Max Corona, AKA MaxPro
(The following is one in a series of sneak peeks at the upcoming People of Chelsea additions by Photographer Darlene DeVita. The new work will ultimately appear on the fence of the Chelsea Public Library (CPL) this fall in a collaboration between the People of Chelsea project and the CPL.)
By Darlene DeVita
I grew up in Chelsea. My grandparents emigrated from Cuba with my father. My mom is from Puerto Rico, and they met because my grandfather was renting an apartment to my grandmother!
I went to school in Chelsea, lived in Revere and Connecticut for a bit, but I’m in Chelsea now with my wife Amanda and our 15-month old daughter TonyMay. Amanda and I are a team, we’re both artists, and together we came up with our clothing company BAD IDEA Designs. Much of the artwork acknowledges mental health issues and suicide awareness. We have high respect for recognizing it and putting it out there to let people know that they are not alone.
Amanda created the design [light bulb] for the clothing logo; it just worked. Lightbulbs often appear in my work from a childhood memory of my kitchen. I also made a sketch of Lewis Latimer for the Lewis Latimer Society in Chelsea, [Latimer, African America Chelsea born scientist, was co-inventor of the lightbulb with Edison].
Chelsea definitely made me who I am today, and I’m happy with that. I love what they’re doing with the paint and putting artwork out there. I’m glad to be a part of it! As far as the changing here, I don’t’ mind the change, but I don’t like how they raised the rent on people. Everyone is going to go further away. People have history and roots here; it’s not cool. They shouldn’t be forced to leave.