As a community-based artist, working with kids inspires my art practice, and my art practice generates content that I can then share with the kids. For example, in the fall of 2019 I just so happened to make a 13ftx20ft mural featuring a repeating pattern of 5 layer stencils. That was the same time I started teaching art workshops for ArtworxLA, so logically I wanted to share my experience and process with my students at Vista Continuation High School. So, even though cutting multi-layer stencils is a technically-demanding and laborious process, little by little we made it happen. With the help of local sign painters/stencil artists Nat Iosbaker and Melissa Govea, as well as inspiration from West African textiles, students created their own designs on graph paper with ink and paint markers. We then scaled them up at fedex, transferred each layer onto poster board with carbon paper, and then cut each piece by hand with exact-o blades. Some students joined halfway through the semester, so I created a standardized stencil they could cut out to learn the process and be able to participate in the spray painting portion. Finally, kids got to display their final projects at the Vincent Price Art Museum in partnership with George Rodriguez’ Double Vision exhibition. I think the work speaks for itself!
