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Visual Arts Club
Inquiry Question: How can Visual Art bring us together? How can we make a relaxing space for students to express themselves, free from the constraints and assignment-based structure of the school day?
CAPE Visual Arts Club met once a week on Mondays in Ms. Cuevas (and briefly in Ms. Ruiz’s) classroom. There, we relaxed, listened to music, ate snacks, and made art!
Our core Visual Arts Club group was: Edwin Robles-Velasquez, Stacy Robles-Velasquez, Krisol Moreno, Jonnathan Montesdeoca, Lili Brito, Jojo Rivera, and Yixi Hernandez, joined by Mikey Malarski, Alani Colon, Christopher Calero, Kenny Sotelo, Freddy Castro, Joseph Flores, Stephany Meza Samayoa, Hanny Garcia, Denise Bahena, Ashley Bahena, and Luis Morocho throughout the year.
Even when we were a small group, we had big solidarity! We often inaugurated the day by writing the names of whoever was present on the board.
We started off the year with the idea of combining analogue and digital media, including video production and video games – but quickly learned that after a year of screen-based education, our students needed time to express themselves free of screens. After taking a survey of students' material interests, we experimented with a range of drawing materials: oil and chalk pastel, charcoal, color pencils, as well as acrylic paint and air-dry clay.
At the beginning of the year, we did some collaborative drawing exercises as a way to get to know each other and figure out what subjects we liked to draw. We made still-life drawings, as well as drawings from images on our phones, and our imaginations.
In December, we made gifts for family, friends (and for ourselves) with air-dry clay!
To celebrate the end of the Fall quarter, we took a field trip down town to the Art Institute of Chicago!
We braved an hour on the CTA, and it was worth it to see the holiday lights downtown! We checked out the Marc Chagall mosaic near the blue line station, and lots of exhibits at the museum. Favorites were the wing of Japanese Art, and Cubism. We hope to take more field trips in the future, like during our Visual Arts Field Trip Club of Summer 2021!
Art Club was a time for daydreaming and introspection, where we could work independently in the company of others. Most of our drawing time was self-directed, with students experimenting with different drawing media and drawing things that were important to them.
[Below: Drawings by Edwin Robles-Velasquez, Krisol Moreno, Jojo Rivera]
Frequent topics of conversation and drawing were cultural heritage, music (Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, Billie Eilish), TV shows and anime, and our friends! At the beginning of the school year, many students told us how weird it was to navigate in-person school after a year plus of isolation: Why don't people talk to each other in class? What's with all those couples making-out in the hallway? What are friends and do we need them? Yes, we think we do! [Drawings below by Jojo]
Sometimes we did drawing prompts, like this one “Draw Something Blue” which gave Stacy a great idea for a drawing game we did the next week: Everyone was given a mandala-like coloring sheet and had to pick three color pencils with their eyes closed!
However, our coloring sheets were so intricate that it proved very challenging...
[Drawing on the left by Stacy]
And “Draw Something That Reminds You of Spring” which led us to making a series of dry-erase murals centering on the meme character Flork!
The Florks are a peaceful people, enjoying springtime in the park by fishing and gardening. Bad Bunny even visited their biggest city (Flork York?) to give a concert! But then the evil humans invaded in an effort to colonize Flork Planet. Thankfully the League of Peaceful Planets (LPP) intervened, and scared the humans off. The Florks celebrated with a victory parade!
Our club was small at times, and ebbed and flowed over the course of the school year, but our most dedicated members, sibling-artist-extraordinaires: Edwin and Stacy, continued to bring friends and inspire others to draw!
Many of our students discovered Visual Arts Club through Ms. Cuevas’ English Language Tutoring, and braved speaking in English in order to communicate with teachers and fellow students across languages, sharing art and inspiration with each other. Students shared drawing tips and taught each other important phrases in English like "Billie Eilish is my crush!" and "You complete me". Sometimes we broke into spontaneous dance, and sometimes we helped each other with math homework. We enjoyed our Mondays as a time to relax together and create art, free from the structures and assignments of the regular school day. We can't wait to meet again next year!
[Below, a marshmallow dog made by Stacy during a building challenge at the CAPE End of the Year Party]
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