Adrian Thomas Gonzalez is the young man with whom the Hey Dad, I Don’t Like You book project started. It is his story that is at the heart of the project – a difficult relationship with his father that he says he has paid for with mental health issues since he was a teenager, until a family friend encouraged him to write about it.
Gonzalez’s words have since evolved into the Hearts of Gold Creative Collective, an initiative created to involve artists of various kinds in collaborative projects that highlight the issue of mental health.
“It’s for adults to read it to their inner child,” Gonzalez says of the book. The audience is anybody, young adult or adult, who had a challenging relationship with their father – a sizable chunk of humanity.
While Gonzalez lives and works in El Paso, Texas, his Hearts of Gold Collective co-founder Luca Gold, and the illustrator of one of the first two editions in English (the Spanish one is being created now), are both Monterey County residents. Gold is based in Monterey; illustrator Demi Seva’aetasi lives in Seaside. Gold found Seva’aetasi via the Monterey-based nonprofit Youth Arts Collective.
Gonzalez is the younger child of Gold’s oldest friend, she explains. They were always close, and bonded over their mutual experience with depression. “I have known him since he was born,” Gold says, explaining the friendship between a woman in her 50s who works in tech and a young man in his 20s with a day job in finance.
The book is a fast read – raw and emotional, almost like a rap song due to the emphasis put on rhymes. Seva’aetasi’s illustrations are as evocative as the text itself.
“Demi’s style was so abstract that I wasn’t sure if Adrian would like it, but he was like: ‘Wow,’” Gold says.
“She opened up a new path,” Gonzalez adds. That was the moment Gonzalez and Gold decided to publish the book several times, each edition with different illustrations, achieving a very different effect.
On the cover, the author is listed as Thomas Gold – a nod toward the collaborative nature of the project.
A reading of HEY DAD, I DON’T LIKE YOU takes place at 4pm Saturday, Aug. 5 as part of YAC’s Summer Art Show & Open House. 472 Calle Principal, Monterey. Free. To help finish the Spanish version of the project, visit bit.ly/3OdTF2i. More at heartsofgoldcreative.com
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.