MID-CITY, Calif. – The works of many artists are helping us get through quarantine, but who is helping the artists?

What You Need To Know


  • Star Montana is an artist and photographer born in Boyle Heights

  • Desert X is a free Coachella Valley art exhibition held every other year

  • Activated in 2019 and is still scheduled to open February 2021

  • They are giving artists $1,000 grants

Star Montana is an artist and photographer born in Boyle Heights and now living in Mid-City.

“Until there’s a vaccine I really don’t imagine myself doing my traditional practice again,” said Montana.

Montana has lost many work opportunities due to COVID-19. If it weren’t for teaching art part-time to Los Angeles Unified School District high school students she wouldn’t be able to pay bills.

“It’s so frustrating. It makes me just feel helpless, but for me I’ve never given up in my education, anything like that. I’ve always been very determined,” said Montana.

When the school year ends Montana says she is going to apply for unemployment. She also got a stimulus check, but there is another lump of money Montana just got.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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#humpday ... more like curves and zigzags day. . CLAUDIA COMTE "Curves and Zigzags" Desert X 2017 @claudiacomte . . "Curves and Zigzags" is the third work from an ongoing series of free-standing walls that straddle painting and sculpture. Comte’s practice embraces all media with equal ferocity and she uses this series to examine what happens when two-dimensional painting is superimposed on three dimensional structure. Unlike graffiti artists her walls are built specifically for the work they carry. In Curves and Zigzags, the painting starts with a stringent geometric composition that gradually morphs into a more organic wave like pattern reminiscent of Bridget Riley optical paintings or the gardens of Burle Marx. Playing on the constant exchange of dualities – nature and culture, order and chaos, geometric and organic form – Comte’s wall suggests a walk through the shifting sands of abstraction and on to a place where beauty and contemplation sit side by side. . #claudiacomte #curvesandzigzags #desertx #desertx2017 #desertx17 #sitespecific #opart #notawall #hommesadamspark #palmdesert #coachellavalley #contemporaryart #contemporarysculpture #illusion #〰️ #✖️

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“Any money that comes my way in terms of doing artist talks on Zoom or anything like that is just keeping me and my family alive,” said Montana.

Desert X is a free Coachella Valley art exhibition held every other year. It was activated in 2019 and is still scheduled to open in February 2021. They are giving artists $1,000 grants. They have more than $30,000 to give.

So far more than 700 applications have been received. All Southern California artists are eligible, but more than half the grants are going to Coachella Valley artists.

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“We’re not based on the quality of the artist’s work or on the capacity to work, but at this point we’ve noticed that it’s a matter of survival and artists are figuring out how they will be able to survive,” said Jenny Gil, the executive director of Desert X.

Artists may only receive one grant.