About the Piece

originally shown at Commonwealth and Council.

I grew up on Francis Ave, directly in front of Hoover Street school. This is where I first started playing handball.  My family and I lived in the blue house right across the school.

I loved playing handball all through elementary school, I would get home and I would imagine myself continuing to play handball on the wall of the driveway ally. The painted lines of the handball courts always reminded me of a house. I would also always be in search of the playground type ball that would be used, they were always a darkened pink color, like an old eraser.

It is important to note (maybe) that I only went to Hoover k-1. I was accepted into the magnet program and bussed to Brentwood Science Magnet so that I could get a better education on the west side. There were handball courts there too, with the same design. But this meant that I would get home after they had closed the school in-front of my house. Imagining playing handball on my alleyway became a sort of memory action that connected both sites/schools/experiences. This action continues even now.

my sister Alex had a similar experience in terms of magnet schools. I thought it fitting to include her in the process of the painting.

the work in many ways deals with memory/ muscle memory, a specific point in time (late 80’s,1990’s), and the LA educational landscape.