Lifestyle
For Mel Depaz, the streets of Compton are her studio
As a muralist, Mel Depaz is a storyteller. But when you look at her work overall, it’s clear how much her surroundings influence what she puts down with her brush. She’s all about community.
Mel’s paintings are about Compton and the elements that make up the city. I think that her work is very important because it allows the people who live here to have a visual of their community. For example, her mural featuring the Compton Cowboys. When you come through the city, you don’t really just see people riding horses around at all times of day. Then Mel’s work makes you wonder: Where are they at? How do I get close? Her work is inviting the public to take a closer look.
I met Mel at her family home on the east side of Compton, before we took a short drive to see her murals. Like her large-scale work, Mel’s paintings told the story of our shared city.
Mr. Wash: All of your work and your whole practice is in the outside space. Let’s talk about it in the sense it’s your studio. What do you like about it?
Mel Depaz: Getting to know the neighborhood. I don’t use spray paint. I only brush, so it takes me a while. I usually spend a week minimum on a mural, and I get to know the regulars. People are really nice — at least they’ve been nice to me. I’ll get offered free food, sometimes free drinks.
I feel like I know different areas of L.A. pretty intimately. I’ve been outside and I’m watching all the cars and seeing the people go by. I like that aspect. And then I also like being away from home all day and coming back and being tired. I like being exhausted at the end of the day. It’s a good feeling. Like, damn, I really put a lot into the wall.
MW: What do you not like about it?
MD: Sometimes it can be sketchy and you feel vulnerable. The other day I was up in the ladder and I had a box of brand-new paint, and some guy just got out of a car and stole it. But then he came back ten minutes later. He was like, “I’m sorry, I had a change of heart.”
MW: Really? Wow. Can you talk through the practicalities of having an open-air practice?
MD: The reason I haven’t moved into a studio or rented one is because as a muralist, you don’t really need it; the outside is your studio. So I just have a car. I’d rather spend what I would on a studio on a car, ’cause I need a big one. I have to think about transportation and space and things like that.
MW: I go down to Texas to work with my nephew Poncho. He’s a mural artist. He basically works out of the bed of his truck, going back and forth. So you are working as an artist here in Compton, you mentioned you have a car. Is it a hatchback? Is it an SUV?
MD: A Jeep. A Wrangler. It has storage capacity for buckets and stuff. I used to drive an older Camry and it got to the point where I was crossing ladders through the passenger seat and I popped the spraycan in the backseat. I ran it through. So I was like, OK, I can get a used car. But I also had used car trauma — my check engine light coming on, my dashboard lights. So I thought, I can get a used car or just get a new car with space. And I really needed one that’s closed. If I bought a truck, someone could steal my stuff while I get lunch. With the Jeep, I’ve been good at keeping it clean. I’m thinking about buying it. But that’s why I was like, let me get a car instead of a studio, because that’s really what I need.
MW: Smart decision. How long have you been a muralist?
MD: Six years. The NHS [Neighborhood Housing Services, Center for Sustainable Communities] one was my first mural.
MW: Can we talk about that connection?
MD: That was the first time I saw you. That was crazy. I came to the opportunity to paint that mural because I did a painting for Patria Coffee. That’s the first Compton-based painting I had ever done.
They had a regular who worked at the center at NHS, and he got my Instagram. He was like, I see you don’t have any mural experience, but we need a muralist. Do you mind finding another Compton artist that might have experience? I’d seen Anthony [Lee Pittman, also featured in this book] at a show maybe a month before. So I DMed Anthony like, “Hey, I got this opportunity. I have a meeting tomorrow. Do you want to be part of it?” We met literally 15 minutes before the meeting and we got the job.
When I was painting with Anthony, you came one day. I had just got off the scissor lift and then you said you were supposed to paint the wall, but got too busy. I was like, that’s crazy.
MW: Yeah. That was crazy. That was way back. What was it about the first mural that had you hooked and wanted to keep on doing them?
MD: I think I just liked being able to drive somewhere and stare at how big it was. I’ve always been a fan of street art and outside work, and even graffiti is a pathway to that. I’ve never been good at graffiti or none of that. So I just brought what I learned in school through painting to walls.
I grew up in the east side of Compton, and I would say I feel more connected to Compton overall now that I’ve been in little pockets of it through several hours and days.
— Mel Depaz
MW: Well, you’re very good at what you do. Neat, clean, and a storyteller. How many murals have you got in Compton?
MD: I’ve done 27 total, and 14 in Compton.
MW: How do you think painting murals in Compton has changed your relationship with the city?
MD: I grew up in the east side of Compton, and I would say I feel more connected to Compton overall now that I’ve been in little pockets of it through several hours and days.
I wouldn’t sign the first few murals I did because I wasn’t really too happy with what I was doing. I still felt like I was learning. But these last ones that I painted I signed them. This older Latino man came up to me and he was like, “Hi, mija. I’ve seen your work before. I want to say thank you for everything that you’ve done. I’ve looked for your name and I haven’t been able to find it, and I’m so happy that you’re here.” And then he gave me some lunch money. I guess he was religious, and he blessed me.
It was a cute moment because I didn’t even know people knew of me. And there’s little moments like that where it’s like, oh people are really watching and you don’t even realize.
MW: I was thinking that a lot of people who live in Compton, they’re seeing your work as part of their everyday, and there’s something really special about that.
MD: Lately I feel more proud of what I’ve been doing. There’s more sense of like, damn, I really did that. But in the beginning it was kind of that imposter syndrome. Like, I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m just going to keep doing it.
MW: That’s how it grows. Listen, same here. When I painted the first picture, I knew what I wanted to try to do, but when it came out onto the brushes, it wasn’t what I had in my head. It was just something totally different.
I was like, should I start over? Should I quit? Should I throw it away? I said, no, I’m going to keep it and I’m going to find lessons inside of that and just build off of that. You get better and better.
This interview was excerpted from Artists in Space by Mr. Wash, available to order on Feb. 16. Fulton Leroy Washington, a.k.a. Mr. Wash, is a Compton-based, self-taught artist and criminal justice reform advocate. All book sales will go toward the Art by Wash Studio & Community Center. Mr. Wash’s work has been exhibited at Jeffrey Deitch L.A., the Hammer Museum, LACMA, the Huntington Library, Palm Springs Art Museum and more.
“She’s like a female Willy Wonka,” Sakief Baron, 36, said about Kendra Austin, 32, after she explained that her personal style had a playful and cartoonish spirit.
Dressed in loose, oversize layers in blue and neutral shades, the couple were walking on the Upper East Side of Manhattan when I noticed them on a Saturday in April. There was a symmetry to their ensembles, so it wasn’t too surprising when she noted that he had influenced her fashion sense.
Before they met, she said, she was “less sure” about her wardrobe choices. “I also have lost 100 pounds in the time we’ve been together,” she added, which she said had helped her to recalibrate her relationship with clothes.
His style has been influenced by hip-hop culture, basketball players like Allen Iverson and his mother’s Finnish background. “I just take all these pieces and then it kind of comes together,” he said.
Both described themselves as multidisciplinary artists; he also has a job at a youth center, mentoring children. “I want to make sure that I look like someone they want to aspire to be every time they see me,” he said.
In my L.A. Buy Nothing group, I started noticing how some objects, given for free from neighbor to neighbor, carry emotional weight. An item was more than it appeared. It was a piece of personal history, perhaps one with generational memories.
From one person’s hands to another’s, objects find new life through the free gift economy on Facebook or the Buy Nothing app. Buy Nothing Project, a public benefit corporation, reports having 14 million members across more than 50 countries who give away 2.6 million items a month. There are more than 100 groups in Los Angeles alone.
Buy Nothing reduces waste by keeping items out of landfills. It also builds community. When our lives are increasingly online, Buy Nothing encourages us to get out of our cars and make connections with neighbors, even if the interaction is no more than a wave when picking something up left by a doorstep. Researchers have found that even small social interactions can foster a sense of belonging.
Still, Buy Nothing has its challenges. For years, some have complained that the groups shouldn’t be limited to neighborhoods, but rather have more open borders. Last year, many longtime members complained about the project enforcing its trademark, leading Facebook to shut down unregistered groups even if they were serving people under economic strain. Critics saw the tattling as a shift from mutual aid toward control and branding. For its part, Buy Nothing says its decisions are based on building community, trust and safety.
Despite those disagreements, Buy Nothing offers a platform for special connections. As much as there are jokes about people offering half-eaten cake, many have passed along treasured items. Buy Nothing items may feel too valuable for the trash or too personal for Goodwill. The interaction between giver and receiver becomes just as meaningful as the object itself.
I set out to document these quiet exchanges in my Buy Nothing group, drawn to the question of why people choose to pass their belongings from one neighbor to another.
Tiny builders, big exchange
Lidia Butcher gives a toolbox and worktable her two sons used to Chelsea Ward for her 17-month-old son.
“We’ve had the toolbox and worktable for the last 10 years, it’s been very special. When I told my youngest son we were going to give it away, he was a little sad. He said he was still playing with it, but then I explained that it’s been sitting untouched for a year and that if we gave it to someone else, maybe someone else would be happy about it. So he felt joy about giving it to another child who would want to play with it. I have this little emotional feeling letting it go, but at the same time, it’s a good feeling. Like a new beginning.”
— Lidia Butcher, 35, joined the group several years ago when someone told her a person in the group once asked for a cup of sugar.
“We’re getting a worktable. Benji is now old enough to be interested in playing with tools. I’m going to move my drafting table out of his room. His bedroom is my office. So that will go into storage or the Buy Nothing group and the worktable will go in its place. We live in an apartment, and as he’s growing, his needs change but our space doesn’t. Buy Nothing is really helpful to be able to cycle out of stuff.”
— Chelsea Ward, 38, has found the Buy Nothing group extremely helpful since becoming a mom.
Something borrowed
Abby Rodriguez lends Sophie Janinet a veil for her wedding.
“Sophie had asked for a wedding veil on our Buy Nothing group and I’m lending it to her because I wanted it to have a second life. I hate the idea that precious things just sit there and never get touched. My wedding day was one of the best days of my life. At one point the power went out and now we have this amazing picture with my husband and I and everyone using their phone to light up the dance floor.”
— Abby Rodriguez, 40, discovered Buy Nothing when she moved to her northeast L.A. neighborhood in 2020.
“I moved to Los Angeles from France four years ago. The day I joined Buy Nothing was the first time I felt connected to the community. It played a huge role in my adapting to life here. I’m receiving a veil because I want my wedding to look and feel like my values. I thrifted my dress, I chose a local seamstress to alter the dress but when I tried it on, I felt something was missing. I wanted a veil but I didn’t want to buy new because I didn’t want to add anything to the landfill. So I posted a request for the veil on Buy Nothing.”
— Sophie Janinet, 37, is recreating the low-waste, slower-paced values she once lived by in France through her local Buy Nothing community.
2
1. Abby Rodriguez, left, holds her wedding veil that she is lending Sophie Janinet, right, for her upcoming wedding. 2. Michele Sawers, left stands with Beth Penn, right, while giving her a decorative owl.
A pigeon-spooking owl gets a second life
Michele Sawers gives Beth Penn a decorative owl.
“Coming from a place of luck, now I have plenty to give. The owl has been with me for 26 years. I bought the owl soon after I bought this house. The owl was purchased because I had a pigeon problem, they would camp out under my eves and I would have bird poop everywhere. The owl must have worked because they’re gone and they haven’t come back.”
— Michele Sawers, 58, uses Buy Nothing regularly to connect with her community and support her low-consumption values.
“There are things I don’t want to own. So borrowing those things on Buy Nothing is really nice. There is a person who I borrowed their cooler twice and their ladder twice so I feel like they are my neighbor even though they are not [right next door]. We get these birds that poop on the deck and the recommendation online was to get a fake owl. When it was posted on Buy Nothing, I thought, ‘I have to have that owl!’ It’s going to have a good home with me on the deck with some cats, a dog and some kids.”
— Beth Penn, 47, once helped build her local Buy Nothing group and now experiences it from the other side, as a member.
Stuffed toys find a new purpose
Magaly Leyva, left, stands with Tatiana Lonny, right, with the stuffed toys and play balls she is gifting her.
(Dania Maxwell/For The Times)
Magaly Leyva gives stuffed toys and plastic play balls to Tatiana Lonny.
“My mother-in-law gave the dolls and plastic play balls to my daughter, but she has so much. My daughter is not going to play with them with the same intent that another kid would, because she’s really little. I’d rather another kid use these things.”
— Magaly Leyva, 35, joined Buy Nothing nearly four years ago to find clothes for her nephew.
“I’m taking these new items to a township called Langa in South Africa. I know the kids there will be so happy. They have so little there. I’m doing this all by myself, I’m just collecting a GoFundMe for the suitcase fee at the airport.”
— Tatiana Lonny, 51, began using Buy Nothing in hopes of finding resources to support the animals she rescues.
A second helping
Laura Cherkas gives Aurora Sanchez a cast iron pan.
“Buy Nothing gives me the freedom to let go of things because I know that they will stay in the community and the neighborhood. I’m giving a couple of cast iron items that my husband and I got when we were on a cast iron kick, probably during COVID. We determined that we don’t actually use these particular pans and they were just making our drawers heavy. So we decided to let someone else get some use out of them.
“I hate throwing things away. I want to see things have another life. Sometimes I take things to a donation center, but I like the personal connection with Buy Nothing and that you know that there is someone who definitely wants your item.”
— Laura Cherkas, 40, has built connections with other moms through Buy Nothing and values it as a way to cycle toys in and out for her child.
Laura Cherkas, left, holds the pan she is gifting Aurora Sanchez, right, through Buy Nothing.
(Dania Maxwell/For The Times)
“I wanted a cast iron pan because I cook a lot of grilled meat. I’m excited to try this style of cooking out and it will help me when I cook for only one or two people. I got lucky because I was chosen to receive it.”
— Aurora Sanchez, 54, has spent the past two years engaging with Buy Nothing, finding in it a sense of neighborly support that makes her feel valued while strengthening her connection to the community.
Next player up
Joe Zeni, 70, is using his local Buy Nothing group on Facebook to give away a basketball hoop he used with his son when he was little.
(Dania Maxwell/For The Times)
Joe Zeni first offered a basketball hoop on Buy Nothing in 2023, where it remains unclaimed.
“I’m giving away a Huffy basketball freestanding hoop because it’s just taking up space. We used to play horse and shoot baskets together. My son is now 35, he doesn’t live here anymore.”
— Joe Zeni, 70, uses Buy Nothing often to give items away, believing many of the things he no longer needs still have purpose.
In the year since his death, there has been no hard pivot at Armani. The shadow of the founder has stayed in place over the Milan HQ, where the brand seems happy to leave it. Armani is not just plumbing the past for continued inspiration, it’s reselling it.
Today, Giorgio Armani is announcing Archivio, a grouping of 13 men’s and women’s looks, plucked from the brand’s back catalog and remade for today. (And, yes, at today’s prices.) There’s a jacket in pinstriped alpaca of 1979 vintage; a buttery one-and-a-half breasted jacket with a maitre d’s flair that first appeared in 1987; and an unstructured silk-linen suit that will activate ’90s flashbacks for die-hard Armani clients and those who want to capture that era’s nostalgia. The advertising campaign was shot and styled by Eli Russell Linnetz, who has his own label, ERL, but always seems to be the first call brands make when they want sultry photos with the aura of Details magazine circa 1995. (He did a similar thing for Guess recently.)
Linnetz’s images are a reminder of how Armani’s work still reverberates decades later.
Archivio is also a canny recognition of what shoppers crave now. On the resale market, Armani wares are as coveted as can be. Every week it seems as if I get an email from Ndwc0, a British vintage store, announcing a new drop of meaty-shouldered ’90s Armani power suits. They sell for less than $500. At Sorbara’s in Brooklyn, you can buy a tan Giorgio Armani vest for $225.
That vintage-mad audience is in Armani’s sights: To introduce the collection, it’s staging an installation, opening today, at Giorgio Armani’s Milan boutique. It will feature the hosts of “Throwing Fits,” a New York-based podcast whose hosts wear vintage Armani button-ups and shout out stores like Sorbara’s.
It’s prudent, if a bit disconnected. Part of the charm of old Armani is that it can be found on the cheap. I’m wearing a pair of vintage Giorgio Armani corduroys as I write this. I bought them for $76 on eBay. Archivio is reverent, but its prices, which range from $1,025 to $12,000, may scare off shoppers willing to do the searching themselves.
If you ask me, the next frontier of this archive fixation is that a brand — and a big one — will release a mountain of genuine vintage pieces. J. Crew and Banana Republic have tried this at a small scale, but a luxury house like Armani hasn’t gone there. Yet. Eventually, Armani (or a brand like it) is going to grab hold of the market that exists around its brand, but through which it gets no cut.
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