Bronx Art Collective

Community Art: Mosaics with Visiting Artist Lisa Prives

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 11:39:00 -0500

Greetings DreamYard followers! We’re back at it working on a community art project. DreamYard has been creating a park with Bronx Pro. Artist Lisa Prives has been designing mosaics for the park. She came to BAC and worked with us in creating our own mosaics for the park. Our mosaics have a nature theme consisting of animals and plants, and they will be installed in the park this Spring. Here’s the work in progress!

Watercolor Landscapes: the Sargent edition

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 12:27:00 -0500

This week participants made watercolor landscapes based on the work of John Singer Sargent. Sargent was an American painter, born in 1856, known for his portraits and thousands of watercolors. Here are a few examples of his work:

To fully experience watercolors and its inconsistent nature, participants were given extended paint brushes. Most participants really enjoyed it while others were easily frustrated. Either way everyone had a good time.

Here are some pictures!

Till next week!

Artist Fighters: Mid-Year OSP Sharing

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 10:58:00 -0500

Nashid and Leana

Last week DreamYard’s Out of School Programs had their mid-year sharing, where each group presented their projects to middle school students and to our families. BAC created an exhibition titled “Artist Fighters” that highlighted Social Justice Artists that inspired them and created pieces that paid homage. These artists include: Kara Walker, Alfredo Jaar, Doris Salcedo and Dread Scott. Here is a preview of of the works in our exhibition. We hope you enjoy!

Nashid and Leana

“I chose Kara Walker because I thought it was an interesting contradiction that she would work with silhouettes, which are completely black and do not show detail, yet her work focuses on race and gender, things that are physically noticeable.”

Promise

“I think Kara Walker is a really strong person for speaking out about these issues and problems, things that no one wants to really talk about.”

Gabbie

“Dread Scott is a revolutionary artist who creates artwork to propel history forward. That’s what I want to do in my artwork.”

Kamaria

“I am in a full orchestra, emptied of my minority brothers and sisters. Their absence is the foundation of my project. I am making a violin for them, to follow their dreams.”

Khalid

My piece is inspired by Nancy Spero. Nancy Spero was an artist and activist and made work about war and violence. My piece is about Gay Rights, because that is an issue that is important to me.”

Khalid

David

“This Is Home” is inspired by Alfredo Jaar’s piece “This Is America” in Times Square. What my animation piece of work is trying to say is ‘Hey Mr. Jaar you forgot about the Caribbean’.”

Homage to Artist Fighters

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:48:56 -0500

Hey there Tumblr peoples! BAC has been working on their first big project of the year. We are paying homage to artist fighters.

Our Social Justice Artist Fighters are:

-Dread Scott

-Doris Salcedo

-William Kentridge

-Kara Walker

-Nancy Sparo

-Yinka Shonibare

-Fred Wilson

-Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadila

-Ain Weiwei

-Alfredo Jaar

After studying and researching these artists, participants began to work on a project that pays homage to one of these artists. Here are some images from our work in the studio today… (more to come in the New Year!)

Watercolors self-portraits

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:51:00 -0500

Gaby V

Last week in BAC, participants were given the task of making their self-portraits using black permanent marker and watercolors. We explored warm and cool colors, and various watercolor techniques such as: bleeds, dry brush and layering color. Participants were also encouraged to take creative risks! Here are a few examples…

Stephanie

Gaby B

Esther

David

We are back in session!

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:04:00 -0500

Bac is back for another year! We have many new and old participants joining us. So far it’s been great. For community building, participants were set into groups and given a building task. The rules of the game were as follows: to build the tallest structure out of straws and tape. To make it challenging the participants were not allowed to speak to each other and could use only one hand. These obstacles made the participants rely on each other emphasizing their need for teamwork. Here are some pictures.

After the time was up, only two structures were standing. Here is what they had to say about the process:

“Working together was really fun.”

“Laughing about it all was good.”

“You had to help each other rip the tape.”

“You really had to go with the flow and be flexible.”

“I had a few uh-oh moments.”

We then went on to draw the structures using the rub-out technique. Rub-out is a reductive drawing technique. The artist begins with a darkened piece of paper using charcoal and pulls the lights using an eraser. The goal is to have a tonal range (dark, middle, light), structure and space.

Here are some examples of student artwork:

Diana, BAC Intern, modeling the rub-out technique

BAC Summer Intensive Recap

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 12:17:00 -0400

This summer BAC had its first ever summer session; an intensive two-week college portfolio building course led for high school students. Participants learned how to draw using charcoal and sumi ink, and the majority of students walked away with a minimum of 10 pieces. We also visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Parsons School of Design, The New School for Social Research and took a college admissions tour. Here are some pictures from our journey this summer!

After the two intensive weeks the students had a critique in which they reflected on their pieces.

Philadelphia Trip: Mural Arts Program Walking Tour

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:53:00 -0400

During our trip to Philadelphia, we were privledged to have a wonderful tour by the Mural Arts Program. The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program has been around for nearly twenty years. It started by recruiting youth who had tagged up public surfaces, to paint over their graffiti with a drab grey paint. Then they saw the opportunity to engage the youth in beautifying, rather than simply covering up the graffiti. The Mural Arts Program brings together artists and communities through a collaborative process in which artists are able to paint within public spaces as long as it has a message pertaining to many people within a community. We were guided by David Darwin, and within the tour we got to see many outstanding mural projects by artists.

David leading the Mural Arts tour

Legacy

One mural in particular that stood out to me was the Abraham Lincoln Mural. Through its composition this artwork sends out a certain message that America has come a long way from racism and slavery, yet there is a lot of work still to be done.

Next time you’re in Philly I highly recommend taking a mural tour with the Mural Arts Program!

- Jahvorn Young

BAC Trip To Philly :D ! The Magic Gardens.

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:52:00 -0400

“The Magic Gardens”

The Magic Gardens is like a junkyard wonderland. You can find everything and anything, from glass bottles to tiles, dolls & you can actually find some things that repeat; for example, the little statues of a guy with 4 arms! We started noticing that inside the glass bottles, people were leaving messages, which kind of reminded us of a time capsule. I enjoyed being in the Gardens because it made me realize that art isn’t just always what you see, there’s always more to it. To me, the Gardens reminded me of a playground. When I was younger, I used to find different things that I thought were amazing, but when I was in the gardens, I was completely amazed. When being in the Gardens, I started thinking like a realist, & not like an idealist. It made me think about the things the artist, Isaiah Zagar, must’ve been thinking about when creating this. It was a great experience, that ended with us writing a note & leaving it in one of the bottles!! :)

- Gabriella Velasquez

Beautiful painted tiles

A cavernous hall inside the gardens

A view of one of the walls

BAC’s message in a bottle

Jason D helped us put our message inside a bottle, we picked a bottle that was hard to reach because we wanted it to be found a long time from now…

BAC at the Bronx Museum of the Arts

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:15:00 -0400

Breaking the Chains, Designed by Jay and Cris, Painted by Diana and Cris

On March 25th, BAC installed their work at the Bronx Museum of the Art as part of DreamYard’s annual student art exhibition. The installation consisted of a wall painting, digital photographs, mixed media interventions, a video and sculpture. Here is a look at the process and final installation…

Diana and Cris sketching out the wall painting design

Making a time lapse…

Why doesn’t technology work when you want it to? Justin clicking the shudder every six seconds to make the time lapse..

Edwin and David installing Bronx International High School’s community quilt

The fantastic duo hanging another large painting..

Wall painting in progress…

It’s almost finished!

From left to right: Nashid’s Target Practice, Raheem’s Self Portrait, Gaby’s interventions

From top to bottom: Diana’s Little Boy, Jay, Cris and Diana’s Breaking the Chains

From top to bottom: Justin’s Time of Day, Diana’s White Construction

Installation view

Installation view detail

Breaking the Chains detail

Preparing for The Bronx Museum of the Arts Install

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:22:00 -0400

Edwin’s using a loud powersaw…

Hey Tumblr people! Last Saturday we were busy completing our pieces for DreamYard’s Annual Art Exhibition at The Bronx Museum of the Arts. We were preparing to install our work the following day, Sunday, March 25th. It’s unbelievable what you can accomplish in a day!

Edwin, the BAC intern, supporting Diana with her sculpture

Raheem building a model for his upcoming stop motion animation

Cris and Jay working on a design for a wall painting at the Bronx Museum of the Arts

Framing!!!

David having a ‘moment’ while video editing his video about bullying

Justin spent hours framing!

David putting the finishing touches on his video…

Edwin and Diana building carefully…

And…Diana’s spray painted sculpture inspired by Louise Nevelson!

Visiting Artist David Flores led BAC participants through a stop...

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:48:00 -0400

Visiting Artist David Flores led BAC participants through a stop motion/time lapse workshop today. We learned how to set-up our camera equipment and Dflo talked to us about the whole frames to sec/minute concept. Once we knew how many shots we needed to take (involves a lot of math), we created our animation short and imported the stills to Quicktime 7 Pro. We’re planning on using this technique for our upcoming install at the Bronx Museum of Art next week. Stay tuned!

BAC Senior Show Art Opening Highlights

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:32:00 -0400

Hello Tumblr people! Here are images from the Senior BAC art opening held last Saturday at the DreamYard Art Center. It was well attended by the OSP community, family and friends. Thanks to all who came! The seniors spoke about the process working with mentors Marc Boone and Skowmon Hastanan, and about their artwork. Congratulations to all our seniors!

Diana Perea, The White Mess, Mixed Media

Justin Cuevas, Dusk, Digital Print

Jahvorn Young, Comic Art, Wall Installation

Cristopher Aracena, Character Studies, DVD Video Animation

Jay painting the final touches

BAC Intern, Edwin, adjusting the track lighting (very important!)

Justin giving an artist talk on his series of photographs.

BAC Senior Exhibition March 10, 2012

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:43:00 -0500

Come join us and celebrate with the senior BAC participants! Meet the artists and bring friends and family. Light refreshments will be served. Hope to see you there!

BAC Mentorship Program: Mentorship with Skowmon Hastanan

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:35:17 -0500

BAC Mentorship Program: Mentorship with Skowmon Hastanan:

bacmentorship:

On January 21st, artist Skowmon Hastanan mentored B.A.C. seniors for five sessions as they prepared for their Senior Exhibition. Below are participant take-aways from the process.

“Skowman showed me a variety of ways of installing my artwork, from hanging it on strings, to creating a three…

Mosaic Workshop with Lisa Prives Part 2

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:00:00 -0500

Today in BAC we had our second mosaic workshop with visiting artist Lisa Prives. We finished our pieces for the time being using the indirect method, and will install our mosaics this summer in the Hayden Lord Park. Below are photo’s from the day showing the process. Mosaic making is very difficult and time consuming yet the results are spectacular. Here are some great resources for learning more about mosaics: The Institute of Mosaic Art and Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens

Getting started making a sea turtle

Gaby breaking tiles (she’s really good at it too)

Jay’s underwater plants are FANTASTIC

This fishy is almost done

Diana’s working on underwater plants

Diana’s work in progress

Meet Mr. Jaws

Putting the finishing touch onto a squid

Just a touch of glue

Happy coral reefs

And the sly electric eel!

Mosaic Workshop with Lisa Prives Part 1

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:25:00 -0500

Artist Lisa Prives came to our art studio last week and led us through a mosaic-making workshop. Our designs will be installed in the future Hayden Lord Park in the Bronx this summer. We learned a few things about the process, for example, the technique we’re working with is the indirect method, where you work offsite. The direct method is when you work directly onto the wall. We decided on an underwater nature theme, and let our creativity guide us. Below are some photo’s from the our day’s work. We’ll be continuing with this project next week, so stay tuned!

Lisa Prives shows photo’s of the future park to BAC Participants

Look at all the color tiles to choose from! Yaay!

Books of mosaic’s throughout the centuries for inspiration

Lisa models the process. Step one, draw your sea creature onto butcher paper and outline it with a china-marker

Step two, choose your colors

Step three, place thinset (fiberglass mesh) over your drawing (very important - place clear plastic in-between the butcher paper and mesh!)

Step four, place your tiles, carefully and thoughtfully…see what seems to fit

And here we go! Carefully breaking tiles (notice we’re wearing eye protection and gloves)

Carefully measuring the paper isn’t bigger than the wall

Researching underwater plant life with Artist Mentor Skowmon Hastanan

Preparation sketch

That is one mean shark

Julio’s Seahorse

Scholastic Gold Key Winner Raheem Garriques

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:29:00 -0500

Bronx Art Collective participant, Raheem Garriques is the recipient of a Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Gold Key for his installation “I’m An Operator”. Watch Raheem installing his sculpture at The Bronx Museum of Art at last years annual DreamYard Art Exhibition.

Interview with Raheem Garriques

Can you tell me how and why you started using string?

R.G. - Well, it was a lot of inspiration which led me to using string. A lot of artists have used string in the past, and my teacher gave me the idea to use string, instead of using something ordinary. Hand-crafting and sculpting is like drawing to me, at the same time, it’s like using a pencil.

Can you talk a little bit about the piece you made at the Bronx Museum of Art, why did you make a robot?

R.G. - It was kind of like a contradiction, because robots don’t really have hearts. So they can’t really love. So I gave it a human artery, and shifted and created what was going on in my mind. I also gave him human like abilities, like muscular arms, and basically it kind of shows you how not everyone is different, and you just have to look past the problems.

How does if feel being a Scholastic Gold Key winner?

R.G. I feel kind of ecstatic. At first I was surprised because there are a lot of artists in my program that are great and professional and I was surprised that I won. I’m proud of myself because of my achievements in the BAC program in the last year. Being picked as a gold key winner made me feel an accomplishment, like everything I’ve done has gone to good use. There’s a reason for everything, and doing my artwork was the reason I won this gold key.

What are you working on next?

R.G. - I’m making an installation titled Crooked House. You know when people move into a house, they expect it to be clean and nothings wrong with it, and they want it to look great on the inside. I made it appear crooked on the outside, but when you look inside it’s wonderful. The exterior is shifted, it looks like you don’t want to live there because everything is disproportionate, and then you see inside. Once you reach inside, all your thoughts about the house are different. Not judging a book by its cover.

Another project we’re working on in BAC is a mosaic to put in a children’s park in the Bronx. We’re doing underwater creatures as a theme, so my mosaic artwork is an electric eel, which to me signifies strength and wisdom. The process of making a mosaic is very difficult yet I enjoy doing it. I’m looking forward to seeing the mosaic at the park and helping with the installment this summer.

Did you have art in your house growing up?

R.G. - Well, when I was little, my mom didn’t really like the things I did in the house, I would draw on the walls and I would create stuff out of her necklaces. And then she’d have to untangle them. I couldn’t go outside and play, so she gave me the idea to draw. I’d draw and made origami, I made an origami elephant once. There was a lot of art in my surroundings growing up, there was graffiti on Allerton Ave that I liked a lot. I then transitioned into making life-like drawings, and then a couple of years after that, when I was thirteen I became interested in Anime. The person who really inspired me to be an artist was my father. He gave up artwork when I was young to take care of me, so I’m picking up where he left off. My dad used to make comic strips and he’d paint flowers. It was my uncle who found the BAC program so I could improve my drawing skills. We both thought it was a good idea and my mom gave me permission to go. Everything about me has improved since I joined BAC, all because of this program I’m a better person.

BAC Mentorship Program: Mentorship with Marc Boone

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:38:00 -0500

BAC Mentorship Program: Mentorship with Marc Boone:

bacmentorship: Marc Boone, a DreamYard teaching artist that is currently working on a graphic novel about fairy tales for adults, helped us brainstorm our senior independent projects. As we worked on our projects we exchanged ideas and received feedback….

Teen Gallery: Black and White Studies

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:12:00 -0500

Nashid, “Target Practice”, transfer on paper, 24X36”, 2011

For the first several weeks in BAC, we’ve experimented with black and white through various techniques, these include: transfer drawings, monoprinting and frottage drawings. Here are a few examples of some of the work we’ve generated.

Nashid, “Target Practice”, transfer on paper, 24X36”, 2011

Diana, “Little Boy”, transfer and charcoal on paper, 12X16”, 2011

Gabriella + Kamaria, “Beauty According to Google”, transfer and collage on paper, 2011

Kamaria, Monoprint, 2011

Nashid, Monoprint, 8X10”, 2011

Jay, Monoprint, 8X10”, 2011

Kamaria,”The Streets”, frottage drawing, 2012

Narelyn, “Fence”, frottage drawing, 2012

Raheem, “Self-Portrait”, charcoal on paper, 24X36”, 2012