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| Jose Leonardo St. John The Baptist in the Wilderness (1635) |
He's a Blood, but he's Cripping!
exclaimed a 10th-grader named Leon Rodriguez.
The South-Central Los Angeles
teacher co-sponsoring the field trip
to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
was intrigued by the exclamation.
The boy might as well have been talking
through a megaphone.
"Explain what you mean, Leon
but please lower your voice."
"Will do, Ms. Demuth."
Leon was Demuth's favorite student.
He was no stranger to being
the center of attention.
******************
Leon Rodriguez was also an unofficial service worker
for his Math teacher, the other sponsor of this field trip an Art Museum.
Denise Demuth had recently graduated from the Otis College of Art & Design.
I was old enough to be her father but when Leon told her about the Art "poster"
in my classroom, she was anxious to meet me.
The poster was actually a handwritten slogan:
Art is the most beautiful form of applied Mathematics.
I had been a card-carrying member of LACMA for ten years
and Jose Leonardo's 17th century portrait was familiar to me.
******************
On an October Sunday in 1996, I met Demuth (and her "partner," Lynn)
at the museum. I had guest passes for them and they treated me to lunch.
Lynn addressed Denise Demuth as DeeDee.
Both of them were impressed with the life-size portrait of the Saint.
Lynn read the measurements of Leonardo's oil painting.
"Seventy-seven inches by forty-six inches."
DeeDee said:
"The arresting figure of John the Baptist appears to be
walking off the canvas to greet the viewer."
Spoken like a true art teacher.
Oliverio said:
"Ms. Demuth, I can picture you describing this portrait
to your Jefferson students. Is it in any of your Art history books?"
"The hell with books," interjected Lynn,
"Why don't you bring your class here to see Art in the flesh?
The second Tuesday of the month is Free Admission For Everyone."
My only memory of a Free Tuesday at the Los Angeles
County Museum was that LACMA felt as if there were
an invasion of rugrats.
But I enthusiastically high-fived Lynn for the idea.
"Consider it done, Mr. Oliverio. I have some grant money
from the Otis Institute for such a field trip," said DeeDee.
"All I need is a second teacher or chaperone,
to help with crowd control."
The GodFather of Math was willing and eager to offer his services.
******************
On the second Tuesday of December in 1996, twenty ghetto students
were stockpiled into two mini-vans at precisely 8AM.
Ten students in each van.
The chauffeurs were the only two white people present:
Demuth & Oliverio.
Earlier that morning, DeeDee said to Paul:
"I had debated with Lynn. Either I would have us meet up
with my Lesbian lover or we begin the field trip with
a religious painting.
"Lynn gave it a moment's thought before declaring
that John the Baptist is the lesser of two evils."
"But two evils can be better than one,"
suggested the GodFather.
"She much prefers watching the Rosie O'donell Show
to being with teenagers."
"I would too, if it paid the same."
"I wish it did but I am the only breadwinner in our house."
The drive from the South-Central Los Angeles–
the Blood & Crip capital of the universe–to a world-class
Art Museum–felt like an inter-planetary journey.
But, with the exception of Leon, all of Demuth's
INTRODUCTION TO ART students
had an advanced degree in Timidity.
Look at St. John's robe.
Red is the color of the Bloods!
Look at his hand.
It forms the letter C
That's the symbol of the Crips!
And the guy in the background...
He's also wearing a red robe!
Hey!
Isn't that Jesus Christ?
"Yes, Leon, that is Jesus in the background.
He was humble enough to let John the Baptist
be in the spotlight, so to speak...
"St. John appears to be walking off the canvas
to greet the viewer, not to threaten the viewer!
"But associating John the Baptist with gang symbols
is not unheard of. Jesus was the gang leader, of course,
and he had only one weapon: LOVE!"
******************
The rest of the field trip to LACMA is a wonderful fog
except for what happened when we boarded the vans
at the end of the day.
A museuem representative ran over to Ms. Demuth
and thanked her for having "the best behaved
students of Free Tuesday."
The museum rep high-fived Leon Rodriguez,
giving both–the art teacher and her favorite student–
two free passes to the museum.
The rest of that school year, Leon insisted
on being addressed as Leonardo.
I'll say Amen to that!
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