Renowned Boyle Heights Artist Creates Mural for A New Way of Life’s 12th Safe Home
Los Angeles, CA—On February 21, 2023, renowned Boyle Heights artist, Robert Vargas, painted a mural for A New Way of Life Reentry Project’s 12th Safe Home. The mural was created in front of ANWOL residents, staff, and community members in South Central Los Angles at A New Way of Life’s Central Office. The mural holds special significance for ANWOL’s residents, as the painting “will serve as a beautiful reminder of the community, togetherness, and safe space that awaits them as they make their way in the world,” said Pamela Marshall (ANWOL Co-Director).
A New Way of Life resident, Marina Judkins, echoed this sentiment by stating, “being at the house, living there day to day and seeing this painting confirms that we come together in unity. When someone is down, we pick them back up.” Judkins continued, “Living here has been amazing. Walking into A New Way of Life’s 12 Safe Home feels like home.”
The mural was created by Robert Vargas and commissioned by Orrick Law Firm in celebration of the recent opening of A New Way of Life’s 12th Safe Home. Vargas is a highly regarded Los Angeles-based artist committed to bringing communities together by capturing and lifting up their inherent beauty. Born and raised in Boyle Heights, Vargas was honored by the Los Angeles City Council in 2022 by giving his name to the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Boyle Avenue.
The Orrick Law Firm has been a supporter of A New Way of Life Reentry Project since 2021, through their Orrick Racial, Social, and Economic Justice Fellowship. The fellowship enabled Orrick Senior Associate Andrea Mazingo to lend her services to ANWOL’s Family Reunification team from 2021 through 2022. Orrick has continued to support ANWOL’s work, with the most recent example including the commissioning of this mural and another (also by Vargas) that was placed in Orrick’s Los Angeles office.
The finished painting showcases 3 pairs of hands coming together in the middle of the painting. Each hand entails different details to resemble the different walks of life each woman comes from. This painting will be displayed at A New Way of Life’s 12th SAFE home in the dining room for the residents to come together and see it as one.
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About A New Way of Life
A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) helps women, families, and communities break the cycle and heal from the formidable experiences of incarceration. ANWOL advances multi- dimensional solutions to the effects of incarceration, including: (1) providing housing and support to formerly incarcerated women for successful community reentry, family reunification, and individual healing; (2) working to restore the civil rights of formerly incarcerated people; and (3) empowering, organizing, and mobilizing formerly incarcerated people as advocates for social change and personal transformation.
A New Way of Life is confronting harmful stereotypes and demonstrating that alternatives to incarceration are possible. ANWOL is breaking the cycle of recidivism, repairing families, and developing leaders. The organization’s approach is built upon four key values that are necessary to promote community reentry after incarceration: (1) every person has inherent value and holds the power of possibility and transformation within them; (2) public resources are better invested in opportunities for transformation than on prisons and punishment; (3) formerly incarcerated people must be at the forefront in creating solutions to the incarceration crisis; and (4) incarceration of a family member affects the entire family and the healing process must involve the entire family. For more information about A New Way of Life Reentry Project, visit: www.anewwayoflife.org.
