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• 1 media/15-424.jpg media/15-424.jpg 2021-05-01T20:50:24-07:00 L.A: City of Jazz 5 Roderick Sykes
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  1996 plain 2021-05-18T15:59:14-07:00 1996 L.A: City of Jazz was painted by Roderick Sykes in 1996 as a visual representation about the meaning and culture of the Black jazz community in Los Angeles. The lack of figuration and symmetry offers the viewer a chance to join Sykes in the discovery of exploring the culture of Los Angeles as an abstract map. Paint strokes and curves resembling winding freeways and rays of sun peeking out through the cloudy blue sky at the top are spread out across the mural. The mural as a whole can also be associated with graffiti, native to Los Angeles. As Sykes centers Los Angeles as the “City of Jazz,” the shapes expand outward near the center of the mural, similar to the sudden “burst” of melody in the beginning of a jazz performance. The asymmetric positioning of the shapes resembles the unpredictability of jazz rhythms. The mural also features a vibrant, eye-popping unlimited color palette in which the colors contrast with each other.
  
  The abstraction, the contrasting difference to mainstream Black art, and the color palette of L.A: City of Jazz represents the unique pathways of St. Elmo Village. A cofounder of St. Elmo Village, an art haven where Black members of the community can freely express themselves without criticism in Los Angeles, Roderick Sykes encouraged the exploration of creativity unlimited to the constricted expectations of mainstream art, as quoted by Sykes, “Do What You Love - Love What You Do.” Founded in1969, St. Elmo Village exists today as a nonprofit organization that houses artists in the renovated bungalows on the site to continue to host workshops.
  
  Written by Naomi Ramos Benitez, c/o ‘24