A City of Its Own

FoLAR Clean-Up 2018

When I first heard about the objective of having to go clean the LA River, I could say that I was definitely excited to find trash that I could eventually use to create a sculpture of some sort- making what was once classified as garbage, now art. Looking back, however, when I learned about this activity, I never thought about cleaning the LA River as a way to further help preserve the environment we Angelenos live in, instead, I simply thought of this as a way to explore my artistic creativity.

The overall experience of going to clean the LA River was emotionally rewarding such that it felt good to put in my time and effort to do my part and help clean a significant area in the city. Secondly, I think what made it even more rewarding is that the next day was Earth Day- so even though I could only help by cleaning a few bags worth of trash, I feel like I did my part to help clean LA and the Earth as a whole.

On a different note, when we went down into the basin to begin cleaning the river, I expected to find plastic bottles, plastic bags and other trash of that sort, yet, while walking along the river bank, I came across all sorts of tattered clothing which is what inspired me to build a person out of the trash. Some of the clothes we found were simple pants or shirts but we also found a wedding dress, which I interpreted as the river to serve as a home for its own personal community- in which to an extent is true. The items of clothing were all representative of different people. Unlike my interpretation of the trash that I found, there are actual people that live in the river basin and I think that is a significant observation I made as the streets and the 48 miles for which LA river runs are home to the underprivileged communities in Los Angeles.

I'm grateful to have gone to participate in this event, and if possible, I'd like to continue going to help clan this city but also learn more about the culture that lies within.