BAC Indy Projects

Raheem Garriques, Study for an installation, Elvis Has Left The Building

Hey everyone, BAC is back with an update! BAC participants are currently working on independent projects for upcoming shows at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the DreamYard Art Center. We have lots of exciting stuff going on, and our artists are hard at work preparing their pieces. Here's a preview...

Christopher Aracena, Final Character Design for Indy Project

Jahvorn Young, Sculpture Study for Indy Project

Justin Cuevas, Self-Portrait Study

Oil Painting Lessons

In BAC, we have been learning about the history of oil painting and it's painters. We've looked at artworks by Cezanne, Matisse, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Titian, Manet, Monet, Goya, Velasquez, and many more ...(to name a few).

We first started out with color theory, where we mixed different tones (shades) of every color (red, blue, green, violet, yellow, black, white, etc). We also discussed the meaning of colors, and complimentary colors.

Oil painting is very different from painting with acrylic. Acrylic paint is water soluble. Oil based paints stay wet for a longer period of time, which means you can work into them more, and you need a medium - linseed oil and turpentine, to use with the paint.

We were given a lesson on how to begin an oil painting. We talked about composition and placement a lot. Beginning a painting is different from a drawing. Drawing is linear. Painting is different, you're dealing more with area and an underlying structure, that you then layer paint on top of.

To begin painting we focused on observational studies of fruits and vegetables. We just looked at something and tried the best we could to paint it. A lot of times it was hard to paint "exactly" what you saw, so you had to interpret that into paint and color.

A few painting techniques we learned were:

Glazing - thin transparent layers applied on top of dry areas of paint

Scumbling - dry brush applied on top of dry paint.

Wet on wet - working wet paint into wet paint.

Below are snapshots taken during our painting studio sessions:

Beginning a painting

BAC artists working in the studio

And here are some of the finished master pieces!

Christopher Aracena, Two Petals, Oil Paint on Canvas, 9X12" 2011

Diana Perea, Two Parts To A Lemon, Oil Paint on Canvas, 9X12" 2011

BAC visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art

BAC student sketchbook study from the MET collection

BAC went on a sketchbook tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in November. We looked at paintings by the Impressionists and sculptures in the Greek & Roman collections. We were asked to create observational studies from what we saw. Below are some examples taken from our sketchbooks:

Bronx Pro and DreamYard: Bronx Blooms Paint Day, May 15

On May 15th DreamYard and Bronx Pro held the Bronx Blooms Mural Community Paint Day in Morrisania with over eighty people in attendance coming out to enjoy! It was a fun-filled day full of paint, hoola-hoops, sidewalk chalk, music and a delicious bbq.

Bronx Blooms has been commissioned by Bronx Pro. DreamYard's BAC members have designed the mural, and community members helped paint it! For more details about the mural, click here and here.

We'd like to thank everyone that came out on the 15th to paint! And a huge shout out to the Bronx Pro team for building the giant circles!

Completion of Bronx Blooms is slated for September with a celebration scheduled for the Fall, 2010. We hope to see you then!

Here are more pics from the community paint day, enjoy!

Getting Started!


Say cheese!

The paint team discusses colors


That's a lot of people painting!

Almost time for BBQ

The BX Pro Crew


All done! Time to clean up...

Bronx Blooms Mural Pitch

Bronx Blooms Mural Design

"The Morrisania community is in transformation. We are seeing a revitalization here and want to show that this place is a great place to live. Art is a healing factor in an environment. Murals should invite people to live here, and unite the community. Murals visually stimulate and are powerful, they support a transformation within a community. This is just the beginning, an anchor." - Peter Magistro

Today BAC pitched the mural design to Peter Magistro from Bronx Pro. We asked the question: Why are murals powerful and how can a mural support in transforming a community? Some of the responses included:

• Murals create dialogue between members of a community
• Murals are powerful because they make art accessible to everyone
• Murals provide visual aesthetics for a community and provide powerful images that inspire
  
• Murals support in transforming a community because the entire community will be striving towards a common goal

For this mural, Bronx Blooms, BAC designed giant flowers with central themes about "what's great about the Bronx" inside them. The flowers symbolize new beginnings, rebirth and growth. Historically murals symbolize transformation in neighborhoods. Because they are known to make a change. Our goal is to give hope and inspiration for the people living here. Here are some examples of the central scenes:

Rone Graves, Bronx River

Diana Perea, Botanical Gardens



Edwin Velasquez, The Beat of the Bronx

Stay tuned for more information about the mural in upcoming weeks!

DreamYard and Bronx Pro Mural Project

Bronx Blooms Mural Project Sketch-up

Site of Bronx Blooms mural

DreamYard and Bronx Pro have partnered to make a mural titled Bronx Blooms celebrating the Bronx and OSP's core values. The wall is located behind DreamYard's new art center in the Morrisania neighborhood. The goal of the mural is to create peace and serenity, Diana explains "we want people to feel tranquil when they look at it." Combining giant 3D flowers with Bronx based imagery we hope the mural will "transform the drab cinder block wall into something energetic and colorful" says Christopher." DreamYard's core values are Voice, Culture and Justice.

Since we could not paint directly on to the wall, we began to brainstorm ideas using shapes cut out of MDO plywood. The idea of painting giant flowers came from a sketch by BAC participant, Kevin. We then started sketching out central themes into the core of the flowers, some of these include vacant abandoned lots transitioning into something beautiful and the Bronx River. Kevin states "I don't want to make a cliche message that everyone has already seen before, but something special and that people can connect to."

Bronx Blooms Mural Project Schematic

Opening Night of miniMAX

On a beautiful and sunny Thursday evening, the proud parents and young DreamYard artists gathered at the Bronx Museum of the Arts for the official opening of miniMAX.

This year, BAC participants curated a variety of art from all over the Bronx. Some of the curated themes for the show included: Dark and Stormy, Geometric, Faces and Animation. On opening night, the energy was amazing! As people walked around the exhibit, you could see that they were lost in thought, examining and interpreting all the pieces.

After an hour into the night, we had speeches giving thanks to all that had come out and participated. We also heard statements given by some of the young artists and handed out awards. One of the most memorable moments of the evening was seeing our guest artist, Skowman Hastanan receive a gift from Narelyn Camacho, a BAC member. All in all, the miniMAX show was a success!

(Photo's of opening night coming soon)