Protest Thru Art II

 C.R.E.A.M. by Kodi Fabricant

Hannah Brancato

Protest Thru Art (updates from months ago that I neglected to do)

 videowork by Katerie Gladdys

Floor Installation by Nick Vyssotsky

In Septemeber, myself and Dazed (from Mad Rapper project) put together a show at BrickHaus Art Space, at 2602 Greenmount. The show, Protest Thru Art, was centered on the idea of art used as or in an act of political protest. More posts to come.

Here are some other options for the Mura Street, with space present for artwork from the community workshops we are setting up around the mural.

Pay It Forward updates.

Here are some designs for the new Pay It Forward mural, at the Club at Collington Square

This is operating on the idea of the mural being solely text based, around the idea of Pay It Forward and what that means to the project participants. The above mockup image is super imposed over the Club at Collington Square's Mura Street location. The Club is an after school program operating in East Baltimore. More to come.

Heavy Atmosphere,

This is was painted on November 2nd and was my contribution to the House Show, presented by Casewerks (http://www.casewerks.com/). This show featured work by numerous Baltimore artists, concentrating on the themes of housing and architecture here in Baltimore. More can be found out here House Show Info. The piece itself is about the many lives that are lived in a single space through time. Specifically, think of that quote from The Lost Boys, in which Grampa says that "if all the corpses stood up at once, there would be one hell of a population problem." My mind goes to a similar place when I am in an old building or space, thinking about what kind of interactions would be having if the illusion of time wasn't keeping all the people in that room physically separated.

To continue and expand on this idea, I traced the shadows of passerby and volunteers on the painting, breaking the fourth wall and illustrating this idea in real time. So we had a nice Cider Social at the Mirkwood House, and invited passerby and friends to be part of the painting.

Here is the finished product. The piece is called Heavy Atmosphere.

Updates a coming

A whole bunch of new updates are coming soon. This blog is becoming like my journal in high school, in which I always lament how long it's been since I've updated it.

Some things:

• Protest Thru Art show, and photos.
• Mirkwood Mural for the House Show, done in association with Casewerks.
• Assisted on Lauren Bollini mural for Station North 10 year anniversary. 
• Began teaching for Art With A Heart, so projects are coming from some of the work I do with the students I teach.
• With any luck, this summer an incarnation of my Memory and Power project will reactivate with the help of the folks at Art With A Heart
• Episcopal Community Services of Maryland and myself are the recipient of a NEA fast track grant for a new mural for the Club at Collington Square in East Baltimore. 
• Also Woe is me Haikus

So these, are some things that I will be updating with more detail soon. 

Murals, better late than never

Thesis exhibition photos

Souvenirs-version1 by USdrone


These are photos of the work that I put into my thesis exhibition for my MFA in Community Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The small booklet is a zine of poems made using a collaborative writing process for my Memory and Power project, made through using word association and personalized definitions. The images on the wall are blow ups made of the individual poems, and two sound pieces made through interviewing students, educators, and facilitators about their experiences and opinions on Bullying. The sound work was played through the locker, which served once again as a natural reverb chamber. The Memory and Power project is as of this writing technically finished, though I think I want to go further with it.

mural works in Cincinnati, but really Northern Kentucky

I am now in Kentucky working with Artworks, on some of their first Northern Kentucky murals. This is something like my sixth summer with art works, my third on teaching staff, but my first as a "Teaching Artist," which means myself and one other crazy artist are in charge of all these rowdy kids. So far it has been great, and our apprentices are learning a lot, though the mural, for its size, is going a little slower than we all initially thought it would. More pictures of this to come as progress is made.

Mural Designs for the Club at Collington Square.

These are for the Club at Collington Square, an after school program for Middle and Elementary school kids in East Baltimore. The prompt for the mural is centered around overcoming violence in the community, and the images here are the result of images created by folks from the Collington Square neighborhood during community art workshops for the mural. I think that bottom one is my favorite.

Old work

Julia Scott, "Classic Pinup"

this drawing I think is at least two years old. I took some creative license with the hair. Also, the Thom Yorke eyes, sorry boo.

Breadbox

Images from a piece that got me started on my current path on artwork about bullying. This piece however is a deconstruction of development of masculinity through popular media during the formative age of middle school, which you'll hear in the presentation of the audio, courtesy of DMX and others.

Whiteness box by USdrone

Blog for Memory and Power: Deconstructing Bullying Through Art.

Memory and Power, which is my project which uses artmaking to address and deconstruct bullying, now has a blog.
Stay tuned to that blog and this one for images from the workshops and the art produced in them.

older work, been kicking around for a while

work from earlier this year for the Secret Artworks show. Its funny how intuitively they were made, but how political they actually are.

Monument to Memory and Power

Bullying memoirs part 1-m4a by USdrone

Above is documentation of the installation and the audio from the piece, Monument to Memory and Power, 2011. This piece, which uses the object of the locker as a starting point, shares with viewers/listeners every recollection of bullying and interpersonal aggression and oppression in the artist's memory. This piece is on display now at MICA PLACE, as part of the Convening Exhibition.

New(er) Work

I haven't posted on here for a while, for which I apologize. I think some of this is because with the advent of blogging becoming somewhat antiquated, and with the changing nature of my work in grad school, I haven't felt as much of a need, simply trying to focus on my work itself instead of self promotion. Lately my work has become more sound oriented, and soon I will post work that reflects this. Also, my official website will be redesigned somewhat soon, the goal is to do it myself, though cargo collective might be a good option. In the meantime, here is an interesting link from a trusted source about the nature of of art and learning.

do good work,
love
q

more new work

MORE MACA