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  • The Lab: Off to the races for 2nd Session! (January 30, 2011)

For the past seven weeks I’ve had the distinct privilege to work with 6 young artists from Washington Jr. High who are determined to succeed. One of the themes we discuss as a group is identity. I showed students the work of Kara Walker; an artist living and working in New York whose work investigates historical stereotypes and relationships between blacks and whites in the United States. She elegantly crafts these explorations with the simple and yet highly potent medium of inky black silhouettes.  After learning about Walker and her work I had the students begin by writing poems about who they are and how people see them. After we finished writing we created paper silhouettes of each other by tracing our shadows. Please enjoy the images and words some of these students came up with.

 

People see me as “Z”

But I see me

as what I want to be.

 

I can be a spy

or a dancer

or a football player

or a king

 

But for now I’m a Kid.

You are my star you twinkle like the stars.
You have my heart and soul from the time I was born
to the time I am deceased.
You make me feel like I am loved
but sometimes it is like a roller coaster ride with all the ups and downs.
So sometimes it feels like a leaf falling from a tree
when my life is going on.
You make me laugh when I am sad
You make me smile when I am happy.
But most of all you make me feel like I am loved and blessed
by an angel from the heavens.
I know you won’t give up on me when things are going wrong.
I know you will be the first to say everything will be okay.
You are like a new song everyone wants to listen to you.
You are blessed in so many ways it’s hard to describe.
You are like Mother Nature
you don’t know what you are going to do next.
But when you do speak everyone stops and listens.
You are important and you are alive in this world for a reason.
But everyday you are here, the closer I get to you
and I trust in you a lot more than the first time I met you.
So just to let you know
I love all of you for a reason.

 

Can’t see what,
Can’t see how
As a kid,  I always wanted it NOW!
I just want to be successful
with wealth and health
But now these obstacles and troubles along the way
There’s no way I’ll get there
that way
Hope is a simple concept,
yet misused
I hope to live a cartoon life,
a simple life, maybe get a wife
But before I do, so much stuff to do
Improve my skills,
drawing is my profession…
writing too
Do it all day, maybe all night,
do it all over ‘till I get it right
Hope to reach my goals,
be happy and free
But I just continue
to strive and hope
I’ll be the best I can be.

~ Harding Youth Lab Poet

This art work was created by a Washington Middle School student. He is part of a Visual Art group facilitated by Kyle Johanson, our VISTA worker who also happens to be a visual artist. Kyle is teaching our students about how art can be a healthy way to express their ideas. In this group, he was talking about the artist Jackson Pollock and his technique of “drip painting”, and this student created a beautiful piece! Jackson Pollock was part of a greater art movement called Abstract Expressionism, which was developed to convey emotion and feeling through a visual language.
If you’d like to see Kyle’s work, check out his website at www.kylejohanson.com

The next picture featured here was created by another student in Kyle’s Washington Visual Art Group.  In his two canvasses, this student told the story that one shows “happiness” looking out into the world, and the other canvas, showing the scary things in life looking back in through the window.

Shop for your spring flowers and help support The Lab!

Click on the coupon to the left and print out this coupon and bring it to Linder’s Flower Market (www.linders.com) on the weekend of May 6 – 9, and The Lab will receive 15% of the Lab sales that weekend.

All money raised will go to engage and hire community guest artists and support the development of our Technology Lab (digital cameras, digital video cameras, piano keyboards, microphones etc…)

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