El Mac Paints Portrait of Connie Rice

Monday, January 2, 2012

To start off 2012 this month’s LA Times Magazine features an article with a portrait of civil rights attorney and social justice champion, Constance “Connie” Rice painted by the graffiti artist El Mac.

The first day of 2012 saw the release of this month’s LA Times Magazine, which included a portrait I painted for an article by respected civil rights attorney and social justice champion, Constance “Connie” Rice. When the project came to me I was excited to paint her and thought it would be great to paint the portrait as a mural, so it could have a life beyond being seen in the magazine. The Times was into the idea, and after asking around, I was able to secure a location for the mural on the side of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in West LA. I was also able to meet with Ms. Rice at her Advancement Project offices and take some photos of her for reference. Very inspiring woman. I painted the mural in a couple days, and it was barely completed in time for the publishing deadline. Many thanks to Connie, Cary, Hannah, the LA Times Magazine, Aris, Carol, Mary, the CSPG, Oscar and John for their help making this possible. Carlos Gonzalez also got some cool process shots.

El Mac