STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON HE COMES AND STRAIGHT INTO ART HE GOES

by Edward M. Gómez

Little Walt Dog, a self-taught artist from Compton, a city south of downtown Los Angeles, discovered the therapeutic, communicative power of art during the 29 years he served as an inmate in federal prisons.

Ironically, in recent years, the laws against the possession of marijuana that originally landed “L.W.D.,” as he is known, in the slammer, have been upturned. As a result, today, marijuana can legally be sold, purchased, and/or consumed for medicinal or recreational purposes in many parts of the U.S.A. (L.W.D.’s nickname comes from that of one of his former prison-mates, a young man who, the artist said, “really had to defend himself; he was tough, but eventually was beaten.” He took his pal’s moniker as a way of honoring him.)

Since L.W.D.’s release from prison in 2019, without any sense of bitterness and with what sounded in a recent telephone interview with brutjournal like boundless enthusiasm for starting a new life “on the outside,” L.W.D. has moved on. Today, he dedicates his time and energy to making art, an activity he began exploring during the latter years of his incarceration.

His paintings of cars, highways, and everyday scenes from his surroundings celebrate his appreciation of personal freedom and a spirit of fellowship with his community. Ruffed Grouse Gallery, which is based in Narrowsburg, New York, will show them at this year’s Outsider Art Fair in New York (Thursday, February 27 through Sunday, March 2).

In L.W.D.’s oil-on-canvas compositions, the artist strips down his subjects to their basic shapes; he paints them flat, with little or no illusionistic, three-dimensional modeling, an approach that shares affinities with the styles of modernist painters who sought — and celebrated — the expressive power of pure form. Still, L.W.D.’s working method is not at all calculated. Instead, as he told us, he tends to “start with a thought about something I’d like to paint that may well become something else as I go along.”

He said, “My cars are metaphors for people. They also can be seen as symbols of freedom — you know, the great American love affair with automobiles and the open road. I paint the cars I love the most: low-riders, Chryslers, Lincolns! Of course I’m influenced by California’s car culture. Sometimes I’ll be working, and I’ll see that I’m creating a series of related paintings, so sometimes I work in series. Lately, I’ve also been exploring making installations.”

As a community activist, L.W.D. has taken part in a program that makes art-creating opportunities available for people coming out of prison. He has also donated one of his paintings to a fundraising effort in support of local firefighters.

Little Walt Dog has shown his art at Sow & Tailor, a gallery in Los Angeles; at Nationale, an art space in Portland, Oregon; and at other venues.

Feeling optimistic about the future as his art-making career takes off, he observed, enthusiastically, “Art is king!”

[Scroll down to see more of Little Walt Dog’s paintings.]