Artist Terrick Gutierrez designs a holiday-themed t-shirt to support Spark of Love toy drive
SOUTH CENTRAL, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Terrick Gutierrez is a LA-based interdisciplinary artist, creative technologist, activist, and storyteller whose work is deeply rooted in his upbringing and community.
Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Terrick discovered drawing at an early age as a means of self-expression and escape. As a young Black male navigating the complexities of his environment, art became a tool for storytelling and connection.
"My work just speaks about growing up here, the interpersonal connections we have. Really talking about the built environment and the influences it has on us," said Gutierrez.
ABC7 partnered with Smile South Central to identify Gutierrez to design our Spark of Love t-shirt this year.
For one of his previous public housing projects, Gutierrez recalled, "I would clean my paint brushes off and paper towels and I would see layers and layers of color and paint and texture and realize that I wanted to do something with that."
Beyond his housing project and liquor stores, Gutierrez has also created powerful murals across Los Angeles. "For me, creating murals is pretty important because we deserve to have artwork in our community," he shared.
"The Spark of Love campaign is an amazing opportunity to provide gifts and toys to kids...really thinking about kids and their imagination and how we can think anything you know," he said.
The t-shirt "design reflected that so making them that scale was like bringing out that joy that I remember I used to have."
ABC7 will donate 100% of its proceeds from the sale of our Spark of Love t-shirt to support our toy drive.
"For me to be able to donate my art and time to create a shirt and a design that hopefully would spark you know that joy for other people. It was a no brainer for me," he said.
Our 2024 Spark of Love shirt is available for purchase at abc7.com/shop.
Click here to check out all the designs in the ABC7 Collection.
