Artist Ed Massey Greenlighted for Major LA Art Project

A major art installation that will fill MacArthur Park Lake with thousands of floating, hand-painted colorful spheres was approved recently by Los Angeles City leaders.

Conceptualized by artist Ed Massey, who owns a home in Pacific Palisades, and his brother Bernie, the installation is dubbed “The Spheres at MacArthur Park.”

“We are very excited because we just received the official approval from the City of Los Angeles to do this unprecedented historic art and civic project,” Massey told the Palisadian-Post.

For the project, Massey will be working with about 10,000 children, many of whom are undergoing treatment in the hospital, have physical disabilities or who come from low-income neighborhoods.

The children will be painting bold, bright colors on 10,000-12,000 inflatable spheres ranging in size from 4 to 6 feet that will help cover the lake, which is the size of about six football fields.

The project is the latest endeavor of Massey’s world-renowned program Portraits of Hope.

The brothers launched Portraits of Hope in 1995 as a creative therapy program for children with serious illnesses or disabilities, and it blends poignant visual imagery with civic engagement and education.

The program is known for creating large-scale, national projects that have visually transformed and enlivened public settings and symbols.

Palisadians may remember Massey’s 2010 ‘Summer of Color’ art installation, which involved wrapping brightly colored panels around 156 Los Angeles lifeguard towers, including 14 towers at Will Rogers State Beach.

For all Portraits of Hope projects, children paint on temporary canvases that work as skins that wrap around structures, Massey told the Post.

So far, nearly 1,000 organizations, such as schools, hospitals and social-service agencies, have participated in Portraits of Hope’s efforts.

And tens of thousands of participants have helped transform airplanes, blimps, buildings and even a fleet of New York City cabs – one of which is parked in front of a home Massey owns in the El Medio Bluffs – into works of art.

Other Portraits of Hope canvasses have included NASCAR racecars and even tugboats.

Holding a photo of one of the finished tugboats, Massey said that tugboats pull things – things like hopes and dreams.

The location of this latest installation holds social significance too, Massey said. MacArthur Park is an iconic LA symbol that has not received much attention in terms of job growth and economic development, according to the artist.

Plus, he always wanted to do an art installation project in a great body of water, he said.

“The only way to transform a body of water is to do something in the water,” Massey said, explaining that inflatable spheres were chosen because the shape is very familiar to children.

“Boys and girls have been playing with inflatable balls since very young ages,” Massey said.

For children whose illness or physical challenges restrict their access to the outdoors, a visual change in the exterior setting they see every day can be spiritually transformative, he said.

By bringing canvases to children in hospitals, underprivileged communities and students of all ages, Massey’s project incorporates people into the landscape of the finished work.

“Many of these children may not have wanted to go down and be around other children because of their surgeries,” he said. “This gives them the opportunity to do something engaging with others and to get their minds off their medications. We have seen this work.”

Portraits of Hope gives children an opportunity to collaborate on world-class projects and to realize their own power to influence change in the world, he explained.

This latest project is no different.

“We are going to do the entire program, painting with adults and kids, in a four-month period,” Massey said. “So, we are going to ask everyone from Los Angeles to roll up their sleeves, get ready and paint with us because this is an opportunity to do something and give back.”

Portraits of Hope projects are privately funded and “The Spheres at MacArthur Park” needs financing right now, Massey said.

The project is an opportunity to help beautify a neglected part of L.A. and to do something historically significant, he said.

Visit: portraitsofhope.org