'Lens Project' with The Hispanic Liaison

A few years ago, I did a series of projects with the Youth Group at The Hispanic Liaison, here in Siler City. As I never did share this project on the blog (which I probably started after), I thought I'd share a little bit here.

I was invited to do an art project with the youth group (10-15 latino High Schoolers) by their then Program Coordinator Carrie Fields (who was later to become my girlfriend), and Sandra Forester (title)

The three of us had previously discussed doing a mural on a wall that had been having problems with gang grafitti, on the side of a local 'tienda' in the same alley way that my studio also inhabits.

However, knowing well what an undertaking a collaborative mural is, I thought it might be best to start with something smaller..

So, after a series of discussions with Ms Fields, we agreed on a series of art projects incorporating  the medium of collage, each building off the previous, finally culminating in a group project.

I figured, if this group could prove themselves capable of undertaking this large group project, then I would consider undertaking a mural with them.

The first of our projects was what I called the Lens Project.

This utilized a collection of coffee lids that had once been donated to me by Donna Bianco, while I was  teaching the Arts & Literature summer camp, at Our Neighborhood Pizzaria/School (yes!) (now the Bella Donna).

The idea was that each of these white card board lids, each with a smooth rounded lip, would be fitted with an image(cut from magazine xeroxs), creating sort of image-tiles, that the students could then arrange, and rearrange, exploring approaches to visual story telling...

To create the images, Carrie and I poured through our collections of National Geographics, looking for interesting imagery. These pages we xeroxed, and presented as a grand pile of imagery for the students to dig through, and select.

Once they had selected an image, the student would color it in with markers, and then cut it size, to fit on the surface of the coffee cup lids.

Then the real fun began!

We would get three students to pick one 'image-tile' each, so that we had three images to work with. 

Then, I would challenge the students to create stories from the sequence of image tiles.

THEN, we would rearrange the tiles, to create a new story! It was pretty wild!

This was to be the youth group's introduction to visual story telling using collage. Later, we would expand on these ideas in our own personal projects, and even a larger group project! Perhaps I will discuss these another time.

Towards the end of our time together, I discovered a way to combine all of these circular image tiles together, in with in the frame of a bicycle tire (a favorite prop of mine).

The result that I was going for was that of a compound eye (such as that of a dragon fly), or a lens, perhaps a magnifying glass, as the tiles created a gentle bulge when fit with in the black frame of the tire. I left it to the youth group to arrange them. Here is Carrie, holding the complex of tiles, with out the bicycle tire frame. 

Though Carrie has since moved on, this collaborative artwork still hangs in the office of Sylvio, the new Coordinator of the Hispanic Liaison Youth Group, a testament of all of work together.

Wire Sculpture Artist in Residency at the Carrboro ArtsCenter

Well, we survived Wire Camp, yet again! No one got their an eye poked out, thanks to our vigilance and practice of good safety.

As I had expected, the younger after school students were a little bit too spastic to very successful.

Not that many of them did not try (and a few of those succeeded!)

But we did have some glorious accomplishments from the older group!

One obstacle that I encountered, was that wire can be hard to see. I found that it was difficult for the students to see my wire while demonstrating techniques. And also, because the tables in the Arts Center's Jane Filer Painting Studio's are so (duely) covered with paint, it becomes difficult to see what you are doing, even 2 feet in front of you. To solve these problems, I elected to use some large electric wire, coated in red plastic, which I could hold up against a clean(ish) white wall, during my demonstrations. I also coated the draped the tables with butcher paper, which made a huge difference in reducing the visual clutter, which can at a height when working with wire (even with no paint splatters on your work surface).  

Unfortunately, the younger campers especially showed such an unquenchable thirst for tearing holes in this surface, that I had to wonder a) what is it in a child that abhors clean white surfaces?.. and b) perhaps a paper destroying workshop would be more successful..

These gals got into the electric wire!

Upcoming Artist In Residency at the Carrboro ArtsCenter!: WIRE FORMING

   Coming around the bend, during the first two weeks this February, I will be sharing my secret wire-forming techniques with some young after-school students over at the Carrboro ArtsCenter.

   This came about when I recently ran into my friend Shirlette Amons, who, when she's not busy being a total Rock Star, coordinates the after-school program there; as a different kind of Rock Star. Shirlette invited me to return to the ArtsCenter, to teach these techniques again, as she found them to be a unique and successful offering when I brought them to the ArtsCenter a few years ago (to compliment the garden-related activities she was arranging at the time). 

   There we had made the dragon flies that I have since developed into pretty attractive beings, and even sold at the Festival for the Eno. As a result of my work with these techniques in my craft and product development, I will be bringing some new materials and techniques to the class. 

   I like to share wire forming techniques, because it gives young artists the chance to experience the all-important line in a new way. While I LOVE to draw lines on paper, I realize that some students (like myself actually), are more tactile, and might gain from manipulating lines in full on three dimensional space. (incidentally, this is part of the excitement that I derive from working with tires, in my Reptire Designs, as most tires contain two hoops, or 'beads', of wire running along the edge of their rubberized fabric.

   I also feel that wire forming really helps engage students in 3 dimensional creating, and accesses a different part of their brain than 2D drawing. 

In fact I had a teacher in college that once confided that she always felt down on herself as a kid, because she was ashamed of her drawing skills, which she felt were poor. She said this inhibited her artistically. Sadly I can imagine this happening. But she discovered sculpture, all of a sudden, it didn't matter that she "couldn't draw" (a falacy, but we choose our own battles). So, she found a way around the block!

CHALLENGES

In some ways this is a tricky class to teach.

   Wire can be a little bit tricky to manage. When drawing with a pen or pencil, crayon etc., your line is sort of 'stored up' in the stylus. (Its really kind of magical when you think of it). The line is then 'drawn' out that mystical tube. (the poetry of little Henry with his purple crayon, unfurled jungles and cityscapes from it, comes to me mind).

   Wire does not afford this luxury. You must first decide how long of a line you want to use, clip it off, and then keep its ends from stabbing you, while you bend it into place.

   To gaurd against this last hazard, I have a simple ritual, which I grind into place at the beginning of each and every wire-forming class I teach. "BEND THE ENDS OF WIRES WITH PLIERS" is our mantra, and we do it to every piece of wire we use. 

   However, this precaution creates its own problems, as these small hooks like to grab onto sweaters, other wires etc. Maybe I will try taping them off with electric tape this time...

It is also can be difficult for kids this age to manipulate wire. They just don't have that much hand coordination. For this reason, I always start very slowly with this camp. The kids generally want very badly to do the project. So I am sure to make sure they have mastered the prerequisite skills, before moving onto the next.

   The final challenge to this camp is that it is right after school. My experience with afterschool students (and as one myself), is that after a long day or complying with rules, staying in your seat, etc, basically you just want to go spastic. And going spastic with wires and pliers is not good.

Hmm, I might have to get these kids some goggles..

Alexander is Rockin!

My Man, Alexander, Artist, Tire Worm Sewer, and now Stage-makeup Artist Extraordinaire is really rockin' these days!
He and his friend Larry, have been HARD AT WORK creating some pretty stupendous costume/sculptures. More soon. 

Reunion w/ Core Mural Crew!

The Mural Crew. Photo thanks to Libby Cappaldi

This past Wednesday evening, we had a warm reunion with the core members of the Chatham Community Mural Crew, who initated and undertook the Pittsboro Community Mural, across from the General Store Cafe, in Pittsboro.

It was great to reconnect with this group. And Cheif Ringleader Suz Robinson has somethings cooking!
I don't know to what extent I will be able to be involved, but they are great projects. Alot of good ideas came out, and I am sure that some more good things will be coming of this.

Helping Seniors through their gates.

Today was my last day of being a Summer School Tutor, at a local High School.
I did this paid work through the Drop Out Prevention Program of a local nonprofit, which pairs Mentors with Youth-at-risk, called Chatham County Together!

I have a particular feeling in me, and am am not sure what it is made of, or how to describe it, without going into too much detail...

Today was a challenging day!
Today was graduation day...
We had several seniors who were struggling (some harder than others), to fulfill their requirments in Summer School, so that they could go ahead and graduate with their class. Two of these Seniors I had worked with before, in the after-school program, during the semester.

Only yesterday, the deadline to hand everything in was pushed up a day, to today! Harsh thing to do to students who have poor time management skills already. To top it off, the Guidance Counselor who normally oversees summer school had a preexisting plan to deliver her son to the airport that could not be altered. This left me and the Ag Teacher-substitute to help usher these guys through the pearly gates of graduation. Yikes! So we ushered the seniors down the polished lenoleum floors, to the other Guidance Counselors office, to size up the situation.

One kid bailed, walked out the door, said he was going to community college...
Well, I hope he doesn't think that college is easier than High School....because he will need to apply himself a good deal more than he was demonstrating in Summer School. He might also run into some trouble finding a job that allows him to work with his pants down to his knees (which is the way he rolls). I'll leave it at that. (But what is up with that anyways?). There wasn't any stopping him, or so he claimed, defiantly, as he walked out the door, so I didn't really waste any more time trying.

I had more important things to worry about.

For one, R, who had been working pretty steadily all along, and who was on the cusp of meeting the requirements for graduation, was getting serious Cold Feet, in the face of her impending presentation at noon, and the English 4 tests she had to finnish and submit. Though R and I had worked together during the school year, and we had gotten on well, she had actually been acting a little snobby in the previous weeks, often declining my offers to help with her English, wanting, I think, to appear cool, with the other Seniors, who largely seemed to regard themselves as the chosen few..... But now, in contrast to her previous cool, the poor gal was shaking in her shoes.

She said that she had already resigned herself to coming back to finnish next semester... I tested the waters- after working so hard, did she mean that? She seemed mired in the unfairness of her percieved situation, and defeat. Taking a different approach, I played out the scenario for her "OK, so what if you don't graduate....", and in a glance, I could see the disappointment wash across her face, drawing it down, leaving it empty; she thought I was giving up on her, and she didn't want me to! So clearly, what she needed from someone was a push, some encouragement. And that, Ladies and Gents, is what CCT! pays me to be there to do.

    So I said, come on, Lets, give it a shot. There's no point in us standing around worrying about this anymore, time is slipping away, and we've got a lot of work to do!, and we made our way back down the hallways back to class.
Before we turned the corner to enter the classroom, I asked her to take a few deep breaths. She said she needed to take ALOT of deep breaths!

When she entered the classroom, she sat down in her chair, and got straight to business; she smacked that stuff out!
One of the last things she had to do was write a ballad for English 4. We threw together one about her graduating, whose refrain was "And so she pushed further!" I wish I had a copy...

When the time came, she grabbed her stuff, and went to make her presentation. I tried to pump her up, reminding her how prepared she was, with her business shoes etc.

Several minutes later, after my farewells to the other students, I passed her in the hall, on her way into her presentation, and my way out the door, and she thanked me for my help.

Well, you are welcome R. I hope that it is working out for you! I really do!

However, at the end of the day, who I think we both really need to thank is Chatham County Together! for putting their tutor in the right place at the right time. So that a hard working young lady was not defeated by the particular pressures of the day, and instead persevered, and pushed through, further!

Success!

I am very proud to announce that one of our seniors just made her presentation of her Senior project last night, and I am very very proud of her!