Lili Bernard, Fine Artist, Studio-Showroom

My Studio-Showroom is located in the premiere art gallery district of Chung King Road in Chinatown, Los Angeles, California. In an intimate courtyard style environment; Chung King Road harbors an eclectic mix of decades-old family-owned Chinese arts and crafts boutiques, a sprinkling of artists studios and about a dozen contemporary mostly western art galleries, above which the homes of mostly Chinese residents rest.

The galleries include Peres Projects, LMann Gallery, Sam Lee, Kontainer, Chung King Project, China Art Objects, Black Dragon Society, Mary Goldman Gallery, The Happy Lion, Fringe, POVevolving and Telic, among others. Accessible by foot traffic only, Chung King Road is three blocks east of Figueroa Street and one block west of Hill Street, between Bernard Street and College Street.

The nearest freeway exit is the Hill Street/Dodger Stadium Exit (Exit 24b) off of the 110 Free Way. Immediately upon exiting the freeway, there is a parking lot visible on the west side of Hill Street at the north end of the Chung King Road pedestrian alley. The parking is $3.50 for the whole day, during weekdays, and $5.50 for the whole day, during weekends. There is also free curbside street parking available in the vicinity.

My acquiring this Chinatown studio space, in February 2007, was divinely inspired. While I was painting portraits of three of my ancestors, their spirits led me to Chung King Road. I was not looking for a space, nor did I even know that there existed a Chung King Road art gallery district. The ancestors whose faces I was painting were my maternal Chinese great-grandfather Chung Fatt, and my paternal grandparents José Rodríguez Figueroa (Cuban) and his Jamaican wife Harriet Bernard. My great-grandfather Chung immigrated from China to Kingston Jamaica, where he met my great-grandmother, Miss Lou, who was a half black, half white Jamaican woman.

Like my maternal great-grandfather Chung, my father's father (José Rodríguez Figueroa), also immigrated to Kingston Jamaica (from Cuba, where I was born) and also married a Jamaican woman who was half black, half white (my grandmother Harriet Bernard).

While I was painting my great-grandfather Chung's portrait, I felt his spirit tell me to look into Chinatown, to go there and to take with me a photograph of him along with my "Mambo Mama" painting which I had made of his daughter (my grandmother Princesa). Before going into Chinatown, with the photograph and the painting; I searched the internet for Chinatown and art.

I was surprised when I found that there was a prominent art

gallery district there, of which I had known nothing about. On my drive to Chinatown, I had to take Figueroa Street. I parked on Bernard Street which is adjacent to Chung King Road. When I first saw that the names of these streets are the names of my three grandparents; I chuckled and knew that their spirits were intervening on my behalf. I thought, at first, that my ancestors merely wanted me to show my artwork to the art galleries there, to see if the galleries would be interested in representing me.

	I introduced myself to some of the art dealers on Chung King Road and some were very friendly and open. Later, upon researching the bios of the artists whom these galleries, as well as other mainstream art galleries and museums, represent; I quickly learned that if I were not a young white male, holding an MFA from a prestigious art school; my chances of having my work exhibited in any mainstream gallery or museum in Los Angeles would be very slim. On Chung King Road, after having introduced myself to the art gallery owners there, I met two Chinese brothers, Larry and Marvin Lee, storefront owners and residents there. I showed them the photo of my Chinese great-grandfather Chung
My great-grandfather Chung		"Mango Mama: My Abuela Princesa"

and my painting of his daughter Princesa that I had been toting around to the Chung King Road art galleries. The Lee brothers were receptive when I told them that my great-grandfather's spirit had led me there. Larry Lee shared with me the politics and dynamics of the gallery world on Chung King Road, as he knew them to be. He introduced me to several of his Chinese storefront owning neighbors who echoed similar sentiments about the gentrification, reflecting upon its good points and its bad points.

Mr. Lee suggested to me that I do my own thing and open up my own personal studio on Chung King Road, where I could show my own work. He recommended that I time my openings with the openings of the art galleries there, for maximum visibility. Larry said that if I were to give him my number; he would keep an eye out for me and call me, should a space come up for rent.

Almost a year later, after having made no contact with Mr. Lee or anyone else in Chinatown and having made no attempt to even look for a studio space; I received a phone message from Mr. Lee, rejoicing that he had found a space for me to rent on Chung King Road and that the owners would be calling me shortly to offer it to me. Immediately following Larry's message, was a

Chung King Road, during art show openings, March 2007

message almost entirely in Cantonese, left by a woman named Mrs. Chew, the owner of the space, a neighbor of the Lee's whom I had never met. All I could understand was the bit of broken English at the end of her message, saying "Come, Lili, come. We have good space for you, good price." Her tone was sweet and earnest. The rest, as they say, is history.

I'm grateful for the faith which the Lees and the Chews exhibited in me. To this day, Mr. Lee continues to work as an angel on my behalf, looking out for my well being and offering me good advice. I'm also grateful for the respect and love with which the neighbors on Chung King Road regard me, including the art gallery owners who are always quick to lend me a helping hand with my children or my canvases, when I am carrying them into my studio.

There are several signs that lend testimony to the phenomenon of my three like-minded ancestors interceding together on my behalf, while I was painting their portraits, so that I would acquire my studio space. The studio is located on Chung King Road. Chung was the family name of my Chinese great-grandfather, Chung Fatt. The word King is also significant, because those three ancestors lived in Kingston Jamaica.

There are even more signs. I have to take Figueroa Street to Chinatown. The studio is located three blocks east of Figueroa (three, as in "the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit"). My father's father's name was José Rodríguez Figueroa and he was an evangelical protestant minister. My parents raised us as Baptists. Chung King Road is adjacent to the First Chinese Baptist Church. The church is just a few steps from my studio. Chung King Road is located between Bernard Street and College Street. My grandmother's name (my Abuelo Jose's preacher wife) was Harriet Bernard. The Chinese Baptist Church is on Yale and Bernard Street. To the right is a photo of my grandparents, Figueroa and Bernard, whose spirits interceded for me. Their bibles are in their hands, as they were in many photographs in which they appeared.

My grandparents Figueroa and Bernard

College Street is also a sign of divine intervention because my youth mentoring arts program ¡HABLA! focuses on preparing fine arts-oriented youth for success in the mainstream art world via a college education in fine arts. The program stresses the importance of receiving an MFA. In the Spring of 2006, the academic publishing company Peterson's, had approached me to write an article on the importance of a college education in fine arts. In October 2006, my essay was published in Peterson's 2007 Guide to Colleges for Visual Arts Majors. That same month, I received the call from Larry Lee about the rental space being available.

My father is a retired professor and electrical engineer. He always stressed upon us the importance of obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees in whatever fields we pursue. He received that knowledge from his father (Figueroa) who, as well as being a college-educated pastor, ran a school in his home.

It is not a coincidence that I find myself occupying a studio space in one of Los Angeles' most prestigious art gallery districts, where the names of the streets (left, right & below) are the names of my grandparents. I realize that I am the hope of my ancestors upon whose shoulders I stand. Their spirits speak to me clearly in my dreams and through signs in my consciousness. I consider it a divine responsibility to glorify God, through the telling of the stories of my ancestors in my paintings. I let God order my steps, so that the dreams of my fore bearers, to whom much I owe, may be fulfilled.

A special thanks to the Chew Family for renting their space to me and to their neighbors (the brothers) Larry and Marvin Lee for having recommended me to them, during a time when I was not even looking for a space. It was all meant to be.

"I have found power in the mysteries of thought, exaltation in the changing of the Muses I have been versed in the reasoning of men but Fate is stronger than anything I have known." Euripides

"To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root." Chinese Proverb

For a map of the location of my studio, click here