Young artists beautifying neighborhoods: Eddie Cortez

I was pleased to partner with LA Commons -- a non-profit organization that works with communities across the city to highlight their ethnic, historic and cultural assets -- to enlist young people to create works of art on city traffic control boxes in East Hollywood, Thai Town, and Little Armenia. To protect the art, the boxes have an anti-graffiti coating.

This is the first blog in a series in which the artists will introduce their work.

Artist: Eddie Cortez
Traffic control box location: Northeast corner of Hollywood and Western
Message from the artist: I started with ideas that I had in my head. The first thing I drew was a tree. I went through a Thai art book and got ideas for how to make my design more Thai-like. Then it just fell into place. I created the Dancing Trees. It just means to go green and to save this planet. People need to get more involved with what goes on.