From Canvas to Civic Connection: WanJean Unveils New Work Honoring Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass
Another meaningful connection expands The Concrete Rose Project's growing footprint across art, community, and civic leadership
There are moments when art does more than capture a likeness.
It captures a story.
For artist and sculptor WanJean, a recent unveiling of her original portrait of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass represented one of those moments—bringing together art, public service, community history, and the expanding mission of The Concrete Rose Project, Inc.
Standing alongside the newly unveiled work, WanJean had an opportunity to share the piece with Mayor Bass herself—a meeting that represents another meaningful point of connection as TCRP continues building relationships throughout Southern California.
And behind the portrait is a story particularly well suited to the mission of The Concrete Rose Project.
Honoring a Los Angeles Story
Karen Bass' relationship with Los Angeles began long before elected office. Raised in the Venice/Fairfax area, she worked in healthcare before founding Community Coalition to organize predominantly Black and Latino communities in South Los Angeles around challenges including poverty, substance abuse and crime. She subsequently served in the California State Assembly, where she became the first African American woman in U.S. history to lead a state legislative body, before serving in Congress and ultimately becoming Los Angeles' 43rd mayor.
In 2022, Bass made history again when she became the first woman and second African American elected Mayor of Los Angeles.
Those are precisely the kinds of stories that have helped shape the vision behind WanJean's commemorative work and The Concrete Rose Honors Series.
The purpose is not simply to recreate a person's face.
It is to preserve the journey behind it.
WanJean's Art Meets Public Service
Created through WJ Art LLC, WanJean's portrait presents Mayor Bass against the imagery of the American flag and civic office.
But the significance of the work extends beyond portraiture.
WanJean has spent more than four decades developing her artistic practice, including her distinctive dimensional approach to portraiture and sculpture-on-canvas. Increasingly, that work has become a vehicle for recognizing individuals whose leadership, creativity, perseverance and service have affected the communities around them.
Mayor Bass now joins a growing body of subjects through which WanJean is exploring legacy through art.
That developing body of work reaches across civil rights, music, culture and civic leadership.
And that is where WanJean's work and The Concrete Rose Project intersect.
Building the Honors Series One Relationship at a Time
The Concrete Rose Honors Series is being developed to recognize individuals whose accomplishments and service provide something valuable for future generations to encounter.
The vision is larger than portraits.
An Honors Series work can become the beginning of:
an exhibition,
an educational experience,
a community conversation,
an artist opportunity,
a youth program,
a historical story,
or eventually a larger public-art initiative.
The underlying message is simple:
Extraordinary people come from ordinary communities—and young people deserve opportunities to see where greatness came from.
Mayor Bass' own story provides a powerful example.
A Growing Civic Footprint
This moment also represents something important for The Concrete Rose Project itself.
TCRP's footprint is expanding.
Earlier this year, WanJean's engagement with Los Angeles City Councilwoman Heather Hutt provided another opportunity to connect art with civic leadership and community legacy. TCRP has described those relationships as a pathway toward stronger programming involving public art, exhibitions, scholarships, youth apprenticeships and cultural education.
Now, an opportunity to personally share WanJean's work with the Mayor of Los Angeles adds another meaningful connection to that growing network.
These moments are not presented as political endorsements or formal governmental partnerships.
They are something more foundational:
relationships.
Relationships between artists and civic leaders.
Relationships between nonprofit organizations and communities.
Relationships between cultural institutions and the people whose stories they preserve.
Those relationships are essential to where TCRP intends to go next.
From Blu to a Broader Community
At the same time, WanJean's work continues to maintain a gallery presence at Blu Arts & Wellness Gallery in Long Beach, where TCRP has previously highlighted her exhibited work and the role the gallery environment can play in introducing new audiences to her art.
That creates an important geographic bridge.
Long Beach. Los Angeles. Galleries. Community organizations. Civic leaders. Businesses. Performing arts organizations.
Each relationship extends the circle.
The objective is not simply to place WanJean's artwork in more locations.
The larger goal is to build an ecosystem in which art creates opportunities for other people.
WJ Art LLC Creates the Art. TCRP Expands the Impact.
That distinction is fundamental to the model being built.
WJ Art LLC is the creative and commercial home of WanJean's work—responsible for the creation and management of her original artwork and intellectual property.
The Concrete Rose Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, takes the larger mission into the community through charitable programming, exhibitions, education, youth development, artist opportunities, performing arts, scholarships and partnerships. TCRP's website describes its work as connecting art creation with community programming to create opportunity and connection.
Together, the model becomes:
Create the art.
Tell the story.
Bring people together.
Create opportunity.
And Opportunity Must Extend Beyond WanJean
This is an important part of where The Concrete Rose Project is headed.
As TCRP develops traveling exhibitions and relationships with galleries in different communities, the goal is not simply to take WanJean's artwork from city to city.
The organization intends for those exhibitions to create opportunities for artists who already live in those communities.
A future TCRP exhibition could bring Honors Series works into a host gallery while creating exhibition opportunities for local visual artists.
And the opportunity doesn't stop at visual art.
TCRP's developing multidisciplinary model encompasses:
music, theater, jazz, spoken word, dance, film, youth arts education and creative workforce development.
About WJ Art LLC
WJ Art LLC is the creative and commercial entity behind the original works of artist and sculptor WanJean. Through portraiture, sculpture and her dimensional sculpture-on-canvas approach, WanJean creates work exploring history, leadership, culture, music, identity and community legacy.
About The Concrete Rose Project
The Concrete Rose Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization using art as a platform for education, artist opportunity, youth development, cultural programming, community engagement and public storytelling. Its developing programs include the Concrete Rose Honors Series, traveling exhibitions and local artist opportunities, youth arts education, creative workforce development, performing arts programming, scholarships and community-based cultural initiatives.
The Concrete Rose Project
Phone: 424-246-5959 TheConcreteRoseProject.org
Comments