What’s My Thesis?

Lebanese weaver and performance artist Saba Sadr, an MFA student at Otis College of Art and Design, joins Javier Proenza to discuss returning to Los Angeles after more than two decades in Lebanon and how experiences of displacement, caregiving, and political conflict inform an evolving artistic practice. Although Sadr's work centers on weaving and performance, the conversation expands into broader questions of identity, memory, and belonging. Together they examine the meaning of resilience, the complexities of Lebanese conservatism and resistance, queer community organizing in Lebanon, the challenges of public visibility, and the long-term consequences of war on individuals, families, and cultural memory. Throughout the discussion, Sadr reflects on the relationship between art, community, and the responsibility of speaking from lived experience rather than abstraction.

Painter and sign painter Alex Gonzalez discusses growing up in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park, developing a narrative painting practice rooted in observation and metaphor, and balancing independent studio work with a career in professional sign painting.

Chicano artist Raul Baltazar discusses ritual performance, Mexican cultural history, and the role of community traditions in contemporary art, reflecting on syncretism, migration, and artistic devotion in Los Angeles.

Haitian painter and muralist Olivier Arsène Ganthier discusses Black figuration, Vodou syncretism, public art in Haiti, and completing his MFA at Otis College while navigating diasporic identity between Haiti, Miami, and Los Angeles.

Artist and organizer Frannie Hemmelgarn discusses DMST Atelier, community-based art in Los Angeles, affordable housing partnerships, gentrification, social practice, and her papermaking work rooted in repair and grief.