Los Angeles Encampments

Authors

Christopher ChinnFollow

Abstract

My most recent work is not created in the shelter of a studio, but outside on the streets of my community and city. This on-going body of work challenges the accepted practice of “en plein air” painting by presenting not the picturesque and beautiful, but ugly and dirty places most avoid at great length, and do not wish to even see, encampments of Los Angeles’s unhoused residents. Painting is slow. The people who live in the tents and bivouacs that I paint are often very curious and ask me about what I am doing. In this way my work opens up relationships and intimate interactions for me with a socio-economic population that is marginalized and maligned by society at large. For the past two decades my work has focused on those in extreme poverty, forced to make their homes on the street due to the inadequate supply of supportive and transitional housing in Los Angeles. My artwork is more than just paintings, it is an affirmation of my beliefs in social and economic justice, the truths I strive to live by, the energy, commitment, and effort to manifest that in the world.

Recommended Citation

Chinn, Christopher (2025) "Los Angeles Encampments," Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/lijpil/vol2/iss1/4