Approved mural design + rough color map

Full reflection of this past year coming soon - check out this beautiful video my young people made this summer about their experience!

SYEP Documentary

 

Murals to look at! SYEP

 

SYEP Week 2 Day 1 - Example Mural Process

 Initial sketches to divine the theme: 

3 Major Themes become 1 Story!

Blow it up! Cut it all out! Layer it back together!

Transfer + Paint

Enfin

SYEP Day 1 Week 1

 Name Game

1. Draw the name you want to be known by in graffiti style/bubble letters (Quick tutorial will be provided by Abby) on the paper covering the table - 5+ minutes

2. Answer these 4 questions next to your name: Your Pronouns/Something you like about yourself/Something you feel defines you, a word, a characteristic, a skill etc/Something you need to feel comfortable or safe in a shared space - 5+ minutes

3. Switch tables and where ever you land, look at the answers someone has provided as inspiration for how you will begin filling that person's name with colors and images. *add somewhere in the space around the name something else you feel is important for creating the kind of environment you would want to exist/work in - 5+ minutes

4. Switch tables, assess what is inside of this new person's name and see what you can add - maybe there is a story that needs to be completed, maybe you respond differently to this person's answers then the person who drew in it before you. Now begin adding what you feel this needs. *Add somewhere on the paper an important boundary for sharing space with others - 5+ minutes

5. Switch tables again - same process, final moments to engage with this new name and see where your voice can finish what has been started by others. What can you add? What does this need to feel finished? *Add somewhere on the paper one thing that makes you feel respected - 5+ minutes

6. Return to your name. Notice what others have filled it with and how they have responded to your answers. Are you surprised? What stood out to you about other peoples answers? Group conversation - 5 to 10 minutes

Inside/Outside

Split up into 2 groups. After 30 minutes, groups will switch, then come back together to discuss our conclusions as a whole team.

Outside group: 

go engage with the existing mural we are designing an addendum to - take your sketchbooks! Keep track of what you notice because we will need it later! Facilitator will ask questions to start and Apprentices will figure out what they think/fee;/believe about it. - 30 minutes

Inside group: 

Initial questions for everyone, including Facilitator to answer - 30 minutes

Why are you here and what do you hope to get out of this Summer program?

Is there a way everyone's hopes/expectations that were just named can get met? 

What do you think needs to happen to make sure of that - who's responsibility is it for different values that were named? Does anyone want to be in charge of making sure certain things happen, even if it means communicating to Facilitators that a need wasn't met?

Imagining a Client's needs, in this case with a mural:

Why would a client want a mural?

Since we are painting on a school, what kinds of things/images/ideas do you imagine might be important to a principle to have on their walls?

Who do you think the principal wants the mural to communicate with? What would they want it to communicate?

What do YOU think is valuable about having a mural on school walls?

What things/images/ideas do you think are important to include for the people the mural is meant to communicate with?

What kinds of ideas and images did you maybe wish you had access to in your school environments (current or previous)?

Is there space for what the client wants and for what you believe is important to both be addressed in a final product?

What might that look like?

Coming back together

What were some of the biggest takeaways from the Mural outside? Did both teams come to the same conclusion? What do we think the most important pieces are to incorporate into our design planning for the other side? What are some things we want to leave behind about the previous mural?

What stands out to anyone about our conversation about our wants and needs? Was anyone surprised at any point? What was it like to try and hold space for the client needs as well as your own?

Summer Media Checklist 2023 - What do I want to teach next school year?

Working document, may change as I go - I may be too exhausted to purchase supplies and test out until after SYEP ends in August - gonna try my best to try at least 1 thing a week and check it off.

Puppetry:

Casting - figuring out a quick, relatively simple and non-toxic process that is also potentially cost effective. I have a bunch of differently sized porcelain baby doll heads to practice on/with

Thai inspired shadow puppets - such a rich history to pull from, and I've been following a group that uses the small hand sized ones, as well as full body pieces - I want to really look at narrative structures and the use of sound/possible incorporation of dance as a natural intersection with powerful shadow shapes + somatic movement. Also need to build a portable theatre set up that is fairly indestructible and lightweight. Julie Taymor, deep study of puppetry in thailand is a great reference, especially the Lion King on Broadway puppets - great combination of dancers/simple shapes/simple mechanisms.

Animatronic/Mechanical functions - figure out some basic mechanical structures (all simple machines) that give an effect of being alive. I've been following an artist who uses found objects and simple movable parts to poetically imitate living functions like breathing, heart opening, crying - a lot of power and potential here, especially combined with powerful words and/or music. I'm thinking about constructing short films, though also being able to perform live, as each offers something so specific as an experience for both performers and audience. 

Printmaking:

Oil pastel transfers - Its a cool, quick trick but I gotta know what I want to use it for, so I am actually prepared to incorporate it into my lessons. The water resistant quality is also interesting, possibly combined with light sensitive cyanotypes?

Gel slab transfer - essentially making monotypes, can use magazine clippings, sharpie drawings, wipe out/layering methods etc - need to get one and just start playing. I like the idea of not needing to know how to draw to come up with something distinctly esoteric and professional looking - possible collab with fashion here as well. Making these single printed images wearable might be really valuable, they can even bring in a piece of clothing they want to print on, and I can show them some of the clothing I've printed on that lives in my closet. Also possibly making cards/zine covers/stickers is possible here.

Layered stencil prints - colored paint and sponges to create ghostly images that imply depth while also being graphic and quite simple - an exercise in media but mostly in composition. Great practice, also works well with fashion if that made sense to collab.

Sculptural:

Shoe modification - There's a huge bin of singular shoes @MFTA, I want to grab a bunch and spray paint them white, then have students plan out an approach/design - unsure as of yet what my design prompts will be, so I def need to do a mock up and see where it takes me. Could be a useful place to let students explore whichever of the techniques we had already explored in this form, so landing the skillset even deeper based on student curiosity.

Pinatas - exploring some kind of theme. Time to get back into paper mache play and think about what kinds of things we can sculpt images around and what to fill them with - great sharing moment to do the breaking, and lots of interesting emotional/political potential here, as well as a transformation - a 2 part piece with a requirement for physical engagement that steps into performance art territory.

Accordion Books/Zines - utilizing our quick themed sketches through the semester/year to create a narrative and weave our drawings into something new, painting and printing and layering on top of them - a way to allow everything we've made to be significant, a treasure trove to plumb of forgotten explorations that is secretly a testament to our growth over the year, like a scrapbook of the self. Pre-planning is important, about storing their sketches in a way that is easy and doesn't require a huge amount of time on my part. I will be making one so I can show them what is possible.

Specific explorations that are a direct response to bronx students this past school year:

A Bronx Landmarks coloring book - designing a coloring book to actually print where students choose their favorite aspects of the bronx and figure out how to represent it. This is an expression of a proposal I submitted for a Bronx based burrough wide scavenger hunt - I learned a lot this year that I need to incorporate into a new draft, as well as incorporate some of the student based explorations I did in Harlem this year. Even as the direction of the program is shifting, I still think there is a lot of potential groups that will find it interesting - I'd be very curious what students will come up with.

Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Graphic Novel + Board Game - I need to flesh out a structure for this so students aren't too overwhelmed to get to the end of a project like this, and I like the idea that depending on the group, I could go graphic novel OR board game - and once I have a structure, other people can use it but shift elements and have at least a semi predictable outcome. Also possible to do a bit of a collab either between a poetry class, or 2 classes responding to the same material but expressing 1 of both potential manifestations. I think the initial version will start in the Bronx and constantly refer back to it.

Making Monsters out of our biggest hurdles and fears - using case studies of other monsters and exploring what they might represent: Godzilla, Frankenstein, maybe bad guys like the Joker etc. Using pop culture to explore metaphor and safetly engage with the shadow parts of the self. Maybe there is eventually a transformation into something less scary, or we write backstories for why these monsters came into being etc. Lots of possible directions, need to get clear about what I want this exploration to explicitly address.

Mini recipe Zine - maybe an instruction manual for how we want to be treated/handled/respected etc - written component, graphic design/letter forms and small spot illustrations

Music Video Collab - Music production/Fashion/Theatre/Visual Art team up to do all the pieces

Important things to note:

Make a prompt bible - possibly with categories like Collaboration/Introspection/Shape Language etc

Make sure there are clear instructions and deadlines for each step of the way - trying to keep everything between 3 and 5 days till we move on to a new project