Four Paintings on Four RBC Core Values

PUBLIC ART YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM SUMMER 2018

COMMUNIT Y COLL ABORATION DIVERSIT Y AND INCLUSION ACCOUNTABILIT Y AND INTEGRIT Y BY “I’M NO PICASSO, BUT...”

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PUBLIC ART YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM SUMMER 2018 FOUR ABSTRACTS ON FOUR VALUES by “I’m No Picasso, But...”

Unveiling Celebration Wednesday, August 8th, 1:30 PM Brookfield Place 230 Vesey Street, New York, NY Ayla Rexroth, Teaching Artist Brandi Martin Yu, Teaching Artist Assistant Cupid Ojala, Teaching Artist Assistant About the Paintings Creative Art Works Youth Apprentices painted four new canvases for RBC which reflect the core values of our long-standing supporter. Each canvas represents an abstract interpretation of one of RBC’s values, which include: community, collaboration, diversity and inclusion, accounatbility and integrity. We are grateful to Brookfield Place and ArtsBrookfield for providing space in the Winter Garden to create these works.

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FROM BRIAN RICKLIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The so-called Generation Z has been described as disconnected and pessimistic, but that is certainly not the case with the 150 young people I’ve had the pleasure of working with in this summer’s Public Art Youth Employment Program. Our Youth Apprentices have a sense of purpose and are hungry to do something meaningful.

Inside this brochure, you will meet our future doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, accountants, scientists, social workers, and inspired artists. Most are still in high school; a few have started college. They have diverse interests that include poetry to politics, carpentry to computers, fashion to finance, and everything else one might find in our diverse city. For some, this was their first job. Many had little to no experience painting or producing a documentary short film. What they had in common was a commitment to creativity and an eagerness to rise to the challenge, making relevant and expressive public art. I am inspired by their remarkable individuality and all the genuine connections they made. I am also blown away by their perseverance.

While their actions and their art speak volumes, I would like to highlight some of their own words, too. Below are a few of my favorite quotes from our summer series of “lightning interviews” (You can find complete versions on our social media outlets and blog): “A friend asked me, ‘Would you rather work hard all summer or would you rather have fun and paint?’ And I said, ‘I think painting sounds hard!’”

– Kimani “I have executives, I have clients, I have people that I have to get approval from... It feels like there are high expectations.”

– Marvin Kimani & Marvin, a creative job is tough – there was a lot of pressure, so congratulations on sticking with it!

“I just want to create something that’s meaningful.”

– Britney

Britney, you certainly did! It’s been a privilege to be witness to yours and all the teams’ creative processes and personal growth.

To all our supporters, thank you for making this possible. And to our readers and especially those in attendance today, thank you for joining in celebration of each and every apprentice and their collective art which is being revealed here today.

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“I’m No Picasso, but...”

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Emily Pena Emily is a 21-year-old Youth Apprentice from Inwood. This is her third year working with Creative Art Works, and she hopes to utilize this time to explore more creative styles and enhance her painting and drawing skills within her personal studio time. She also hopes to take more initiative and learn how to be more responsible. She’s looking forward to the experience and meeting new people and forming new memories and bonds.

Mercedes Steele Mercedes is in her sophomore year of college and is the first person, and the first female, in her family to go to college. Mercedes is a dual major in psychology and criminal justice at Utica College.

She aspires to work for the FBI as a special agent or psychologist.

Mercedes has worked with Creative Art Works for about two years and this is her third mural.

She loves art and the ability to learn something new every time she comes back to the program.

CAW is helping her further develop her leadership skills.

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Elsie Vidal Elsie Vidal is a 20-year-old student at BMCC. She is a psychology major who wishes to pursue a career in the medical field. Since 2015, Elsie has participated in creating, editing, and/ or finalizing 6 murals with Creative Art Works so far. She enjoys being part of Creative Art Works because they have helped her develop public speaking skills. Elsie feels that Creative Art Works is a great way to get youth out of their elements, which puts them in positions to learn, grow and build character.

Ariefly Perez Ariefly is a 19-year-old from Washington Heights. She is of Dominican descent and loves her heritage. At SUNY New Paltz, she has a pre-major in communication disorders with a minor in Spanish.

She was so inspired by the mural she worked on last year with CAW that she decided to come back again. This summer she was able to work better as a team member and strengthen her technical skills. Her favorite moment was working with so many new people and forming friendships.

She is accustomed to realistic murals but stepped out of her comfort zone and feels ready for her first abstract paintings.

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Lucia Bonaccio Lucia is a 16-year-old junior in high school. She aspires to work as a video game designer. She’s been in love with video games ever since she was a young child, from Mario Kart to Overwatch. Designing the characters and scenery brings the overall game to life through a different reality. Working with Creative Art Works helped her learn skills she needs to pursue this career such as perspective, color theory, and shadow use. Along the way she has made friends and learned teamwork skills by working collaboratively on all the paintings.

She’s no Picasso, but she thinks she did pretty well.

James Jermaine Canty James lives in Manhattan and is currently an employee at Creative Art Works. He is a senior at LaGuardia Community College studying liberal arts with a long-term goal of graduating with an associate or a bachelor’s degree. An interesting detail about James is his overall interests in art. He never had a strong interest in art until late 2015, and before then he never thought of making his art interests as a college major. After 2015, he was able to pass two visual arts classes and move on to an arts major at LaGuardia Community College.

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Madeline Deleon Madeline is a 21-year-old artist from The Bronx. This is her second time working with CAW. She has experience in various digital medias, painting and drawing, and storytelling through comics.

Madeline will graduate from BMCC soon with honors. With all of this knowledge, she strives to learn more, especially from her peers.

Her dream is to make her own creative series through various media. Madeline is a metalhead who loves wrestling and puns.

Jiayan Yuan Jiayan is currently a digital design major at City College and has been making art since her high school years. Her knowledge in different fields of art allows her to take leadership and responsibility in group projects. Working with Creative Art Works gives her the opportunity to paint more expressively and to collaborate with people of different ages. This summer’s experience allows her to pick up her enthusiasm again in painting and incorporate the techniques of digital design.

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Antonio Shivers Antonio wants to pursue a career as a video game developer and video game designer. Although the only art experience he has ever had is drawing stick figures, he still decided to join the team “I’m no Picasso but…” Since joining CAW, he has learned about shading, drawing, angles, perspective view, contour lines, tonal shading and many more art techniques.

Since he wants to pursue a career as a video game developer and designer, all of the art techniques he has learned while at CAW will come in handy when he is creating characters, levels, weapons, etc.

To this day, Antonio does not regret joining the mural team with Creative Art Works.

Julian Vasquez Julian is 16-years-old, lives in Harlem, and goes to high school.

This is his first CAW summer, and he has no artistic experience outside of music. Julian has learned skills such as perspective, color theory, and how to work with a team. Julian usually does things by himself, but CAW helped him feel comfortable to work as part of a team. Julian loves to leave his mark, whether it’s in his passion for carpentry or anything else, so CAW is perfect for Julian.

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Koko Kabash Koko Kabash is a 16-year-old Junior in high school. This is his first job, and he thinks that it has been a great experience to help him develop his artistic skills. He believes working together in groups will help him learn to coordinate with others. Also, this will be crucial in his future since he aspires to become a computer programmer.

Suaisha Clemons Suaisha Clemons is 16-years-old.

She’s from The Bronx and will be starting her junior year of high school this fall. This is her first time working with Creative Art Works.

Throughout this work experience, she has not only learned new art skills but has also become more confident and gained better social skills. This is beneficial to her future, because she hopes to become a speech language pathologist or an art therapist, which requires the skills she gained through CAW.

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Netch-ti Bates Netch-ti Bates is 22-years-old. She was born in Richmond, Virginia.

She has never lived more than 5 years in any place. She will be going to school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She wants to be a veterinarian. She loves art as a hobby. Working with Creative Art Works has allowed her to expand her creativity and knowledge. She now feels more confident about her art making abilities. She has also been able to work with others through this experience which has helped her towards her goal of curing her social anxiety. She hopes to continue working well with her group and enjoying this experience as much as possible.

Rosanna Valencia Rosanna is a 19-year-old student from Washington Heights. She is in her third year of college studying architecture. In her spare time she enjoys reading, drawing and writing. Creative Art Works has offered her the opportunity to learn new skills and develop her artistic abilities, learn more about art, and learn to work with a concept given by clients.

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Henry Mejia Henry is 22-years-old. He was born on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He is a two-time CAW worker, the first time as part of the multimedia team, currently as a part of a painting crew. He is becoming more social and confident through working with his peers and is taking more responsibility when it comes to work. Being part of a team that is supportive and non-judgmental allows him be himself. That in turn helps him become a better team-player.

Chelsee Morris Chelsee is a 17-year-old girl who will be starting college this fall studying zoology. She has always longed to get in touch with her artistic side especially since she was raised by a strong single mom, who is a talented artist who has little time to create anymore. That’s why she decided to join Creative Art Works this summer — to be more creative and to live up to her mother’s legacy. This summer, she has achieved that through learning new techniques, meeting amazing people, and finally calling herself an artist.

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Kimani Reddick Kimani Reddick is 23-years-old. It’s his first time with Creative Art Works. He joined because of a friend’s suggestion and a thoughtful impulse. He’s enjoying his time with CAW, while trying to grow his artistic repertoire with various techniques. He’s also learning from tips given to him by his peers. Kimani aspires to be a jack of all trades, due to his many interests; however, his childhood dream of becoming a Power Ranger still lives on. He looks forward to the grand unveiling and hopes the dance party challenge he has planned comes to fruition.

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Brian Jones Brian Jones is 21, born and raised in The Bronx. Brian is a college sophomore majoring in computer science. He plans to pursue a position in the tech industry as a coder. He also participates in student government at his college.

This is his second summer working under CAW; he produced a short documentary film last August with the CAW multimedia team, and has now returned as part of a team of painters to express even more of his creativity.

Fatoumata Sawaneh Fatoumata Sawaneh is a Gambian of Muslim descent. She recently graduated from BMCC with a major in social work. While in high school, she was an art major but stopped drawing soon after graduation.

Meanwhile, she recently became interested in makeup and has been doing it ever since. This is her first summer working with CAW, and she really enjoys the Teaching Artists; she finds them helpful and supportive. She learned many new drawing techniques that will improve her makeup passion. She also learned to discuss her artwork in a more confident way that will carry over to her YouTube channel.

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Teaching Artist Assistant Brandi Martin Yu This is Brandi’s third Youth Employment Program with CAW. She lives in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of The Art Institute of Chicago and the School of Visual Arts. Brandi’s installations and sculptures bring physicality to text and research to poetry.

Her sculptural work uses text as physical manipulatives, making language malleable and its ownership up for grabs. She exhibits both in the US and abroad.

Her recent site-specific residencies were in Bulgaria; Detroit; and Gettysburg. The Bridgeguard Residency (funded by the Štefan and Viera Frühauf Endowment Fund) spanned the Mária Valéria Bridge between Štúrovo, Slovakia, and Esztergom, Hungary.

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Teaching Artist Ayla Rexroth Ayla is an artist living and working in Brooklyn. She earned her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2010. That same year, she founded the Subterranean Gallery – an underground apartment gallery in Kansas City, Missouri.

Subterranean continues to serve the local artistic community under new direction. Ayla received her MFA from Hunter College in 2016, showing paintings, sculptures, and fiber works as part of her design solution storefront. Her work is held in the collections of the Europa Museum of Art and the Schengen Peace Foundation.

Teaching Artist Assistant Cupid Ojala Cupid earned his MFA at Parsons The New School for Design where he developed fantasy spaces that mirror masculine identities of desire onto themselves as social critique. His exhibitions include The Kitchen, Aronson Gallery, Strange Loop Gallery and Upper Manhattan Open Studios in New York City, Fuchs Projects in Brooklyn, The Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland and The Button Factory in New Jersey. Cupid grew up in a conservative, Mormon family in rural Bumpass, Virginia, where he also received his BFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. He transitioned from female to male in 2003 and currently resides in Brooklyn.

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Creative Art Works hires Youth Apprentices directly and as a worksite manager with the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development Summer Youth Employment Program. Programs are implemented in partnership with Catholic Charities of New York Alianza Division, Children’s Aid Society, Inwood Community Services, and Police Athletic League. CAW’s 2017 Public Art Youth Employment Program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council. Direct support is provided by Brookfield, Crowell & Moring Foundation, RBC Foundation USA, Sherwin Williams, Structure Tone, and by individual donors.

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About the Public Art Youth Employment Program

Public Art Youth Employment Programs give teens and young adults full-time summer jobs and part-time jobs after school to create large-scale public art and multimedia projects. Youth Apprentices are guided by professional teaching artists from the initial concept development through client presentation, to the final edit and public unveiling or premier. Along the way, they gain tangible employment and life skills such as leadership, teamwork, responsibility and the power of taking initiative. They are empowered by the enduring accomplishment in their work of art and its positive impact on the community.

About Creative Art Works

Creative Art Works (CAW) is a 32-year-old nonprofit that empowers young people through the visual and multimedia arts. Our programs equip children, teens, and young adults with essential tools and skills; connect them with community, academic success, and career opportunities; and inspire them to reach for new possibilities. Working in under-served neighborhoods of New York City, in public schools, community centers, parks, and libraries, CAW provides dynamic art-making experiences for youth who otherwise lack access. Our programs build confidence, unlock a love of learning, and teach valuable technical and developmental skills while creating profound connections between our young constituents, their art and their communities. Students are never charged for participation in our programs. www.creativeartworks.org Creative Art Works is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, EIN #13-3638436 Copyright Š 2017 Creative Art Works. All rights reserved.

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COMMUNIT Y COLL ABORATION DIVERSIT Y AND INCLUSION ACCOUNTABILIT Y AND INTEGRIT Y

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520 Eighth Avenue, Suite 201A New York, NY 10018 646.424.0392 www.creativeartworks.org Creative Art Works is a 501(c)(3), EIN #13-3638436 Copyright © 2018 Creative Art Works. All rights reserved.

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