From the streets, to Hollywood and ArtWalk

Por Lucía Viti

Inocente, Downtown’s artistic superstar, will be showcased among 200 local, regional and international artists at ArtWalk NTC at Liberty Station on Saturday Aug. 15 and 16.

Nestled against a backdrop of the historic Naval Training Center (NTC), now San Diego’s largest arts and cultural district, Inocente will present her art for the first time since the release of the 2012 Academy Award-winning Best Short Documentary bearing her name.

The 40-minute, first person narrative features a then 15 year-old undocumented immigrant who used art to escape a life punctuated by domestic abuse, homelessness and the constant threat of deportation. Shuffled between shelters, hotels, apartments, garages and even parks, Inocente, along with her mother and two younger brothers, moved more than 30 times in nine years.

Sporting a relentless spirit, the young Latina serves as a snapshot of America’s new face of homelessness — children — while depicting the survival of a nomadic existence through the healing power of art.

Today, the 21-year old rising icon is excited to be home, sharing recent works she describes as more mature and less messy than her former pieces. Unlike a dreary world crowded with remnants of bleak surroundings one would think Inocente would paint, the abstract pop artist sweeps extraordinary strokes of shiny, sparkly, ‘happy’ colors and splashes of texture across canvases of all sizes. As an advocate of social issues and the plight of endangered animals, Inocente portrays characters of resilience and tenacity.

“I’m excited to show everyone how my art has grown from messy and thick with paint to mature yet still colorful pieces,” said the diminutive beauty. “I’ve added clean and flat characters created from my imagination and animals — whales, sharks, bunnies and elephants — to bring attention to their plight,” she said. “People connect with plight. Elephants are being killed for their tusks and more bunnies are left abandoned in San Diego than any other animal. Every painting comes from the heart. I even include a personal story that relates how I feel with each piece.”

Refusing to acknowledge her last name as a vestige of an abusive father, Inocente’s imagination stems from years of roaming the streets of Downtown San Diego.

“I was too young to understand homelessness,” she explained. “Moving around seemed normal until middle school. I didn’t wear a sign on my head saying I was homeless so our schools didn’t always know. Kids were outspoken about my clothes [second hand donations of tutu-tutus, colorful leggings and high tops] and picked up on feelings and fears that I tried to hide. I painted my face with wild swirls and dots because I thought it was fun. But as I got older, I realized that our lives were far from normal and people thought I was weird.”

Carmela, Inocente’s mother, collected cans between working odd, cash-under-the-table jobs that never made enough money to pay rent. When the family took refuge in a public park, Carmela would stay awake to protect her children from impending danger. At her lowest point, the distraught parent took 11-year old Inocente to the Coronado Bridge, urging her daughter to hold her hand and jump. Inocente’s refusal and ultimate survival remains a lost memory.

One shelter referred the children to San Diego’s Monarch School, an institution dedicated to schooling homeless youth “who experience complex trauma through ongoing exposure to a lack of shelter and basic necessities.” The Monarch School became pivotal for Inocente’s introduction to art.

“The Monarch School helped me in so many ways,” she said. “Not only did I fall in love with my art classes, I was able to eat, shower, sleep and do my laundry with a community of people going through the same experience. I was fortunate to attend art classes especially since art is now often the first program to be taken out of school.”

By age 12, the self-confessed chronic doodler was also attending art classes at ARTS: A Reason To Survive, a National City-based nonprofit organization that provides educational art, college prep and career programs to kids and young adults dealing with homelessness, domestic violence and illness.

At 15, Inocente painted her first mural. Within months she was one of two students selected for ARTS’ annual show and given three months to produce 30 pieces. She sold 29, raised $12,000 and donated $6,000 to ARTS.

“What 15 year-old needs that kind of money?” she said. “I’ll always donate back to my arts. Being an artist is hard. Art’s a want not a need. Art adds happiness to your life, but life as an artist is not an easy road. I’m grateful that I’m now able to make a living from my art and public speaking but I’m not rich. I’m a normal artist willing to spare the $5 coffee.”

In 2009, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, a husband-and wife documentary director team sought her out through ARTS after seeing her cow in La Jolla’s Parade of Cows exhibit. Sensing an opportunity to help others better understand homelessness, Inocente granted the couple permission to film her. Cameras followed her for two years before releasing Shine Global’s “Inocente” on MTV. And despite winning an Academy Award, the documentary was criticized.

“Because people thought it was too beautiful,” Inocente noted. “The story was sad but not as sad as people thought it should be. But it didn’t matter. The documentary gave me the ability to show the world the struggles of homelessness. Most people think of homelessness as a drug addict or an alcoholic man pushing a cart down the street collecting cans and it’s just not that way. Many people — families — are homeless because their parents can’t work. No kid should go hungry. No family should sleep in the park. Veterans who fought for their country are now living in the street. It’s all so unacceptable.”

Despite her shy and unassuming demeanor, Inocente spoke easily — and passionately — about the film’s relevance in the face of homelessness, immigration and art in schools.

“For the past three years, I’ve travelled cross country to screen the film at middle and high schools, student conferences, community centers and shelters because the topics are relevant. As long as homelessness exits, as long as kids don’t have a place to live or food even for a day, as long as we don’t have art in schools, as long as we don’t know how to treat immigrants, the documentary will always be relevant.”

Inocente also stressed the importance of educators in the face of homeless children. “I recently painted a tree made of little dots for the National Education Association,” she continued. “I wrote ‘love grows here’ because school educators are so important in kids’ lives. Kids spend half their days at school surrounded by the people who influence them the most. We titled the piece ‘Opportunity Grows Here’ because school is an opportunity.”

Inocente explained that without question, art steered her clear of drugs and alcohol. Peer pressure and her difficult life were simply channeled through more and more art.

“Life at 15 sucked,” she said. “Being homeless and not having friends sucked. But it sucked for a reason. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t go through all of those sucky days.”

Inocente now shares her one bedroom, Downtown apartment with her rescued rabbits Luna and Bun-Bun. Aspirations of college remain in the distant future, but only to study art history, convinced that no one can teach her the right or wrong way to paint. Gustav Klimt, an Austrian symbolist painter famous for his use of vibrant gold colors, remains a favorite inspiration. Today she and her family are legal U.S. Citizens.

“ArtWalk NTC at Liberty station celebrates artistry at its finest,” added Sandi Cottrell, ArtWalk NTC’s Managing Director. “And what better homecoming for Inocente, San Diego’s resident success story, to celebrate her roots. We’re thrilled that Inocente took time from her busy schedule of crisscrossing the country for film screenings, public speaking and one-woman shows to paint, paint, paint enough pieces to exhibit her work at ArtWalk NTC.”

“I’m confident with my calling as an artist,” Inocente concluded. “I realized in fifth grade that it didn’t matter if anyone thought I was good enough to be labeled the best artist among my peers, I felt good enough to be the best. I am and always will be positive about life. We were homeless yes, but I knew that other families were suffering worse. It didn’t make me happy knowing that others were suffering, it just made me realize how to appreciate the tiny little things.

“I live very day like it’s a gift,” she said. “I don’t focus on mistakes or what happened yesterday. If I get stuck there, I’ll never move forward. And I can’t change the past. So there’s only one way to go.”

ArtWalk NTC will be held Saturday, Aug. 15 and Sunday, Aug. 16, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., at Ingram Plaza, located at 2645 Historic Decatur Rd., in Liberty Station. Admission is free. For more information, visit artwalksandiego.org/ntc.

—Lucia Viti is a local freelance writer. Contact her at [email protected].