I was commissioned for a 2nd time by Trash Academy to teach art and collaborate with 8 youth on two summer projects: designing wraps to be installed on ‘Big Belly’ trash compactors, and to create short educational videos exploring waste management in the city.
For the first two weeks I taught color theory, best practices for creative drawing, painting and collaging; and worked closely with students to design their own images. My students decided what was missing from city streets was bright colors and nature, so they chose animals as a theme and named the project Dirty Danger. My role was to guide the process, keep the students’ work cohesive as a whole, and to move them through the numerous Mural Arts design reviews. My final role was to carefully recreated each painting as a digital drawing ready for high resolution printing at 152 x 50 inches. These designs can be found on 50 trash compactors on the Broad Street and 52nd Street economic corridors in South and West Philly, respectfully.
original artwork "Colorful Animals" by Savion Love and Damon Perry Jr.
For the final 4 weeks of the summer program I taught an introductory filmmaking course which would answer two main questions: What happens when I recycle something? and What happens when I throw something away? The curriculum was developed by filmmaker Hilary Brashear (as the editor), program coordinator Ciara Williams (as the producer), and myself (as the teaching artist). We caught footage at during field trips, conducted professional interviews, and developed art/poetry/graphics. Below are some of the final products: