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| Fabian at work in his studio |
Fabian is a sort of artist-in-residence at Homeboy
Industries. On the one hand, he’s
another one of the hundreds of Homeboy employees who have made the choice out
of gang life, out of drug addiction, and into fatherhood, into sobriety, into
dignity. On the other hand, he is a unique marvel. I met Fabian this morning, on
my first day of volunteering at Homeboy Industries for the next month with a
team of college students.
After following him in his car through the crazy traffic of
the downtown LA garment and wholesale district, we followed him up to the
second story of his downtown LA second story art studio. Not only are his art pieces—hundreds of them,
some of them ten feet by ten feet—stacked up against the walls everywhere, but
the space is profoundly intimate, filled with drawings by the students he his
apprenticing, sketches by his daughters, and a corner that is his altar of
precious memories and mementos.
His art is beautiful.
It is powerful. Some of his
pieces feel like they are filled with layers and layers of meaning and stories
and emotions that are hidden behind the canvas ready to burst out into
expression. And when Fabian told us his
story, they did.
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| One of my favorite pieces. |
From the pains of catching his father shooting up heroin in
a park yard bathroom as a young child to when he was beaten up by a gang at age
twelve and went to his cousin that night to join the gang and be protected,
Fabian’s story is moving. And when you
consider the sensitivity of his artist’s heart, and project that onto a child,
it becomes heart-wrenching. I was most
moved by his attempted suicide while high on methamphetamine, the destructive
voices in his head, and his experience of literal divine intervention that
saved his life.
As he told his story I beheld a beauty which exceeded that
of that mountain lake. It exceeded that
of any painting I’ve ever seen. It was
the beauty of a human life, in all of its glory, being rescued, redeemed,
cherished. It had fallen into the pit of
despair…and then had been picked back up, washed, cleaned, and was living and
thriving and glowing before my very eyes.
Awe is not an emotion I regularly feel. But I felt it today. In the presence of Fabian. I sat in awe.
And I marveled. I
worshipped. I beheld raw beauty and
goodness.
Today I was given a gift.
And thankfully, I can give you a little taste of that gift
through this short film made about Fabian’s art and his life found here: http://vimeo.com/93161888.
I hope you can stand in awe as I am today.
