The renovated facility for the Long Beach Mental Health Center serves over 4,000 clients annually ranging from children, adolescents, families and adults to provide psychiatric, early intervention and clinical services. To further promote the Department of Mental Health’s mission statement of “hope, recovery and well-being,” the LA County Department of Arts and Culture's Civic Art Program developed a curatorial approach that focuses on artworks that provide warmth, contribute to the healing process and reduce stress. The 18 works in the collection are by local artists, with an emphasis on abstract work evoking the California landscape and include artists Betsy Lohrer Hall, Brian Hollister, Margaret Lazzari, Kimiko Miyoshi, Leo Rivas and Ashley Shumaker.
About the Artist:
Leo Rivas is a Los Angeles native who received his BFA from California State University Long Beach where he studied photography art. His interest in the field began when he was a child and took photographs with his mother’s Minolta camera. Much of his work is taken during long road trips. “If there is something that has ‘movement’ in my view, I'll stop and stare, and record that moment.” His photographs of beaches, street scenes and cityscapes capture the spirit and atmosphere of southern California.
