Since the mid-1990s I have developed an ethnographic interest in visual economies, by which I mean -- following anthropologist Deborah Poole -- the complex ways in which images are affected by being part of concrete processes of production, distribution, and consumption. They are a particular type of commodity, an object and a fetish that speaks in the language of desire and sensuality (Griselda Pollock), with meanings that always remain open to interpretation (Roland Barthes).

I was greatly influenced by a set of fruitful dialogues while studying anthropology at The New School For Social Research in New York City. Poole's course on Visual Cultures, Johannes Fabian's studies on vernacular painting and history in Zaire, Steve Caton's ethnographic approach to film, Terry Williams' attention to sexual images and the city, and Kevin Dwyer's work on dialogical anthropology were crucial to shaping my ethnographic view of images. In several of those courses, artists attended and actively participated in pushing the borders of their own practice. Among them, of foremost importance were my dialogues with Aleksandra Mir, by now a very well known name within the global art circuits. While in NYC, I contributed to Mir's Naming Tokyo, an alternative map of that city meant to convene idiosyncratic readings of constructed space and the politics behind labeling the urban gridlock.

In late 2011, around the time of the Full Dollar Project's last blog post on KCET Departures, the artist- and neighborhood-centered organization Outpost for Contemporary Art was at a critical financial and administrative juncture. Rather than see the organization close, the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena invited Outpost into its fold with the aim of maintaining Outpost's programmatic vitality, while augmenting Armory's spirit and capacity to invent.

Soon after this merger, the organization was hit with news of the sudden death of former Outpost director, Ronald Lopez. Lopez had, along with founding director Julie Deamer, become intimate with The Full Dollar Project on every level, from selecting the artists to working with the sign painters, businesses, and community stakeholders. All this said, these unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances threatened the viability of The Full Dollar Collection of Contemporary Art on York Boulevard.

In the summer of 2012, Armory's Exhibitions team picked up the torch on this valued yet fraught project. Like Outpost the year prior, the Armory was faced with the continual challenge of acquiring a Visa for Ecuadorian artist X. Andrade to travel to the United States. Just when they thought their efforts were in vain, they received reassuring news that X.'s visa had come though by way of New York University, which awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Andrade's wife to pursue a doctorate degree in anthropology.

This is part of a series of interviews conducted by students from Occidental College for the Full Dollar project.

Previously located in South Pasadena, Mi Vida recently moved to Highland Park, where owners (and cousins) Noelle Reyes and Danell Hughes sell vintage apparel, hand-crafted art, books and accessories. Their colorful boutique reflects a passion for Latino and Chicano creativity and social justice.

This is part of a series of interviews conducted by students from Occidental College for the Full Dollar project.

Marcos J. Perez was a diver in Puerto Rico before coming to Los Angeles in the 1980s. After an accident forced him to change careers, he studied graphic design and opened the copy and design center DigiColors. For his sign art he would like a painting that captures the history and spirit of Highland Park.

This is part of a series of interviews conducted by students from Occidental College for the Full Dollar project.

The Awesome Playground owner Kay Osorio has lived in Northeast L.A. her whole life and feels a strong sense of community in Highland Park. She worked a corporate job until she had her son and decided to change careers. Now she can have her son with her while she runs this indoor playground which gives neighborhood kids a safe and comfortable place to play and socialize.

This is part of a series of interviews conducted by students from Occidental College for the Full Dollar project.

Martin Durazo is a Los Angeles native whose multimedia works explore the "aesthetics of the elicit", using found objects like Chinese masks and ordinary household items and putting them in a new context that deviates them from its intended use. We sat down at his studio in Glendale for a conversation about his career, from studying with Paul McCarthy to the artistic spirit that can be found everywhere. See the interview in the video above.

This is part of a series of interviews conducted by students from Occidental College for the Full Dollar project.

Sandow Birk has spent much of his life living and working in the Los Angeles area. Feeling that it is the most exciting place to be an artist, he often simultaneously critiques and celebrates the city in his work. He views his art as a means to communicate his conceptual ideas, which often re-define historical styles of painting and deal with contemporary American life. We met at his studio in Long Beach to talk a bit about his work, which you can see in the video above.

Now that we've learned a bit about the sign painters involved with the Full Dollar project, let us now meet the artists. We sat down with each artist for a video interview which, along with samples of their work, will be posted right here on this blog over the course of next few weeks.

Here are the participating artists, with a brief description about their works:

An e-mail exchange between me and Julie Deamer, the former director at Outpost for Contemporary Art, took place on May 5th, 2011. As it turned out, this dialogue was a key component to define the process of translation from one place to another in order to respond to the different challenges derived from diverse traditions, urban contexts, and power relations between art and sign-painting. New methods needed to be developed for the project to have an echo within the Highland Park community at large. At the same time, my main questions regarding irony and humor as powerful elements for the critique of the art world and collecting practices still seem unsolved by this act of translation:

Originally from Sonsonate, El Salvador, Rodolfo worked as a graphic designer for a newspaper before coming to Los Angeles to pursue work as an artist. Both his acrylic paintings of life in El Salvador and his commercial work for local businesses and public murals often depict colorful, cheerful details. He invited us to his studio/home for an intimate interview about his life and work.