The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

YES Prep Students Work with Local Artist GONZO247 to create Graffiti

March 29, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

YES Prep Southeast is bringing street art/graffiti into the lives of our students. Since January, students have been hard at work on a bench to help raise money for a summer opportunity. Students were 100% invested in this project and worked intently for one month. The process was encouraged by their peers and the overall support for street art within the Wizard family.

Presenting the idea of graffiti to students was a challenge:

• What kind of graffiti?
• How will the overall composition work?
• Will each side of our bench be related?

Through a simple process, students decided that the bench should represent Houston. Students created their own idea of how to represent their home city. They chose a side and began.

Each side took on a life of its own. With a diverse group of students, comes a diverse art style for each artist involved, but this allowed their work to flourish. They took the opportunity to critique each other and give advice on what they could do to enhance their art. The bench was moving along and students were proud of their work. But yet, there seemed to be something missing.

Along with the excitement of the graffiti bench, came the excitement that Southeast was bringing a graffiti artist to talk and share with students! GONZO247 came to YES Prep to share his story and his art. He works with a program called Ckc Start and owns and operates Aerosol Warfare in downtown Houston. Ckc Start is a local organization whose goal is to educate young artists about street art/graffiti, the ways to create it, and share it with the city of Houston.  Students from all of the art classes got a chance to listen to wisdom from this professional.  GONZO added his own art to the bench. This was exactly what the student artist’s needed to kick start the final touches for the bench.

The excitement after GONZO’s visit helped catapult some fine art spirit into the lives of all at YES Prep. Students are excited about the opportunity to bring GONZO back to the Southeast campus. We also hope that other YES Prep campuses have the chance to witness his skill.

Thanks to GONZO247, the graffiti bench is finished and set to be auctioned off. Students took away knowledge from each other and from a professional. Graffiti is an art form that shows emotion through color and line. Students from YES Prep Southeast have taken a skill that they love and used it in a practical way. Proving once again that we all do whatever it takes to give that 100% each and every day! Go Wizards!

-Jennifer Crancer is a Fine Arts Instructor at YES Prep Southeast
 

--
0 Comments
Be the first to leave a comment