KrossD: How to Stay Positive with Jason Ostro

With a background in fashion and music, Detroit refugee Jason Ostro opened Gabba Gallery in 2012. He has been a fierce champion of artists of every stripe. Jason spearheaded an epic revitalization of Historic Filipinotown with his alley art projects featuring famed street artists from around the globe, and that project continues to evolve. Jason is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.

A couple of notes about what follows. First, I have transcribed this from a recording of a zoom meeting. I have put in italics my best guess-timates in a few inaudible parts.

Second, the cast of characters mentioned. Judy is Jason's Mom and she's an artist of note herself. Elena and Jaq are part of the superhero team that helps Gabba run. Andrea LaHue paints flowers for the people and commits Random Acts of kindness. Lastly, this was the first time I'd talked to Jason since Covid19 struck. So, that's why it starts like this...

What...the...fuck, man?!?!

*laughs* Well, we kinda all knew something was gonna happen. We just didn’t know it was going to be like, “Okay, fuck you all. I gave you hats.”

Oh, man, remember the day after THAT MAN was elected? I was having a full blown panic attack at Gabba and a certain artist’s manager was there saying, “How bad could he really be though? I mean, we have checks and balances. It’s going to be fine.”

*laughs* You were like, “WHAT?!”

Oh, my gawd! Anyway, man, how are you? You got a fucked-up tooth?

You know, I knew that was coming down the pike. I was just hoping I could make it through quarantine. But god only knows when quarantine is going to end. Other than that, man, I’m okay. The gallery’s okay. We’re still making some sales. It’s just a matter of what’s going to happen over a long-term situation. Because…I don’t see us realistically having a show until September, October. Maybe not until Wish List. Maybe not even this year! You know?

We’re just now figuring out how to do some really cool stuff with virtual shows. But it’s a new field. We all gotta hustle and figure out how to play this new field. A lot of the mid-level people that were purchasing art, supporting us when we had the gallery open, are now broke. People just aren’t going to have as much money for speculative beauty for a while.

Are you able to keep the lease going on Gabba for the rest of the year?

I’m going to try to work something out. See if I can get it lowered a little bit for the time being. Then I’m thinking of doing, like a local store. Like the bags you did for us, maybe hoodies and stuff. Where we’re selling all these pieces between 5, 10, or 50, 60 dollars apiece, you know and helping artists make a little bit of cash. Meanwhile we can make a little bit of cash as well, and still art out there to people that want to help and support, but maybe can’t afford 200, or 300 dollars for a print or individual piece. But would definitely do something for $25, or for 10 dollars if shipping is only gonna be 6 or 7 bucks.

So, I think I’m going to have to employ some of the stuff that I learned in 2008 when I was selling clothing online, to basically survive now. But it’s stressful, you know?

The other thing I have on my plate right now is I’m supposed to be moving my Mom to California at the end of this month. That’s obviously not happening.

How is Judy?

Yeah, she’s okay. She disobeyed me one time and went out to get her medication. Then I gave her bloody hell. But I’ve been ordering all her groceries, having them delivered. Amazingly, I managed to sell the house during quarantine. Once I can get back there, I’ll move her cross country and really won’t have to go back to Michigan too much. Unless it’s to see friends.

What are you seeing in your neighborhood? Here in West Los Angeles, a lot of people are still not wearing masks. Still getting together in groups.

I would say…in the Hollywood/Beachwood area, north of Franklin, everybody is wearing a mask. Except the homeless, and a lot of them are wearing t-shirts over their mouths. Below Hollywood, there’s a lot of people not wearing masks. But for the most part, in my general area, most people have them. Most people are paranoid.

So, you’re having a root canal tomorrow, Jaq has an ear infection. How’s Elena doing?

She’s better now. We think she had Covid.

Oh, fuck!

Yeah, we think she contracted it a couple weeks ago. She had, pretty much all the symptoms for 4 or 5 days, and then she quarantined for a week and a half after that. She’s been fine ever since though.

I’m kind of hoping that I had one of those pre-cases dating back to October. Cuz I was fucking sick as shit back then.Yeah, yeah, yeah! We really think we might’ve had it in November, or even the last time I saw you. In January I was leery to hug you, for your protection.

How are you guys doing? What’s going on with you?

We’re okay. You know? We pretty much stay home during the best of times. But there is a psychic cost to this. I think everybody is finding their head to be a frightening place to be live right now.

Plus, every single artist on the planet is worried about their relevance now. I mean, sure, it’s our job to document this shit, but nobody wants to see documentation while they’re living through it, and even if your jam is painting bunnies and/or robots eating donuts, it’s a tough sell at the moment.

Add to that, galleries are gathering places. People mingling, hugging, breathing on each other. Everyone is worried that that is over completely.

Yeah, until there is testing and tracking, there is no fucking way for us to know who has it, or who has been exposed.

Yep. Best case scenario, you’re gonna have to have an infrared thermometer at the door before you let people in.

Oh, guaranteed! I’ve already looked into buying it. I’ve looked into buying gallons of hand sanitizer. I may need to provide masks to people who don’t have them before letting them in. You know?

The camaraderie is something that I’m very worried about losing. Because that’s always been the strength of Gabba. Just the fact that the love of the community reverberates there. That there’s new stuff that is introduced to people all the time has always been a really good thing.

I think I’m over the whole shock of this thing happening and I’m trying to figure out how to build now. But for a couple weeks I was just sitting on my ass thinking “I don’t know what to do!”. How long am I gonna be sitting on my ass? What do I do? I’ve got 5 or 6 paintings I’ve started, but I can’t finish any of them right now because I’m too scattered. But in the past week I’ve been turning the corner and started to get back to the hustle. I don’t think it’s just for me, man. I worked for many years not making a dime with Gabba Gallery. I’ve been fortunate the last few years to have made a little bit of money. Now I feel like I have to go back to how it was in the beginning and just keep on working. I want to do all those projects again and get people introduced. I also don’t want to ask anybody for help. I just want people to buy art.

I have about 5 or 6 prints ready to go online. But I don’t want to release them all at the same time. IT’s kind of like trying to bring in cash strategically over the next few month. I have a lot of little things I’m doing. You know, I’m lucky. Because I’ve got a great team and for the time being I can afford to keep them and even pay them a little bit, even if they’re not actively working in the gallery right now.

You know, I just have to stay positive. Because if I lose hope then there is no hope. I really do feel that as hard as it’s going to be, I’ve already been down this road. I’ll be able to come out the other side. At least that’s the plan.

We’re all hoping that Cheetoh gets taken out.

I cannot take another 4 years of this.

No, but the problem is that his stupidity affects the world now. I did just read a poll that said his disapproval rating is finally going up. When this started his approval rating went to 49 percent. I was like, ‘why are you going up right now?’ But now his disapproval is over 50 and his approval is low forties.

Well, he seems to be reading different numbers than you.

Oh yeah, he always does. I mean, there was 35, 36 thousand deaths in America at the time and he was talking about how it was so bad when we had the H1N1 flu, how bad Obama dealt with it, how terrible things were. So, I was doing some fact-checking and read that, okay…1) Our economy grew during that time. 2) There were 17, 000 deaths over a period of 12 months. We had 36,000 deaths in 90 days with Trump, and he’s touting himself as the greatest president of all time. Now he’s saying we won’t see it over 60,000. Well we’re gonna see the death toll hit 60, 000 in the next 10 days. And if we see a second wave during the actual flu season, we’re fucked!

*long pause. Mutual heavy sigh*

You know this already, but I get violently angry about that man. I mean, like I want to do damage. He really brings out the violence in me.

Yeah, I think the separation he’s caused in this country is unreal, and I think a lot of people on both sides are drawn to that violence as well. We see them acting on it, more and more. Across the world, this nationalism that’s happening in so many different places is mind-blowing. But we’ve preached love for so many years. So many songs about it…but to have all this going on is disheartening. This is a crazy reality. It’s hard to get my head around it and hard to accept it.

But you are making art though?

Yeah, man. I’ve got a couple pieces that I started. A couple different things that I’m trying in my art. I mean, I’m doing some of the standard stuff that I’ve done and some commissions. But, personally, I’m trying some different things.

You know, I always thought of your fractals, or your style as…well, it always registered as stained glass to me. But you call it Chinese cracked ice?

So, I didn’t actually know it was Chinese cracked ice until Andrea and I did our show together a couple years together on Sunset, and this guy came in and said, “Wow, I haven’t seen anybody do Chinese cracked ice paintings in forever. These are so amazing! When did you pick up Chinese cracked ice?” and I’m like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. He pulled out his phone and showed me some pictures and sure enough, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing.

You learn something new every day.

Let me throw a few questions at you that I’ve been asking everybody.

What’s your favorite work of art in Los Angeles?

Um…it changes all the time. But I would have to say that my favorite work of art in Los Angeles is the ever-changing landscape of watching tourists in Hollywood. I see so many colors and variations of people…you know, I really understand writers and poets, musicians when they tell their stories of Los Angeles. There’s so much beauty in it, so much craziness, that’s just standard clay there. It’s normal to us. Normal to you and I. But to a lot of people they come to this town right off the bat, it’s so magical. When I walk around and view it from those eyes? That’s the most beautiful art in this city.

I can’t really name a set piece of art. I like Watts Towers!

Are you binging any content?

I’m always binge listening to music. I watched this documentary The Pharmacist which was kind of amusing. McMillions. I’m a big documentary person. I watched this documentary on the History Channel that was about the biggest brands of foods, like Heinz, and it went into how cutthroat they were, how they treated their employees, and how guys like Hershey just built whole cities on the backs of labor and control.

Any songs stuck in your head right now?

I’ve been playing this song by Papooz called “Ulysses and the Sea”.

I’ve been listening to this artist by the name Chika. You know, what I love to watch, is the Tiny Desk series of shows at NPR.

If you could hoard one food item (guilt free), what would it be?

I love mini donuts, but if I was using my brain, I’d hoard vegetables.

How do you think this ends?

After time, I think it’s gonna rattle out some of the youth of Los Angeles, and maybe some of the people that don’t wanna fight anymore in this town. The only problem is…where are people gonna go? You know, in the past they would go to these middle America communities, but now those communities are gonna be just as decimated with jobs as everywhere else.

So, it’s a matter of just being, I guess. I don’t know how we’re gonna get out of this yet. Honestly, I’m not sure we’re even through the first phase yet.

Good talk!
I love you, brother. Stay safe.