{"id":1315,"date":"2017-07-19T23:49:49","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T23:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/arts-culture\/lost-in-the-world-bodeck-hernandez-rediscovers-his-roots-for-pow-wow-long-beach\/"},"modified":"2017-07-19T23:49:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T23:49:49","slug":"lost-in-the-world-bodeck-hernandez-rediscovers-his-roots-for-pow-wow-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/lost-in-the-world-bodeck-hernandez-rediscovers-his-roots-for-pow-wow-long-beach","title":{"rendered":"LOST IN THE WORLD: Bodeck Hernandez Rediscovers His Roots For Pow! Wow! Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"IMG<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Bodeck Hernandez of his work for the Cambodia Town Mural Project. Bodeck stands between volunteer artists\u00a0<\/em>Jason Chang and\u00a0<\/em>Christian Orozco.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe finished it with our headlights on,\u201d said Long Beach artist Bodeck Hernandez. \u201cI flew out to the Phillipines the night after deadline!”<\/p>\n

Hernandez is exhausted, jet-lagged, and relieved after finishing his first-large scale mural in Cambodia Town, a painting that has prepared him for his next piece for Pow! Wow! Long Beach<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Aside from finishing a massive mural on a tight deadline, he just got back to his Retro Row apartment from visiting family in the Philippines for the first time in 16 years. It\u2019s been a long journey for Hernandez, one which mirrors a path to rediscovering himself as an artist now living in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Born in Manila, Hernandez was raised in the Philippines and migrated to America with most of his family at the age of 14. His family eventually settled in Long Beach and while attending Wilson High, culture shock and discrimination coldly greeted a young Bodeck.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacism is real,\u201d Hernandez said, woefully. \u201cIt’s something I’ve never faced because where I grew up, everyone looked the same. Everyone in the Philippines is welcoming. If you\u2019re a foreigner, they\u2019re very welcoming. It\u2019s, \u2018Welcome to my land, let me show you around!\u2019 It’s the opposite here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DSC<\/p>\n

Hernandez working on his mural for <\/em>Pow! Wow! Long Beach at 3rd Street and Redondo Avenue. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hernandez struggled with attempting to act \u201cmore Americanized,\u201d by dressing and speaking differently to fit in, the suppression of his Filipino roots he attributes to a faded memory of his childhood in Manila.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m trying so hard not to forget where I’m from,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThese paintings are like a bridge to my past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juxtaposed against lush, primary colors, Hernandez\u2019 work is unforgettable; trapped behind the veneer of what looks like a faded VCR tracking screen are big, bold faces lost in a near-dreamlike scene. His pieces portray memories on pause, a heightened sense of realism with pixels and faces missing, a recollection of an event that may or may not have happened the way he remembers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a play on memory,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as a photorealistic memory. Your mind fills in the blanks of what you can\u2019t recall. That\u2019s what I try to show with my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"19905136<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Bodeck Hernandez.<\/em><\/p>\n

He says his style was born out of a love for both abstract and photorealistic paintings. Mashing both expressions together and throwing in a pinch of his own identity crisis culminates in a distinct visual style that Hernandez says \u201ccreates a heavy theme of nostalgia.\u201d
If you\u2019re wondering where you can see Hernandez\u2019s work, you won\u2019t have to go far: the local artist\u2019s visual language decorates a wide swath of Long Beach.<\/p>\n

On PCH and Long Beach Boulevard outside of a McDonald\u2019s is a utility box, adorned with a painting of a young, smiling Syrian woman. The choice of gender and ethnicity, he said, wasn\u2019t random.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized with the city’s gentrification problems, I was just thinking about who’s being displaced, mistreated, and made the work there site specific,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cGiven the political climate, I made sure a minority girl is facing the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the utility box art, his first large-scale mural is a piece that was painted during the Arts Council for Long Beach\u2019s Cambodia Town Mural Project. He enlisted the help of friends, fended off cops trying to shut him down, and finished in a tight three weekends, all before his trip to see family in the Philippines the day after deadline.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/em><\/p>\n

Hernandez’ Cambodia Town Mural Project work in progress. Photo courtesy of Bodeck Hernandez.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a piece that he\u2019s proud of, and one he hoped to make a statement with. After considering making the mural with a sunny, beachy disposition, Hernandez wanted to shine a light on a marginalized group in Cambodia\u2014blue collar workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go to Cambodian restaurants, you always see big paintings and pictures of Angor Wat and Phnom Penh,\u201d he said. \u201cI’d always see these cool boats and I thought, I won’t do the touristy temples, I’ll do these boats. People make a living doing the tourist stuff and the temples, but these people on the boats, they hustle.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the giant golden boy with confidently crossed arms standing front and center, Hernandez says that was a carefully considered choice as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to empower Asian boys,\u201d he said. \u201cCulture and mass media tends to emasculate Asian males. So, I wanted to make him very large and very gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DSC<\/p>\n

Hernandez working on his mural for <\/em>Pow! Wow! Long Beach. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/em><\/p>\n

For his Pow! Wow! Long Beach<\/em> piece this year, Hernandez is ecstatic (\u201cit\u2019s wild when Jasper Wong sends you an email telling you you\u2019ve been selected\u201d) and aims to keep his art site specific. When pressed about what he\u2019ll do for the piece, Hernandez played coy, but assured it would be light-hearted in tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kids going to school, you know? I wanna make them happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Juxtaposed against lush, primary colors, Hernandez\u2019 work is unforgettable; trapped behind the veneer of what looks like a faded VCR tracking screen are big, bold faces lost in a near-dreamlike scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":66753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[53],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-pow-wow-long-beach","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1315"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}