COLA artist June Edmonds transforms ideas into art

When you hear the word “art” you think of painting, sculpting, music, theatre, dance, poetry and even writing, but true art is being able to transform nothing into something.

At this year’s annual Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG), visual artist June Edmonds focused on race and spirituality through layered, patterned acrylic paintings.

City of Los Angeles (COLA) artists created pristine bodies of work with a $10,000 grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

This money helped Edmonds create new pieces, gave her more workspace as well as a chance to have her work premiered at the art gallery starting spring 2018 along with other artists who received this same opportunity.

Edmonds has her own unique perspective of race.

“When brown skin is referred [to] as I remember growing up and even nowadays, it was the primary color. Being yellow skinned, ‘redbone’ or so dark they’re blue-black were the ways we referred to our skin tones. So I thought I would include that in the concepts of my work of art,” Edmonds said.

Hand-in-hand with race, Edmonds also includes spiritual aspects into her work. All of her work on display was made up of patterns sometimes forming lines, other times circles or ovular shapes. Edmonds said circular patterns symbolize life, a higher power and where they meet in the middle.

“I was initially inspired by meditation which has grown since then, so I started using the circle which is something that is used in many philosophical beliefs and systems,” Edmonds said.

After she pieced all of her ideas together, Edmonds’ creations won after enduring three rounds of nine judges of past COLA affiliation including museum directors, educators and nonprofit gallerists just to name a few.

The city of Los Angeles congratulates June Edmonds on her accomplishment and encourages people to go out to see her work in the museum until June 24 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at 4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, Calif. 90027.