Thanks to some youth from Mattapan's VIP, the abstract parts of one panel are fully painted. I spent my time in the studio working on the other one.
When doing this type of painting, it's all about having an even distribution of colors throughout the wood panel.
Outlining shapes also helps me to keep track of the different forms that intertwine with each other.
Everyday it looks more and more alive!
One of the awesome things about getting chosen as an artist for this commission was getting to amplify positive things about Mattapan by spending time with and talking to the people who live there. For the research part of my practice, I got a tour of Mattapan from the youth at The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) housed at Mattapan Community Health Center. Plus, every Mattapan resident who volunteered to be a model for the artwork allowed me to interview them. The images below are photographs I took as reference for the artwork.... and I'd also like to think of them as byproducts of good conversation.
*All photographs are taken by Chanel Thervil, unless otherwise noted.
CT: What do you wish more people knew about Mattapan?
Ahlana: "I wish more people knew about all of the men and women who put their lives on the line to make Mattapan a better, cleaner, safer place. "
CT: How has living in Mattapan effected you?
Ahlana: "I am Mattapan. Everything I know, I have learned either in, from or for my community. It has made me who I am. It has made me stronger and tougher than almost anybody!"
Stay tuned for more updates as the work progresses.
I was super excited to have some of the youth from Mattapan's Violence Intervention Program (VIP) stop by the studio. Our first order of business was picking the color palette and choosing brushes
*All photos included in this blog post were taken by Mattapan's VIP Coordinator Arthur Kitty.
While the youth were excited to pick the color palette, it seemed like they were apprehensive when it came time to start painting. I appreciated the level of respect they had for all the work I had put in, but it was important that they know they work is their's too! I broke the ice by talking more about their intrinsic awesomeness for picking a color pallet made of shades of complimentary colors (red & green) and did a demo of my painting technique.
It wasn't long before they dived in and got the hang of it.
Stay tuned to see how things progress!
With all of the drawing done, it's time to rip off the string and start cutting with the jigsaw. All it takes is clamping things to the table and then I'm off.
And of course, I couldn't forget to sand the edges. Wouldn't want anyone getting splinters and having lungs full of saw dust isn't cute either, so a mask is necessary.
Had to hit up the projector one more time so I could enlarge the text I'm adding to the artwork. There's nothing like seeing positive words amplified. It's really exciting to put a stamp of positivity into the universe through creative modifications of words.
One of the awesome things about getting chosen as an artist for this commission was getting to amplify positive things about Mattapan by spending time with and talking to the people who live there. For the research part of my practice, I got a tour of Mattapan from the youth at The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) housed at Mattapan Community Health Center. Plus, every Mattapan resident who volunteered to be a model for the artwork allowed me to interview them. The images below are photographs I took as reference for the artwork.... and I'd also like to think of them as byproducts of good conversation.
*All photographs are taken by Chanel Thervil, unless otherwise noted.
CT: What do you wish more people knew about Mattapan?
Thomas: "That it's not a bad place to live! Whenever I tell someone that I live in Mattapan, they give me a response that makes it seem like they feel bad for me or pity me. But it's not a terrible place. There's more than negativity here."
CT: What would you like to see more of in Mattapan?
Thomas: "More people showing that they are moving in the best direction, which is forward."
Stay tuned for more of the interview outtakes with Mattapan residents coming soon!
Had to keep up the momentum in the studio and work on more abstract forms for the second wood panel.
The good stuff is always in the details. The best part for me is seeing how the portraits change when they have shapes that twist and fly around them. Everything just becomes that much more animated. Just like with life, if there's too much stillness is your artwork it's dead. My hope is that the portraits due justice for the wonderful people being portrayed.
With the sketches of the faces all done, I can finally break from structure and start drawing the abstract forms. This is a key design element I'm using to enliven the space between the figures and unify the floating heads.
When making the abstract forms I kept thinking of filigree or plants blossoming. Much of what community members kept saying about Mattapan involved vibrance, strength, and room to grow..... It seemed like a good concept to interpret in the artwork abstractlly amongst the literal faces of the community.
Another studio day means it's time to get to work on those faces. I fired up the projector, scaled up the reference photos I took, and made three more renderings.
While the projections of the photographs ensures that all of the faces are proportional, to get down to the nitty gritty details and contours of the face I have to follow my own instincts..... Which usually involves turning off the projector, looking at other reference images, using my own recall, and letting the creativity flow.
So far so good!
One of the awesome things about getting chosen as an artist for this commission was getting to amplify positive things about Mattapan by spending time with and talking to the people who live there. For the research part of my practice, I got a tour of Mattapan from the youth at The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) housed at Mattapan Community Health Center. Plus, every Mattapan resident who volunteered to be a model for the artwork allowed me to interview them. The images below are photographs I took as reference for the artwork.... and I'd also like to think of them as byproducts of good conversation.
*All photographs are taken by Chanel Thervil, unless otherwise noted.
CT: What would you like to see more of in Mattapan?
Angie: "I would like to see Mattapan with more color! Art, unique stores.... just more attractions."
CT: How has living in Mattapan effected you?
Angie: "Mattapan has become my second chance at having a place to call home. Mattapan has shown me to be more accepting, and that my neighborhood and the people in it, are very close and caring."
Stay tuned for a peak at more of the community members who modeled for the portraits coming soon!
Had to give you a lil peek at the progress. It's starting to look good after doing some cross hatching and additional shading.
The goal here is to give those faces some more dimension. One 8ft panel down and one more to go!
Now that the wood is prepped, I gotta get my drawing hand together! I started out in the studio making some preliminary sketches to warm up. Then, I had to dim the lights for the main event.......
Projection! This and the grid I made out of string are super helpful to ensure I get the proportions of everyone's face on a similar scale. No hierarchy here, so everyone's face needs to be the same size. You can see me using the projection of one of the photographs I took as a guide for my drawing.
Bow! There's the first level of sketching just to get the rendering of the figure down.
And of course and artist's work is never done! I had to keep going to get more faces on this this panel before I can move on to the next.
Once my studio was all set up and supplies were bought it was time to get to work! I spent this studio day prepping the wood for drawing. A common technique for making large scale renderings is starting by making a grid. I decided to play with that using string to make my grid layout.
I have all the necessities: tape measure, sharpee, string, and scissors. Once I had the measurements down, I taped on the string to mark the spots.
That's the face of a happy artist that's going to make proportional portraits thanks to this system. It's okay to get a little silly in the studio here and there.
One of the awesome things about getting chosen as an artist for this commission was getting to amplify positive things about Mattapan by spending time with and talking to the people who live there. For the research part of my practice, I got a tour of Mattapan from the youth at The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) housed at Mattapan Community Health Center. Plus, every Mattapan resident who volunteered to be a model for the artwork allowed me to interview them. The images below are photographs I took as reference for the artwork.... and I'd also like to think of them as byproducts of good conversation.
*All photographs are taken by Chanel Thervil, unless otherwise noted.
CT: What do you love about Mattapan?
Garvin: "I love the sense of community that I see and partake in, like the Haitian parade that happens every May. "
CT: What do you want to see more of in Mattapan?
Garvin: " I would like to see a better investment in education, because we are the only neighborhood in Boston without a high school. Those commutes can be long!"
Garvin will be one of seven Mattapan residents featured in the final artwork.