Fabian Deborah believes that art can be a solitary act, but it can save you from a life of destruction and gang violence.
Deborah, a muralist and co-founder of Homeboy Art Academy in East Los Angeles, exemplifies this belief.
Deborah, a former gang member who spent several years in prison, was recently honored by him. National Endowment for the Arts as a 2024 NEA National Heritage FellowShe received the award Wednesday at a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., along with other award winners, who are recognized for their contributions to folk and traditional arts.
Deborah, 48, is recognized for her work as a teacher and mentor to others who find purpose through the arts. At Homeboy Art Academy, which is affiliated with her. Homeboy IndustriesDeborah and other mentors mentor youth who are actively involved in gang life, have recently been released from prison, or are seeking refuge from gang life.
Deborah believes that art can also take you to beautiful places.
The subjects of his art include the people he sees in the working-class neighborhoods where he grew up and still calls home.
In March, Deborah’s Revival series titled “Cara de Vago” showcased her paintings inspired by the Italian master Caravaggio. In Deborah’s work, she portrayed a young girl from Lincoln Heights posing as the Virgin Mary. Angels descended upon young Cholos under the orange light of a Los Angeles streetlight. In another painting, a masked indigenous warrior presented himself to a holy fool who jabbed his finger into his hip, similar to the biblical scene of Thomas with Christ after his resurrection.
Deborah said she owes much of her inspiration to the Chicano muralist movement that grew throughout Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s.
“I think the Chicano mural movement taught me that we paint the truth,” Deborah said after receiving the award. “We paint something that is real. We paint something, you know? And we’re also portraying not only the struggles, but the social justice and the resilience that we have as human beings or housewives, or let’s say, people of color or whatever you want to call it.”
Deborah’s transition from band member to nationally recognized artist is due to the kindness of Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries.
At the age of 12, Deborah joined a gang and served time in juvenile hall for fighting, stealing, and protecting his and his family’s life. In 1994, he was sentenced to three years in a juvenile labor camp until Boyle intervened. He convinced a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to place Deborah in a program with the East Los Streetscapers, an artist collective that began after the Chicano moratorium in the 1970s, and moved into the Palmetto Gallery, an art space founded in 1990.
“I have known Fabian for over thirty years, and during that time art has been his refuge and the focus of his life,” Boyle said in a statement upon accepting the NEA National Heritage Award. She called it “a recognition of his creative talents and will have a positive impact on his family, everyone at Homeboy Art Academy, and our entire Homeboy community.”
In her acceptance speech, Deborah thanked Boyle, Homeboy Industries and her academy students, whom she called her “art team.”
“You give me life every day and for that I am grateful,” he said.
In October, Deborah plans to install a three-story wall called “Boyle Heights Silver Art” at a Boyle Heights apartment complex.
“When you think about my life and what I’ve been through,” Deborah said, “you see all the layers of Boyle Heights that sometimes people don’t see, and you feel it.”
He sees the wall as an opportunity to give back to the community, which is just another way of trying to create a beautiful place.
