Artist Plans to Place ‘Angels’ Across L.A.

The mystery of the red angels has been solved.

A 29-year-old Los Angeles artist is the one running around the city placing six-inch plaster angels in various spots.

Jill D’Agnenica said she will continue placing angels--4,687 of them--across the city. She is doing it, she says, because “the experience of seeing an angel will remind people that they are lucky to be living in the City of Angels.”

On Sunday, she placed about 300 of the red plaster angels on Ventura Boulevard. Six of the angels were found on the lawn of St. James Presbyterian Church.

“I didn’t know where they came from,” said Joanne Dodds, an administrator at the Tarzana church, who first thought the angels were crumpled pieces of paper. “But maybe they will protect us. . . . We could use a little protection.”

But not everyone reacts the same. Angels found on the steps of the Chateau business offices in Woodland Hills were thrown away early Monday because office workers thought they were a prank.

“We had no idea who put them there,” said Elaine Guzik, a bookkeeper at the Chateau. “They were cute. But we had no clue why they were there. Many times we get people who do strange things around here, so we threw them out.”

“I figured different things would happen to the angels,” said D’Agnenica, who encourages people to take them home. “Some people see them as symbols of hope, but other people are annoyed with them or angry because they are in their space.”

After the first anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, D’Agnenica decided the City of Angels needed some cheering up. She started passing out her angels in small communities like Watts and Sylmar.

“We had lots of bad press in L.A. at that time,” D’Agnenica said. “I thought they could be a catalyst for reflection.”

After receiving a $4,550 grant from the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition in October, she was able to stop spending her own money--her credit card was already up to $1,500. She and her assistant, Diana Sieradski, have made about 1,500 angels.

“It was so expensive, but it made so much sense to me,” she said. “It seemed so right, and I knew I would get the money somehow.”

“When I heard about the project, I thought it was a great public art piece,” said Paul Martinez, an independent documentary maker who follows D’Agnenica on her runs. “But it is not just art, it is a goodwill thing. Between the riots, floods and earthquakes, anything good that anyone can do is worthwhile.

“People act funny when they see them,” he said. “They are not used to getting something for free and they are not sure if they are stealing or something.”

On Jan. 17, D’Agnenica planned to place 70 angels on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for the parade that day. After the earthquake rocked her downtown Los Angeles home that morning, D’Agnenica ran downstairs to her adjacent studio to find all the angels in perfect condition.

“When we saw that not a single angel was broken, we knew we had to pass them out,” she said. She and her assistants placed the angels around the Simi Valley Freeway, beside the gaping hole in the middle of Balboa Boulevard and in front of the Northridge Meadows Apartments.

“We stopped a squad car and asked if we could put them by the apartments,” D’Agnenica said. “The police officer rolled his eyes and said, ‘Get in.’ Then this burly National Guardsman helped me load them into the trunk.”