Picture of the Week #384  "SEK: As If The Oppressor Was Never A Child As If Heroin Was Never A Flower"

SEK or Luis is an incredible artist that I was lucky enough to meet and photograph for my portraits of Down Town Artists a few months ago. We went to see him and the other artists last Saturday at the Container Yard downtown Los Angeles. He is so angelic and beautiful that I always have to take a photo. He's shy and doesn't like to have his picture taken. He never said that but his body language always showed me his discomfort. The words painted above him were actually on a small wall that was on the balcony looking down on the vast space beneath his studio. The writing caught my eye and I was drawn into what he was saying and the power of his poetry. SEK is now 23. He was in jail at 12 and a junkie. He's cleaned up his act and his paintings are not only poetry but are brilliant in their observations. And Yes, I know he misspelled Oppressor. He works very quickly and loosely and I am sure his thoughts were faster than his hand and he left out the "R". But he is definitely an artist to watch.