Week Four: Day Four, Rain Day

On a day that is rainy like today, the Harlem Riders go to the State Building on 125th street and work indoors. We talked about the dedication on August 12th and getting prepared for the event. The students wrote brief bios for the broschure and we talked more about what we should name the mural. In the afternoon, I took the students to the Met.



The Harlem Riders...

Week Four: Day Three

Today we broke up into two groups, one group finished the wall and the other practiced stenciling. Then we talked about what the name of the mural should be.

-Shirlmeeka






Photographer: Michael Jordan

Week Four: Day Two, photo reference

This morning we took picture of each other posing as artists to decide which is the best for our wall. Then we took some time to work on our stencils to add to our wall. Finally we took a walk from 139th street to 125th street. While walking we took some pictures of some food stands to add to our mural.

-Nia Imani Anderson

Composite food vendor...



I combined 3 different student photographs to make the bottom reference image.

Week Four: Day One, more painting

Today we put a 2nd coat of paint on the wall. We had to make sure that the lines were straight and weren't sloppy. Today we also painted over any white spots on the wall to make sure that everything was perfect and everything was painted.

-Tia Latimore

Week Three: Day Four

Today, we worked on the second coat of paint on the mural. I believe we all worked well and got a lot accomplished. We also washed a lot of brushes and finished painting most of the unpainted areas of the wall.

-Miles

Week Three: Day Three, Painting

Today we started painting the wall. At first it was fun, but when the sun came out everything fell apart. But it all became better again when we went out for lunch and when we came back we had a good time. Then we started painting the wall again then ended the day.

-Rayshawn Walker







Photographer: Carrington Santana

Week Three: Day Two, Color

Today the Harlem Riders split up into two groups. One group mixed the paint to the perfect color to match the design. The other group finished the drawing on the wall. Great day!

-Carrington Santana




Photographer: Jacinda Milan

Week Three: Day One, Drawing

Today the group practiced drawing from a grid to help us later on the wall. Then we started gridding the wall and drew outlines with the help of our group leader's sketches. It was not easy and it took us some time to finish, but it was worth the effort.

-Nia Imani Anderson





Photographer: Tamera Sanders

Week Two: Day 4

Today we presented our wall design to the Harlem River Park Task Force at the State Building. They liked the design!
-Tia Latimore

Thanks to my team for doing a great job on their presentation! Next week we start drawing.

Week Two: Day 3

Today the Harlem Riders put in a hard days work preparing for the presentation of the design to the Harlem River Park Task Force.




Photographer: Carrington Santana

Today we practiced, practiced, practiced, until it was correct and perfect. We also put hard work and sympathy into our work.
-Tia Spry

Week Two: Day 2

Photographer: Jacinda Milan

We used stencils and sketched out some drawings and made patterns. We also took pictures of each other posing to fit in the mural.
-Tia Spry

A sample of one of the photos taken by the student photographer, Shirlmeeka...

Week Two: Day 1

Starting this week and for the next 4 weeks a different volunteer from the team will be taking pictures of the progress and writing a brief statement about what the Harlem Rider complete each day.

This week...
Photographer: Nia Anderson
Reporter: Jacinda Milan




Today we primed the wall, then we drew arches and painted the insides white. 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave we talked about the days events and signed out.
-Jacinda Milan

Preliminary Design

In front of the brick wall is lovely landscaping that includes trees and low shrubs. The trees brake the space into 3 sections. For my design idea I wanted to frame and feature the space in between the trees with archways. The Creative Artist Workshop surveyed the community and themes of nature and culturally specific patterns were some of the themes that the community were interested in representing in the mural. This is the preliminary design idea...

Week One: Making Friends

As a team we came up with a name to define the group, we now call ourselves the Harlem Riders. As a group the students wrote down common interest they shared and the main ideas that came out of the conversations was that the group was very laid back and liked to travel around different parts of Harlem.

To get started on the mural I had the students draw different designs, then we cut out the designs and practiced stenciling.




To introduce the team to the art of mural making, all 5 groups went on a walking mural tour of Harlem. This is an example of just one of the many murals we saw that day.

Getting to know the team

My team...



I have a great group of teens coming mostly from the surrounding neighborhood in Harlem, one student from Spanish Harlem and two students from the Bronx. Since I'm new to NYC its great having a team that knows the area and can show me all Harlem has to offer.

In the beginning...

The summer of 2010, I (Desiree Bender) am working with Creative Artist Workshop for Kids painting a mural and working as a teaching artist in New York City. For the next 6 weeks I will be leading a team of local teens to complete a mural in Harlem River Park. The mural will be on a long brick retaining wall that is broken up into 4 sections for 4 different teams to complete each mural. Each team is lead by a teaching artist, an artist assistant and about 10 to 15 young adults.

My canvas...