My cohorts and I had the opportunity to work on a multidisciplinary art & design project in Laton, CA, a small farming community in the San Joaquin Valley for about nine months. The final culminating event took place on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 in a public video installation highlighting the unique identity of Laton through multiple outdoor projections onto freshly painted buildings. People of the community processed along the two block long main street where they encountered music, video projections of life in the community, and opportunities to talk about the future of the region.
This experience has been life changing for me because it was during this time that I discovered my place in the art world. The art for me is not in the object but in using the object as a catalyst to build relationships and create dialogue between diverse groups of people. It also inspired my work because the experience of going to a small town made me realize how much my own town has changed into what is now atypical suburb. Today much of our farmland is being destroyed and it is predicted that within ten years there will not be enough land to grow the amount of food we will need to sustain the nation. I realized the importance of learning and teaching alternative methods of growing food.
For my final thesis work I am building a mobile garden within the city of Watts. I will be working with a group of 30-50 students from grades K-5 that are members of Urban Compass, an after school enrichment program. I hope this project will serve as a prototype for what I hope will be many other projects to follow.