Community-Based Art
Rise Up, 2018. 1800 x 72 inches, acrylic and latex.
Collaborative mural installed at the Rise Up School of Dance in Salt Lake City, a nonprofit dance studio started by a University of Utah alumnus that provides sliding scale tuition for local youth. Young dancers choreographed performances, which their peers drew as lines. Our group combined these lines into long ribbons, which I painted on the walls of the studio, merging visual art and movement.
Rise Up Banners, 2018. 8’x12’.
Dancers at the Rise Up School of Dance also created banners to hang on the ceiling of their studio. Three classes worked consecutively, with the first practicing dance techniques on the banners with painted feet. The second group of dancers built on this with markings created using string, brooms, and other miscellaneous tools. The final class responded to the work by finding connections between the marks, adding pattern, and visually accentuating elements.
Longview, 2018. 9’ x 5’, acrylic on canvas.
Mural created for Longview Elementary as part of the Murray Murals Project, a collaborative effort of elementary and secondary students, the city of Murray, and the University of Utah under the direction of Professor V. Kim Martinez. Completed murals now hang in each participating elementary school, presenting a connection to the community of Murray and to previous students.
Elementary students created artworks about their school, which I and other University of Utah students combined into line drawings and printed on large canvas. Secondary students from the Murray School District and many other members of the community joined our group of university students to paint the murals.
Hurt, 2018. 18”x24”, 5’x3’, and 18”x24”. Mixed media on canvas.
Multimedia collage co-created with many young people at the Volunteers of America’s Homeless Youth Resource Center, over the course of several weeks. Many participants enjoyed writing poetry, so we incorporated original text with drawings and found images. Because many participants were not able to consistently attend, new students would respond to and build upon the previous work with their own poetry or drawings.