The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We fulfill our mission by providing services and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations; professional development opportunities; commissioning civic artworks and managing the County’s civic art collection; implementing countywide arts education initiatives; research and evaluation; career pathways in the creative economy; free community programs; and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. This work is framed by the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and a longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts.
Building upon the Medical Center’s burgeoning art collection, Civic Art program staff initiated an art purchase program. A curatorial approach was crafted to include both existing and commissioned for purchase. Christine Nguyen, David Hicks and Joe Zaldivar were the three artists selected for the art purchase program.
Joe Zaldivar created two artworks that were commissioned for the Olive View – UCLA Medical Center in collaboration with Tierra del Sol Foundation. The artwork titled Olive View - UCLA Medical Center features the Medical Center through a perspective architectural drawing in Zaldivar’s personalized animation style. The second site specific artwork, Aerial view of Sylmar, California, was created through the artist’s inventive use of electronic tablets and online map applications. Since 2011, Joe Zaldivar has been pursuing his professional art career with First Street Gallery Art Center, one of the progressive studios of the Tierra del Sol Foundation, an organization that enables individuals with disabilities to establish meaningful and productive lives and to contribute to the economic, cultural and civic vitality of their communities.
About the Artist:
Joe Zaldivar was born in Rosemead, California and has been working as a studio artist at First Street Gallery Art Center since 2011. Zaldivar studied art at Mount San Antonio College. He works in a variety of styles and media but is best known for his innovative use of Google Maps. Using his iPad as a reference material, Zaldivar creates aerial view maps of locations around the world, often autobiographical, as well as street level renditions of the same locations using the Street View function of Google Maps. The resulting works, which combine technology and perspectival architectural drawing in a style reminiscent of cartoon animation, twist time and space both spatially and conceptually.
