Corie Mattie
the hope dealer
By ELLEN LIU
While the city of Los Angeles is going through the pandemic of COVID-19, a series of bright yellow artworks that appeared on buildings grabbed people’s attention. These murals bear messages like “Cancel plans, not humanity,” “flatten the curve.” The artist behind these works is Corie Mattie, who refers to herself as LA Hope Dealer for the creation of this series, which reiterates what people are saying medically in a more creative way while adding an element of hope.
When asked about the motivation for creating street art of such a unique theme, Corie said her brother is a doctor at the local hospital, dealing with the crises head-on, which pushed her to make use of her talent to be creative and spread awareness that can help fight the pandemic.
Corie’s signature piece is the mural that says “Cancel plans, not humanity,” this piece encourages people to adhere to social distancing while maintaining the intimacy of human relationships. The small icons in the character’s coat, which include a praying emoji, a twitter logo, and a cellphone, not only give the piece a digitalized look but also implies that we should stay connected to our families and friends online while isolating ourselves.
Photo Credit: Wally Skalij
The hope dealer series are all in bright yellow, and this warm and catchy color brought out the murals, but why Corie chose this theme color was an interesting journey. Corie bought 5 gallons of yellow paint when she planned to do a Kobe mural, but the wall she wanted required a permit to paint the mural, so Corie changed her mind about the theme. ”It won’t be timely if I wait for that permit to arrive, so even though I’m not a huge yellow person, I decided to use those yellow paint to create something else.” However, Corie’s whim of the moment turned out to be a huge success. The artist started painting the first pandemic mural on Tuesday, March 24th, and the work was finished on Wednesday and got printed it on Los Angeles Times on Thursday morning.
Corie is now cooperating with a local facial mask maker, Ello, to make designed masks for the general public. According to the artist, every one mask they sold, one would be donated to charity, and thousands of masks have already been donated to LA Skid Row.
The artist hopes that her works can last longer on those walls, “I really want to symbolize a beacon of hope, but not only for people going through COVID-19, ”I hope that after this, people can still find strength through the hope dealer works.”
Photo Credit: Kendrick Brinson