My Story

 

 Artist: FABIAN DEBORA

Fabian Debora was born in El Paso, Texas and began his career in 1995 as a member of the East Los Angeles Streetscapers. He was mentored by many Chicano artists and muralists, and was introduced to creative expressions of all forms, from graffiti and murals to sketching and fine art painting.

Fabian’s work has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad, including Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Brooklyn, and throughout Latin America.

Fabian served as a counselor and the Director of Substance Abuses Services & Programming as well as a mentor at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles for a decade. He then moved on to worked as Community Connection Director at Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network, He is also a teaching artist for ACTA Alliance of traditional Arts, bringing arts to adult correctional facilities. He also works in collaboration with Latino Producers Action Network (LPAN) as the Art Director, and is an instructor for community artists and students throughout Boyle Heights, He has now returned to Homeboy Industries as the Executive Director of Homeboy art Academy perusing and developing his vision to continue to serve greater Los Angeles area, and abroad. 

 

 

The Getty Project

“Art…it’s a gift”

Meet Fabian “Spade” Debora, one of the artists of Getty’s Book of Friends, also known as the L.A. Graffiti Black Book.

Fabian’s art is inspired by his lived experience as an ex-gang member and as an Angeleno.

Today he is the founder of Homeboy Art Academy, a space to create access to art for gang-affected youth.

Fabian contributed to the L.A. Graffiti Black Book, now available from Getty Publications, along with 150 other Los Angeles-based street and graffiti artists. The project was inspired by a 17th-century manuscript in Getty’s collections named Liber Amicorum (Book of Friends).

 
 
 

A Life for Art

Fabian Debora, A Life for Art :

Director: Jessica Kaye | Producer: Roman Nesis
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2013 | Story Teller's Country: United StatesTags: Americas, Art, Creativity, Healing, Spiritual Awareness, United States, Violence

Synopsis: Fabian Debora, A Life for Art tells the inspiring story of East Los Angeles painter, Fabian Debora and how art became the main foundation for Fabian's transformation from drug addiction and gang life to sobriety and inner peace. 

This film explores the transcendental power of art and how Fabian's transformation from the barrio walls to the canvas has also inspired change amongst other homeboys addicted to drugs and the gang lifestyle.

Fabian Debora, A Life for Art brings alive the powerful emotions of Fabian’s redemption by integrating raw emotional interviews with the vivid images of his personal sketches, street murals, acrylic canvases, and graffiti styles of art.

full length: https://vimeo.com/93161888