Cornerstone Theater Company, performing THEATER UNDER THE STARS in Grand Park JUN 18-20, helped connect Grand Park with some of LA’s best artists for much needed love and care for its LITTLE LIBRARIES. Grand Park interviews the art and minds of the energy behind the artist collaborators.

SUSU ATAR (Q&A)

Where are you from and what do you do?

“I was born in Baghdad, I was raised all over LA County. I currently live in Koreatown. My parents moved from Baghdad when I was six months old and settled in Los Angeles which was a former home to my father and that’s where we’ve been ever since.”

 What inspires your art?

“I am a multimedia artist. What inspires my art is life itself. People’s similarities, differences and my personal experiences and observations. Basically everything inspires my art!”

 When did you know you wanted to become an artist?

“I have always known that art moved me in a certain way. It’s always been the primary way of communicating fully for me. I’ve been making images since I was three-four years old. I think it I was around high school, probably junior year of high school when I was planning for a college career… that I really knew… that I really wanted to direct myself towards a serious art profession.”

 What inspires your art?

“I am inspired by life around me and my own experiences. I love to draw from peoples interconnectivity and differences. I think everything in life is a source of inspiration if you’re paying close enough attention.”

 What’s the story behind the art on your Little Library?

“This Little Library is intended to be a space for people to use donate and share information. So this imagery is about human interconnection, togetherness, and ways individual forms can create a larger meaning such as a house or a community. In general peoples togetherness. These (pointing at the Little Library) are people in the city creating the city.”