Regenerating that Galaxy Magic: Ms. Yellow
Fusing community, culture, and folklore together through the power of imagery
Ms. Yellow (@MsYellowArt on Instagram) is an artist and educator whose work spans murals that are mystical and bold and tifo that is hilarious and self-referential. She is the third artist in our series featuring independent artists in the LA Galaxy community.
*Note: This interview was conducted before the LA Galaxy supporters group boycott on January 13, 2023.
Full audio:
What kind of stories does your art tell?
Ms. Yellow: A lot of my art is very much about myself, life in general. I also like to tell stories from other people. I’ve done a lot of different portraits of people, telling a little bit of their story. Sometimes it’s not so direct and obvious, but I use a lot of symbolisms that tie into the origin. It’s just a little bit of everything: myself, others, stories in general, culture, folklore. A little bit of everything.
Your recent mural for the Wilmington Teen Center is bright, hopeful, and expansive, with a positive message about the power of our ecosystems. What do you think is the role of art in education?
Ms. Yellow: Art has the power of storytelling through the use of imagery. I grew up having a lot of speech problems, I have dyslexia, and even as an adult, this is still a challenge for me now. So through art I am able to tell these stories, these narratives, to show a little bit of what I’m trying to say but through the power of imagery. For example, comic books. I was so drawn to comic books for the simple fact that it made me realize, like, ‘oh, I can tell a story or even read a story without the usage of words.’ And it’s just images, right?
Even with the Wilmington thing - it was a trip with myself, [my boyfriend] Sam, the Wilmington Teen Center, and a group of girls. When I was talking with the girls about this - we collaborated on the final outcome, the mural - we wanted to just reflect on the journey, and how magical it felt, what we saw, what we learned. Sometimes it’s not so direct but you see little pieces of it throughout that come together. But at the same time too, I like for people to just see the work. A lot of people have their own perspectives - everybody can translate in their own way. I also like to leave it open to translation on someone’s part.
How can murals contribute to a community’s sense of place?
Ms. Yellow: I mean, murals can contribute so much to a community as far as being a free, open, outdoor museum. There’s so many museums that you have to pay to access these works of art, and with murals, they’re adorning our streets everywhere. So it’s a really cool way to see art from a lot of really talented artists, and it’s all free. You just walk around and you take an adventure on your own. And it totally changes the landscape, it adds so much color, it creates these conversations. All these stories on the walls, I think it’s amazing.
How did you come to support the LA Galaxy?
Ms. Yellow: I went to Carson High School - I’m a South Bay baby, so this is all my backyard and my home and everything. Harbor area South Bay. It started in high school, with my best friend - her dad was getting tickets, free tickets, to go check out the Galaxy. And I believe this is when they first came to what was then the Home Depot Center. And he was like, ‘hey do you want some tickets?’ I’m Mexican American, we grew up in soccer, going to Mexico all the time, watching all these matches and everything. And they weren’t even these crazy matches, it was just, like, fools that would get together and just have a game, so it was really cool. So as a teenager, I’m being offered these tickets, and I’m like ‘dude hell yeah, like, fuck it, why not,’ right?
So I went. There was a few times I went by myself, a couple times I went with my brother, and that’s how it started. But I didn’t sit with any supporters, I was just getting the feel for the vibe. And then years later, myself and my boyfriend Sam - we’ve been together for like 13 years - he was like ‘dude let’s go to a soccer game,’ I’m like ‘hell yeah, let’s do it.’ And of course, supporting the Galaxy was a no-brainer to us, it was just taking pride in the fact that there’s a really dope team already here in our hometown, it’s not too far away from our house, luckily. I know so many people, they have really long commutes to just come to the stadium. We were really lucky in that it’s just so close.
I can’t remember what game it was - this was about ten years ago, many years after my first game in high school. It was about ten years ago that we wanted to be with a supporter group, and we see ACB on one side, LARS on the other side, we see Galaxians. For one of the games we sat one half with ACB, we sat the other half with LARS, just to kind of get the feel. We knew people in both supporter groups - we knew more people in ACB, just because there’s a lot of people from Wilmington as well and Carson and everything. But there was just something about LARS that kind of pulled us that way. But obviously it’s all love to all the supporters. And yeah, we’ve been sitting with them ever since. I think it’s been about ten solid years. It’s been really cool, man. I feel like all my artist friends trip out, like ‘you’re really into the soccer, huh?’ I’m like ‘yeah, dude, it’s fun as fuck.’
Describe some of the art and the aesthetic of LARS.
Ms. Yellow: LARS is very, like, punk DIY mentality, just very anti-supporter group supporter group, and I fuck with it because, I mean, that’s just me. I’ve always kind of gone against the trends. I don’t really care what everybody’s into, not in a bad way, but I just do what feels right to me at the moment. And with LARS, I do art, my boyfriend Sam does art for them, but it’s not just us, dude, it’s a whole bunch of people that come up with these amazing ideas. It has its own little signature to it.
When Sam and I became a little bit more involved with the art aspect to it, what we do a lot is we get a lot from everybody, because everyone has ideas. And how they would tell me, ‘I’m not an artist but I have this amazing idea, help me bring it come to life,’ and I’m like, ‘yeah, of course.’ We’ll all come together - it’s such a group effort, and I love that. I love the collaboration between everybody. It’s harmonious and chaotic at the same time, but chaotic in a good way. Because we’re just saying all these ideas, like ‘hey let’s do this, let’s do that’ but we’re throwing a few beers, a few micheladas, or whatever, and just having a good time. But it’s definitely a group effort, there’s no doubt about it.
One of my favorite recent banners in LARS is the Dale Dale Galaxy one. Is there any that you like in particular that’s been up in Sections 138 or 137 recently?
Ms. Yellow: To be honest, there are so many. And the banners are a whole thing on its own, because when we first joined LARS, I had to do some painting jobs so I wasn’t able to go to the first paint party, but Sam did. And he showed me some pictures of Simpsons-inspired banners, the Godfather, Black Flag-inspired, but it’s all, like, LARS. And it made me laugh so much, like, dude this is awesome. It made my head start going. And this was all between all of us, like ‘let’s do a Dr. Dre one’ - I know we played against LAFC one time and we did a banner of Will Ferrell, because there’s a picture of Will Ferrell with a Galaxy hat. We did one that says something like ‘People don’t forget, Will.’
It’s just like really funny banter stuff. It’s funny because a lot of these banners too - it’s a lot of inside jokes. Even some of the designs that we do - it could be a shirt, it could be a banner - but there’s a lot of art within LARS that’s a lot of inside jokes. It’s OK with us if nobody gets it - they’re like ‘what the fuck are they doing’ - but it’s just funny. It’s kind of like ‘if you know, you know,’ but at the same time we’re not trying to exclude anybody. I feel like at the end of the day we’re just all jokesters and we just want to have a good time, laugh at ourselves, laugh at the situation, and just have a good time. It’s kind of hard to say which one is my favorite, because they all have their own little magic to it, and it’s all collaboration, it’s all everybody putting their heads together.
A lot of people are having a hard time getting behind a lot of the backroom stuff that’s going on with the club - the lack of honesty and transparency from the top. Are you excited about this upcoming season?
Ms. Yellow: I don’t really express too much on Twitter or anything, but it’s like we can’t fake the funk. It’s disappointing. Galaxy has so much magic, so much potential. I just feel like, don’t lose that. Because they’re losing it a little bit. There’s a lot of disappointment for sure. It sucks, especially after Levas won the championship last year with, I feel, the obvious help of MLS. But we’re in LA, right? And we’re trying to kind of maintain, ‘hey, this is us, we’re Galaxy, blah blah blah.’ And they’re losing it, man, they’re losing it. I’m going everywhere, and I’m seeing all these Leva hats, and it’s not a pretty sight.
I see so many people at the same events - Galaxy has their core fans, of course, but we’re all fans, we’re all paying for the same thing, we’re all here for the same reasons. Transparency, I feel, is expected because we respect the club, we would like the club to respect us as well and our opinions. I know some of us can be a little more opinionated than others, but I would like to think that we all come from a good place. We would like to see our club doing good. It is disappointing to see what is happening. It’s disappointing to see that the magic is slipping, but the fans, I feel, continue to bring that magic. The club is fucking up, let’s not fake the funk. They’re fucking up. The fans are the ones that are gonna be picking up that slack, because we’re in the stands, we’re making the tifos, we’re trying to keep that energy up. And if management is not really meeting us halfway, it’s depressing, man. It’s not good.
I’m trying to be optimistic. We just haven’t been doing good in general, but we’re still there. We do the best to make light out of a really bad situation. There was a chant that LARS started, years ago. We were losing so bad, and I can’t remember who we were playing against, and everybody was just so drunk in the stands and we’re just like ‘what the fuck,’ you know. But we’re trying not to lose our shit at the same time, so it’s like, ok what can we do, man? We just have to own it. We fuckin’ suck, so we started singing ‘It’s true, we suck, and we don’t give a fuck, Galaxy, Galaxy! It’s true, we suck, and we don’t give a fuck, Galaxy, Galaxy…” And don’t get me wrong, I know there was a couple people like, ‘don’t sing that'.’ But you know what? That’s the beauty of us. We need to learn to laugh through the fucked up situations. We’re still gonna be there, but it’s kind of our way of dealing with all the bullshit. It’s like we’re in a fucked up relationship with them right now. We’re just trying to keep our sanity.
You mentioned Galaxy magic. What’s the game you felt that the most?
Ms. Yellow: For sure when we won the cup. I think it was 2014. There’s so many, but that one was really special because I specifically remember Bruce Arena picking up that trophy, walking all the way across the stadium to LARS, and he put it on the floor and he was just like ‘thank you guys’ and giving the fans props. And man, we love Bruce. We love Bruce. I know Bruce is not a fan of Galaxy right now, but we love Bruce, and that was so frickin’ magical. That whole game was just like wow. And to experience that live, there, was amazing.
Besides that game, it’s kind of hard to choose only because it’s the atmosphere, all the fans, the people who I call friends now. And they can be friends in all the supporter groups, because I fuck with all the supporters. And it’s just the whole energy that gets brought to the stadium. I took my sister to her first game against the Levas and she was like, ‘dude what the fuck, this is crazy. This is tight.’ So it’s just the atmosphere, it’s what everybody brings - their own energy, their own voice, their own banners, their own everything. It’s amazing, even the tailgate - everybody’s chillin’, it’s like ‘hey what’s up, we’re home! We’re here.’
Besides that one, it’s kind of hard to pinpoint a specific game because they’re all so special, which is why I’m completely hooked, and I’ve been hooked for a long time.
If your next mural project was Galaxy-related, where would it be and what would it look like?
Ms. Yellow: It’s interesting, my next mural is actually soccer-related. I’m working with AFJA with Steven, and I’m going to be painting their containers out there at their AFJA headquarters [in El Salvador]. It’s very much soccer related - I incorporate a lot of symbolism to signify community and that homegrown feel to it.
So if I were to do a Galaxy-related mural or Galaxy-related project, it would be the same type of feel, the same type of thing: community, celebration of the players, celebration of the culture, celebration of the supporters. Just something uplifting, something colorful, something eye-catching, something that even the community can come out and paint with us.
As far as site, I don’t know. It could be in Carson, it could be in more Downtown LA area. It could be anywhere, because I feel like the culture for soccer and football is here. It’s here, it’s strong, it’s here to stay, and it’s only growing from now, so I think that anywhere it is will be welcomed, except by Leva fans.
Follow Ms. Yellow’s most recent work @MsYellowArt on Instagram and Twitter.