COSTA MESA : Photos Depict Many Touched by AIDS

A woman in a pink sweater, wearing matching beaded earrings, looks out from a photograph that could be a Christmas portrait. Instead, the photo has a sharper edge. It, along with other portraits on display, is of people who have in some way been affected by AIDS.

The photo exhibit at the Orange Coast College Art Gallery is entitled “This Is Our Yard” and represents people with HIV virus and AIDS, as well as people who have lost loved ones to the disease or who work with AIDS patients. The display, which opened Nov. 25, runs through Dec. 16.

“It’s anti-NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). The concept is this is our community,” said artist Jerry McGrath, who with artist Mary-Linn Hughes took the photographs and interviewed the subjects. On the college grounds off Fairview Road, McGrath and several OCC students also installed a white picket fence on which will be displayed daily counts of Americans who have died of AIDS since 1981.

Friends and family members of people who have died of AIDS have written short eulogies or simply the person’s name on the white pickets. Some have dates of birth and death and are decorated with hearts and crosses.

Said McGrath, 37, as he pounded another picket into the ground: “It’s the American Dream--what’s more American than the white picket fence? I think that’s an illusion.

“The idea is to get the scare tactics out. All the people that have AIDS are very much into living with AIDS. For us, that was the most incredible thing. People ask us, ‘Was it sad to talk to these people?’ No, it was wonderful. They were the most focused people.”

The photos are accompanied by words of the subjects, some explaining their fight against discrimination, or their acceptance of the disease.

In one photo, a woman identified only as Denise sits in her rocking chair while her daughter plays house in their back yard. The woman’s expression is one of strength with a touch of defiance. Her story, which like others is in English and Spanish, explains her fight to gain legal status in this country despite having tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS.

“To me, hers was such a shocking story,” McGrath said. “She’s not asking for anything more than to be left alone. She’s trying to fight (the disease) and raise her daughter and run a business.”

In another photograph, Miguel Garcia stands by his bunk bed in the HIV ward of the California Institute for Men, Chino. His tattooed arms cross his stomach and his stare is biting.

He tells of a history of cocaine and heroine addiction, leading to his own diagnosis.

“When the P.A. (physician’s assistant) told me I was HIV-positive, I couldn’t believe my ears! I wasn’t homosexual! I only slammed drugs!”

Then his wife died of complications from AIDS and he blamed himself. His story ends in capital letters exhorting readers to take care of themselves.

A woman in pink, identified only as Gina, describes herself as athletic, having hiked most of the national parks, including Grand Canyon, and been involved in bodybuilding. But she tested positive for HIV and has noticed a decline in her health.

“I don’t know what tomorrow will bring but one thing is for sure: This story could be yours. I still love life, and I will go on with the strength that God gave me.”