Desert Art Woman Gallery is hosting the thought-provoking “Reality Check” exhibition, featuring artists Emmanuel Doublin and Adriana Lopez-Ospina. Through their respective mediums of oil painting and fibers with gold leaf, they aim to challenge societal perceptions of homelessness, shedding light on the resilience within the homeless community. The exhibition delves into the personal stories of individuals experiencing homelessness, aiming to provoke dialogue and empathy among viewers.
In an interview, Emmanuel and Adriana shared their backgrounds in art and the camaraderie behind their collaboration. Emmanuel’s personal connection to the homeless community, especially following a life-altering motorcycle accident, inspired his exploration of their stories. Adriana’s upbringing and experiences inform her desire to challenge societal perspectives and advocate for those in need. Together, they hope to create a space for meaningful conversations about privilege, support, and human connection.
The exhibition not only showcases their artwork but also includes a live performance by Coachella Valley native Lorna Adams. Through their collaboration with Desert Art Woman Gallery, Emmanuel and Adriana aim to extend the impact of the exhibition beyond its physical space, encouraging donations and community support for homeless individuals. Their collective efforts highlight the transformative power of art in advocating for social change and fostering empathy within communities.
You don’t need the money to make a difference, you know? It can be done with a stroke of a brush, a few words, a few lyrics, a couple songs, a poem, and yeah, money does help, but it doesn’t make everything plush.
Emmanuel Doublin
As the “Reality Check” opening nears, artists Emmanuel Doublin and Adriana Lopez-Ospina focus on installing their exhibit. They generously pause to sit down and share insights, backgrounds, and inspirations in an interview with Coachella Magazine.
Coachella Magazine: Could you both please introduce yourselves first?
EMMANUEL & ADRIANA: My name’s Emmanuel Doublin, “Manny” oil painter from Coachella Valley. And the show’s called Reality Check. My name is Adriana Lopez-Ospina, “Alex” and I’m a fibers in gold leaf artist.
CM: Tell us about your experience and journey in the world of art.
ADRIANA: I received my Bachelor’s of Arts from St. Louis University with an emphasis in sculpture. And I worked primarily in metals for a long time, but I did take one fibers class and I loved it, but I didn’t know how to pursue the medium further until I moved to the Coachella Valley. And when I moved here, I started working with Bill (Schinsky), he gifted a bag of wool and gave me a lot of it, and gave me free rein on how to use it. And I’ve been working in fibers ever since.
EMMANUEL: So my background started when I was really young. I just always painted. And then in school, that was like my thing. In Junior high, I started doing spray can art and hanging out with graffiti artists. So that was my real intro through the neighborhood scene. They took the art program out of middle school. I remember ’cause D.A.R.E. came in — art program, home economics and metal shop went out. So once our art classes went out, a bunch of us, we started doing graffiti on the side, like under the bridge, and try to pretend we were our inspirations, like Basquiat and some of the New York artists.
After graduating high school, I went to COD. (College of the Desert). I was originally going to study for automotive technician, and just by chance, I walked into the art building and was like, “Oh my God — This is it, bro.” I took an oil painting class with Derek Hultgren, and ever since, I kept art as my go-to with oil painting and sculpture.
I felt like a lot of teachers and myself, they were like, “You just gotta get your hands dirty. You just gotta get out in the community and start putting your work out there. And that’s the only way you’re gonna become an artist.”
CM: How did your art change or evolve after the motorcycle accident you experienced during the pandemic in 2020?
EMMANUEL: It really kind of set it off really, you know, ’cause I would mess around, flirt in and out of the local art scene in Coachella Valley. And then in 2020, I was working as a Porsche technician at Porsche Palm Springs, and I was riding my motorcycle home from work on HWY 111. And man, I got creamed <laugh> by a driver. Couldn’t really see at night — breaking my legs, my back, my arm, everything.
So that took away the mechanic, the career as an automotive technician. And it kind of kicked me into a depressive spiral. But at the same time, my art was the only thing that was holding me up. And I remember right before the accident, I had signed up to do (paint) a bench in Palm Springs for the Main Street Bench Project. And I did one. And there was a lot of homeless people (nearby). I was in a wheelchair, and they were just encouraging me. They were like, “Hey man, great job. Thank you. This is where we camp out. We’re gonna watch your bench.” And man, that really changed my art — the course of it.
CM: What sparked the inception of “Reality Check” and what drove the theme behind it?
ADRIANA: Manny and I both won the SoCal Inland Empire, SoCal Creative Corp Grant. And so it gave us the opportunity to really take our time and pursue art in a way that we didn’t have before. Manny, obviously had already been working with the homeless population in the Coachella Valley, and his grant was written to continue that series and create a whole portfolio out of it. And so he would come to Coachella Valley Art Center when it was still open. And I told him, “You know, I work here every day, you should come and set up here.” And so that just started the conversation where he would tell me about his connection to the homeless population and how that started with his mother because of her mental health. And I always found that so deeply impactful.
I always told him that obviously, my perspective is from a place of privilege. I have had a lot of privilege in my life. And so I think when it came closer to produce the event, he said, “You know, how can we be in this together? And what do you wanna do?” And I said, “I really wanted to take the perspective of the ultra-rich and why it is that we have such a negative perspective of homeless people, when in reality they’re just people struggling, they have a deeper struggle than the rest of us. They have mental health issues. I mean, most people are really just a paycheck away from becoming homeless. It’s not that it’s a personal failure, I really feel that it’s a systemic failure. And so, I want to push people’s perspective who come from a place of privilege and really find the humanity in unhoused people and have them check their privilege. And I think that’s why we came up with “Reality Check.”
Manny’s work is so powerful in that he has a really deep connection with all of the people he portraits. He takes the time to learn their story and how it is that they ended up in their current position.
Adriana Lopez-Ospina
EMMANUEL: Throughout our conversations, I love how Adriana would offer a lot of insight from a perspective of people with money or capital. And I think the commonality was that we all share: we’re all human. We all share emotions, and along with our emotions, we all have mental health and how privilege affects our mental health. So somebody with depression, a person with privilege wouldn’t necessarily know it, because they go to a doctor, they hide behind a veil, which is some of our artwork is gonna, it has a veil. And that reminds me of some of the privileged people get to hide behind this thin veil of like, “I’m not that, I’m someone of stature. I’m not them,” you know?
And that’s also what I love about her work, it creates a contrast to my work, where I’m from, a poor background, I grew up poor, I’m still poor. And being with the homeless, it kind of gets me thinking about like, man, “What would this person be like if he had a a hundred thousand dollars?” You know what I mean? Would it change him? Would his mental illness be an asset to him? You know? ’cause a lot of rich, famous people like Kanye West, people with money, he has mental illness, but he writes the deepest lyrics, and poetry, and that’s how I feel. Alex brings, like capital and having the privilege of wealth gives you access to so many avenues to be able to address your mental health, right?
ADRIANA: You have access to, like you said, doctors, you have access to your medication. Those are all things that, people with very little or were just barely surviving, barely getting their housing, can’t necessarily take the time away from their job to get access to these things. So really it’s understanding that it’s not a personal failure, it’s for some reason they weren’t able to have the generational wealth and the education and all of this, family or even just like societal help to get them the help that they need. They didn’t have the support.
Support whereas people with wealth and that live a plush, comfy life, they have the support to have all these things filled. And yeah, I really just love the contrast of the show, and it should get people talking.
I feel like nothing gets the conversation started better than art. It creates a safe space where people of every genre can meet in the middle over loving a piece of work.
Emmanuel Doublin
EMMANUEL: I think that’s the biggest goal of mine is to open up that conversation that Alex and I have all the time: “Wouldn’t it be great if these people had a chance to have this or that?” It’s the conversation for me, that’s really what this is about, along with getting two of the groups together in the same room, to have that conversation and maybe help each other out, because a lot of the wealthy could benefit from the giving, the love and the compassion that the homeless people have.
You go to see a homeless person, they’ll give you the shirt off their back, they will love you like no other. And you know, when you see the wealthy, they feel cold to me and distant, and they kind of yearn for that type of love, and it’s like, “It’s right there.” They just don’t know how to do it. And maybe if we got these two people in the same area, they would teach each other and sponge off each other, how to handle those emotions.
CM: What inspired the contrast between the portraits of homeless individuals and the incorporation of soft luxury gold leaf? How did you come up with that idea?
ADRIANA: I think, it was just natural when we had these conversations, how easy it was to find how much our work was interconnected. Because, you know, while I do have privilege now, growing up my parents, they both immigrated to the US, they’re first generation. So I watched them struggle. They didn’t end up on the streets. They had their education to lean on that they received in their home country. But that’s not necessarily something that’s very accessible in the US. Education here is very expensive. It’s a luxury, really.
I see that my position being the next generation is very different. And I can’t just break away from my community. I have to look back and see how I can help people in need. Because where I come from is super important to me. The way that my parents lived their life, it informs my practice and it informs my experience. I’ll never feel like I need to take my wealth and run and have like, statuses of wealth. I don’t want to become a millionaire or a billionaire. <Laugh>. I always just wanna have enough and give back to my community. And I think that that’s a conversation that we need to have among people of privilege.
CM: How do you believe this exhibition challenges societal perceptions and provokes dialogue about homelessness?
EMMANUEL: It puts everything in their face. It brings the homeless to them, and it shows them in a different light, maybe a light that they can understand, and they’re in a comfortable environment, you know? So we’re bringing homeless and posh into this comfortable environment where people don’t have to be afraid to be who they are or say what they want to say. This is the space to do it. Also some of Adriana’s work, when you look at it, all it does is provoke you to think and listen and feel, and take a look into your own life and ask yourself, “What does this mean to me and how do I feel about this? And where do I fit in this space?”
ADRIANA: Manny’s work is so powerful in that he has a really deep connection with all of the people he portraits. He takes the time to learn their story and how it is that they ended up in their current position. I think that we are so tempted to look away, because it is a difficult thing to imagine and put yourself in that position. But he actively goes out into the community consistently and forms these relationships so that he has a personal understanding of why they’re homeless, and what can be done to help them in that moment. And he always comes and asks the community to help him, give food, give money, or even asks them directly, what do you need? And I think we need more of that. His work is a testament to how we can break that barrier and be more personal with the most vulnerable people in our community.
CM: Could you share any specific stories from individuals experiencing homelessness that have influenced your artwork?
EMMANUEL: I think Christine was a big one because she shared some really intimate things about her life, about losing a child. And she shared where you could kind of see where it went downhill, and you can definitely respect why she kind lost her grip or decided to give up that grip on a regular, mainstream life style. And, living the way she did is challenging, she lost a child. What do you do? You find your child in the restroom, you know lifeless, and then losing your husband and losing your job all at the same time. I mean, where’s the support? I mean, God, I couldn’t — just thinking of that makes my gut hurt, you know?
Where’s the support when somebody loses a child or loses their job. And it got me thinking a lot. And that’s where it really made me put my foot in and drive forward and get to know these people a lot better, because everyone has a story and everyone fell on a hard time. But these people, they didn’t have the support to get back up where I did. I kind of was fortunate to have the community and friends like Alex.
I see that my position being the next generation is very different. I can’t just break away from my community. I have to look back and see how I can help people in need.
Adriana Lopez-Ospina
CM: What do you hope viewers take away from experiencing the artwork at the exhibition.
ADRIANA: I hope they’re more intentional about what their part is in supporting our community. And I hope that they reflect on their own privilege. If they do have privilege, what does it mean to have enough, what does it mean to give back in your own personal situation? And what does it mean to really build connection and a network where care is at the center?
CM: What role do you see art playing in advocating for social change and raising awareness about important issues such as homelessness?
EMMANUEL: I see art playing a major role, super-major role. Like Alex said, you know, our hopes are to get the community thinking about what can we do? What can I do, whatever state or role you play in, whether you come from wealth, poverty or middle class, what can you do in the community to support that? And I feel like nothing gets the conversation started better than art. It creates a safe space where people of every genre can meet in the middle over loving a piece of work. You know, myself and a person from a total separate walk of life, we can look at this work here and say, “You know what? I love it. What does it mean to you? This is what it means to me.” So art plays a major role.
CM:How do you envision the impact of this exhibition extending beyond the walls of the gallery and into the broader community?
ADRIANA: Well, part of the exhibition, both of us will be donating, if works sells, it goes back to the community. Manny goes out consistently into the homeless population. So we’re hoping that people donate or any of the work that is sold, the money will go back to the people that inspire this and inspire us to be more community focused. And then, like we said, we want people to think about their personal journey into connecting to with their community. We don’t want them to just come and talk about the topic and then walk away. That’s never our goal, right?
EMMANUEL: We want people to act on it. And it doesn’t need to be something grand. It can be as simple as the next time you see an unhoused person, just make the effort to give back, make the effort to make a connection. And you’ll realize the more you pay attention, instead of looking away… you’ll start seeing that they’re just like the rest of us.
They’re our brothers and sisters. They’re the same exact people you’ll see in your own home. You say “Hi” to your dad in the morning, why not say “Hi” to the guy down the street, you know, holding a sign. Maybe you don’t have money for ’em, but you can say, “Hey, you know what, I like that hat. Hey, what a nice smile you have. How do you feel today? How’s your day going, brother, sister, auntie, uncle, mama, how’s it going pop? You don’t need the money to make a difference, you know? It can be done with a stroke of a brush, a few words, a few lyrics, a couple songs, a poem, and yeah, money does help, but it doesn’t make everything plush.
ADRIANA: And I’d like to give a shout-out at least to some grassroots organizations here in the Coachella Valley: ECV No Se Vende, is an eastern Coachella Valley base. They have done a lot of direct community donations that they turn into either monetary donations where they go out into the communities just like Manny does, or they’ll build packs and then go and distribute them that way as well. They’ve done great work just the way Manny has. Do you have another organization you wanna shout out?
EMMANUEL: Well, I just got a hold of Martha’s Village and Kitchen. I spoke with the director the other day. Christie Holstege. I spoke with her about the topic with mayor of Palm Springs. I spoke with so many of our community members and leaders that are now playing an active at active role, like building the communities, the center in North Palm Springs, and everybody getting involved. And also people like Ruben and Yaya Ortiz (Ruben’s Ranch) and all the artist groups, Create Center for the Arts, Debra Ann Mumm, Bill Schinsky and all the people actively in the community making a difference, filling support, filling in those gaps where our government misses a spot.
CM: How do you navigate the balance between artistic expression and the responsibility to accurately representing the stories of the homelessness?
EMMANUEL: My own process, the way I approach this, I meet with the homeless person and I try to make some type of connection, I explain what my intentions are first off. And then, I offered them an outlet, “Hey, I’m here, I’ll hear you, I see you, I feel you.” So I offered them an outlet to express themselves however they want freely, and just tell their story, and let themselves be seen by the community.
I think painting these people as they are, but also in a positive light — using my own brush strokes, maybe some high key lighting in my portraits, you’ll see some vibrant colors just pop out at you because sometimes they do feel gray and they do feel gloomy, but I also wanna show that bright and happy and healthy and keep-going side of them that are keyed up in those vibrant, bright colors there.
CM: What is your role at Desert Art Woman Gallery?
ADRIANA: I’ve just built a relationship with Juliette Voss, who runs and owns Desert Art Woman Gallery, an amazing gallery. Manny was the one that did the introductions, this is actually where I met him for the first time in Juliette’s studio, when he was working out of the back. And since then, I’ve just been in conversation with Juliette and she’s been so welcoming and open to just hearing the voices of new artists.
I did start my curatorial practice here when she asked if Wyld Woman would like to do an exhibition here. And I co-curated that with Lauren Bright. We’re both on leadership for Wyld Women, and it was my first time ever actually in that position. It was such a great opportunity, because I’ve always loved organizing artists, if that makes sense. And I love being in community with artists. I think that artists themselves are a whole business, and it’s difficult to get to a point where you have enough time and energy to put together shows. So, it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do because I do have that time and energy and Juliette has just gave me the first opportunity.
CM: Do you want to curate more shows?
ADRIANA: Yeah, definitely. I’ll be curating my next one for my personal grant. The show will be April 13th to the 23rd at COD, Mark Art Center. So that’ll be my second time as a curator. I’ll be announcing that pretty soon.
CM: Do you see yourself as an artist, curator, and activist?
ADRIANA: Yes, all three: artist, curator, and activist. I never thought I would do that. I always thought I was just gonna be an artist, but I think it’s your calling. It was my calling. It’s been a journey to be all the other things. I think I was really inspired by the rest of the artists out here and by friends along the way.
CM: Could you provide additional details on the donation process and ways the community can support the exhibition?
EMMANUEL: So, 20% of whatever’s sold in the gallery will go to the homeless. And I encourage people to bring bars of soap, toothpaste, deodorant, any non-perishable items or canned food goods, anything like that can help, that’ll be given directly to these homeless people. I really encourage people to come in and chip in.
CM: Can you speak to the significance of incorporating live performance into the exhibition?
ADRIANA: So we have a singer/songwriter coming in, and her name is Lorna Adams. She’s a Coachella Valley native, she writes and sings her songs on a ukulele. She’s an upcoming artist with great talent. Her art always inspires and gets the crowd talking about what’s going on. Her performance is gonna be amazing. I hope you guys come and see Lorna sing for us.
CM: Is there anything else you want to mention that we haven’t talked about?
EMMANUEL: I think that’s pretty much it, man. Come check out the show.
REALITY CHECK
March 22-29, 2024 | Opening Reception: March 22
Location: Desert Art Woman Gallery
ste i26, 68895 Perez Rd, Cathedral City, CA 92234