PORTRAITS OF HOPE

Portraits of Hope’s latest community art project tossed over a thousand colorful, inflatable spheres in LA’s MacArthur Park Lake. All of the gigantic, playful balls were hand painted by 3,500 to 5,000 members of the community, both young and old. Entitled “Spheres at MacArthur Park,” this public art and civic initiative has been seven years in the making.

Los Angelenos were treated to this delightful exhibition early this week at MacArthur Park (Address: 2230 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90057). The inflatable floating spheres were painted in brightly colored floral and aquatic designs and ranged in size from 4 – 6 ft. in diameter making for fantastic vistas at the park.

Portraits of Hope are pros at pulling off large-scale projects. The non-profit organization was formed in 1995 by Ed and Bernie Massey with the goal of creating unique motivational art projects that combine, “the production of dynamic public art works with creative therapy for hospitalized children and civic education for students of all ages.”

In the past, they’ve given NYC laundromats a colorful, flower-fueled makeover, spruced up beach lifeguard towers, and even painted an entire blimp. In other words, they work on a huge scale with the goal of maximum fun.

Developed initially for seriously ill and physically disabled children, the 501 (c)(3) program conceives and develops one-of-a-kind motivational art projects that merge the production of dynamic public art works with creative therapy for hospitalized children and civic education for students of all ages.

To learn more about this wonderful organization, visit http://www.portraitsofhope.org .