CCa required a personal application for consideration. The essay had to be written on any personal community project and its affects on cultural diversity. this was mine.
It has been an interesting three years since 2007. I began attending community college that year, and I remember saying to myself, as I walked to my first class, “This time I’m really going to make it happen”. I had no clue what I was going to make happen; all I knew was that I didn’t want to go back to the streets, or work a dead end job, like everyone else who I have grown up with has done.
I enrolled in both academic and art courses. The most memorable of them was Life Drawing with Professor Joan Silver, MFA. The idea of drawing a nude figure for several hours in a room full of complete strangers was very foreign to me and quite intimidating. In many ways it was the total opposite of what I thought artists did. Since childhood I believed that artists were recluses, hidden away from society, in complete solitude creating masterpieces only to be discovered after their death. As the semester went on, I realized that art was not the introverted experience I thought it was. I became very diligent in producing forms and figures that would be intriguing to my classmates during the critique segment. At the end of that semester I was chosen to be one of four students to display work from the Life Drawing course. Professor Silver said that she chose my work because it was raw, thought provoking, and encouraged the viewers to interact with one another. The “Drawn-In” Student Exhibition would be one of the most life changing events I had ever experienced. It was my first time at an art show, let alone my own! There I met people from all walks of life: professors, students, parents, even the media came out. Seeing the outpouring of diverse people allowed me to begin to understand the unifying power of art.
Two weeks after the Life Drawing show, I received a call from Louisa Castrodale. I knew little about her, except that she was the Visual and Performing Arts Specialist at Palm Springs Unified School District, and she wanted to meet with me about Art Projects. In our meeting, Louisa asked me a lot of questions regarding community, my childhood, family life, dreams and aspirations. I responded nervously, telling her that I wanted to teach art in an Alternative Education center like the one I had graduated from. I also told her how important it was to allow students to practice art in the school curriculum, and how when I was attending school, my art class was what kept me coming back.
Shortly after our meeting, we began the Intra-District Mural Program, of which I was the Artist in Residence. We approached at-risk students to provide them with an incentive to stay in school while improving their grades and fostering local communities with art. The Mural Program allowed the at-risk youth to create public art while exposing them to positive role models. At first, the Students were shy but as the program continued, they took ownership of their work and embraced their new opportunity to create. Peer-interaction quickly began to be a focus of the art experience, and for most of the students this would be the first time working with other students from different social cliques and backgrounds. We feared that problems might arise due to their varied backgrounds, gender, and race, but this was clearly not the case. The creation process seemed to bring the students together immediately, and in a short time, kids who would once gave bad looks to one another were shaking hands and swinging high fives around school. In response to the Intra-District Mural Program, many of the students outside began to open up to their peers and much change was seen in school morale. Most unexpected, by the teachers and myself, was when overall grades and test scores improved. A lack of defacement to the work was also a clear sign of change in the students.
I recall one particular student, who came to be the pride of our program; his name was Norvin, a 17 year-old gang member from South Central, Los Angeles. He had been expelled from the Los Angeles Unified School District and was then sent to Palm Springs Unified School District (PSUSD) where his grandmother lived, as part of a probation agreement. Norvin joined the Intra-District Mural Program after a conversation we had outside of the Desert Hot Springs Alternative Center. Not artistically inclined or particularly interested in art, Norvin wanted to be a part of something “cool.” Often seen with a paintbrush in one hand and holding his pants up with another, Norvin was not our typical student. He worked with us for several months, during which his behavior improved and he went from being a hardened outsider to a positive member of our school. When his probation period ended Norvin had to go back to Los Angeles, I remember talking to him on his last day. I asked him what he would do next. He told me painting had really helped him calm his anger, to communicate with his grandmother, and imagine possibilities outside of a life of crime. But despite the positive changes, Norvin concluded, “I’m probably goin’ back to jail though.” This made my stomach drop and I was at a loss for words. Then we parted ways.
At that time, our Mural Program had moved on to different schools, but every time I would think of Norvin my heart would ache. The dramatic changes in his life as a result of the Mural Program had been clear, and to imagine that he would regress due to his environment was heart-breaking. Months later, however, I visited the Alternative Center to touch-up the murals and I saw Norvin’s picture hanging on the wall. He had returned to graduate with honors, and I was informed he transferred to a trade school to pursue engineering. Though Norvin and I never saw each other again, my eyes were opened to the transforming nature of art, not only for artists but also for the community.
My experiences with the relationship of art have inspired and motivated me to pursue a future in teaching others to use creativity to cope with the obstacles of life, and explore the endless possibilities. I now more thoroughly understand art and its unifying power. This is why it is important to me to take the next step in applying for California College of the Arts and joining the Community Arts program. I feel it will help me strengthen my own ideas, while learning different approaches to art in community environments.
