I don’t know if you’ve ever been lucky enough to visit the “Big Raisin”……… But Fresno Cali is an interesting place. There is an emerging art scene and hella folks in the community who are super hungry for acess to ways to project their voices. The homie Josue Rojas recently worked on a mural there with some youth organizers and created an amazing documentary about the process.
They hosted a series of workshops with the youth from 3 local organizations, in which they studied Chor Boogie, Bounce, and Estria’s artwork and dicussed current issues in Fresno and how art can impact space. Then they decided on images which Josue photoshoped into a sketch and projected onto the wall. They included images of youth; reppin hard for their hometown, images of vegitables; paying tribute to the local farming industry, and images of local history and people.
Using a spraycan, and the image projected from Josue’s computer, the youth were able to trace out the sketch and invite people from the community to come help fill in the bright and vibrant colors that you can now see quilted across the wall. They passed out Dixie cups full of brush paint and directed a massive color-by number process while the store that hosts the wall provided a BBQ for volunteers.
Josue created certificates for each of the youth leaders and they were presented to them at an unveiling ceremony attended by their families and local community members. The pride on their faces make me think the certificates are now hanging on the walls of their homes and will be used in future applications for jobs and college. as Josue said, “The role of the artist is not just to be the conscious of the people, but also to be our inspiration for what is possible”
I’m hella inspired.
~Nancy
Please check out the video – http://www.vimeo.com/17694541