Students were tasked with investigating websites and learning about obstacles girls around the world face educationally. Students found a fact they had not previously known as inspiration for their drawing. This also helped us build toward our larger Girls in Education Project by provident additional resources and ideas to design a “big question” about girls in education to focus their larger project around.

Combining what we had learned about women and their experiences in leadership so far and our own personal experiences with women leaders in our lives, students were to create a Memento Project.

Momentos Project:

My Name: Ianna Banfield

Name of Project: My Heroines

Materials: My sketchbook and an HB pencil.

Year of completion: 2021

Desc: I used a pencil and drew this on paper.

Dimension: 8.38 in x 8 in

This project is important to me because it shows two females who have been my main source of inspiration in my lifetime. Unfortunately, my grandmother has passed away and I believe that she is resting in peace and serenity. I wanted to represent that in my piece and did so by drawing her with her eyes closed and a slight content look written on her face. The Catholic religion was very important to her; she was a very holy person and I considered her as my moral compass. There was always some sort of religious expression that she had near her but more specifically, she almost always had her rosary nearby. Taking this into account, I made sure that her rosary was looped around her neck in the picture. Evidently, when she was still alive, she was a very personal female figure to me.

As I was working on this project, I started to realize that her place in my life has led me to strongly associate her with my childhood and other things from back then. She reminds me of seemingly small yet truly impacting things that I used to always be around such as what used to be my favorite old stuffed animal, a vase that was in my old living room, and the bus that my mother and I would take her to every weekend (all of which are included in the drawing). Plus, she was around when I first started discovering things at a young age such as my love for reading and writing. Since reading and writing has been a liking of mine from a very young age, I decided to draw a very small book (which was not drawn to scale) to symbolize that. I would have never been the person that I am right now if it was not for my grandmother. She was a crucial part of my development.

Gradually, as I got older, I started gravitating towards public and well known female role models. Although there are many great female role models in the world who inspire many, Amanda Gorman is a role model who currently inspires me the most. Thus, I thought she should be included in the picture as well. As a young African American girl who is fond of different types of artistic expression, such as writing and drawing, Gorman really speaks to me. All of her poems and quotes are admirable in my eyes, however my favorite quote from her is ‘We are striving to forge a union with a purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, and conditions of man..” Although it was shown to show how I learned how to read and write at a young age, the pencil next to the miniature book was also drawn to show Gorman’s influence on my writing and how much she inspires me. I also drew small stars which were drawn to help the book and pencil float to represent her almost magical inspiration on my writing pieces. To conclude, drawing this piece helped me go down a very nostalgic and insightful artistic journey. I was able to honor my grandmother’s memory and honor a female who I look up to. Additionally, this project helped me to both communicate and learn how much meaning objects can truly possess.

Memento Project

Name: Miriya Mayenkar

Title: My Inspiration

Materials: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

Year of Completion: 2021

Measurements: 4500x4500 pixels

For my memento project, I depicted two women that have inspired me through images and colors that remind me of them. One is my mom (represented on the right) and the other is Malika Favre (represented on the left). To represent Mallika Favre, I placed some of my favorite works of hers, as well as common colors I have seen her use throughout her artwork, and a picture of France (where she’s from). To represent my mom, I placed a picture of Thailand (where she’s from), lavender (her favorite type of flower), her favorite animals, and colors that I often see her wear. This project helped me see how important color is, not only in design, but also to signify people and show how there are differences in the way you perceive people’s colors. To whoever is reading this, I hope you can experience this and think about how you see the people around you through different colors!

Memento Project

Sara Jeffrey:

My name is Sara Jeffrey and I’m a 16 year old mainly traditional artist. However, during my time in the program, I have tried to explore the digital medium and step out of my comfort zone in regards to art. Throughout the years I have been cultivating my art to be near my ideal preference, but of course I have a long way to go. I like to draw feminine, dainty, and beautiful subjects and like to convey this idea through details in the face. I usually use alcohol markers as a base and color pencils to add detail. Essentially, I try to emulate a semi-realism anime style in some sort of capacity.

Ever since the 6th grade, I have developed an appreciation for the arts because of the power I had in terms of creativity. It is the very fact that I can imagine something and to the best of my ability to turn it into something physical. As time went by my work has been inspired by the type of art I’m into and/or interested in at the time. My art is currently inspired by Japanese themes since I love Japanese culture. I enjoy my hobby of drawing since I get to express myself in a multitude of ways.

Memento Project: Woman At Trial

Jennifer Palacio Zapata

For my momento project piece, Woman At Trial, I used a piece of illustration board and

colored pencils. For the assignment I chose to represent two important influential women in my

life, those being my mom and Sonia Sotomayor, through a societal lense. The reason for which I

chose Sonia Sotomayor was because of how much she inspired me when I was younger and first

came to the United States feeling like I would never be good enough as my white classmates. To

represent both of the women in the portrait of one I picked out specific momentos that could tie

them together. A prominent figure in law is the Roman Goddess Lady Justice, who is most

commonly seen blindfolded because justice is supposed to be unbiased. In my piece I chose to

replicate this sentiment by drawing hands that would be covering the woman’s eyes in a

blindfold fashion, but allowing an eye to peek through. I did this because justice is not always

unbiased just like life. Both of the women I chose had to go through multiple obstacles only

because of who they were. Moreover, I further tried to add justice related momentos by adding

the judicial mallet to my piece on the lower left side. This mallet is meant to solely represent

Sonia Sotomayor as her being the first Hispanic Justice of the Supreme Court. On the lower right

side of the piece I included the Puerto Rican flag to represent Sonia Sotomayor’s heritage and I

added the Colombian flag to represent my mom’s. In the lower middle of the piece I chose to

place a bible because of how religion has shaped both of the women’s lives, but because of how

women are always placed on trial and their truth’s seem to be distrusted by others. The bible is

representing being out under oath, and even then they are not believed. In the background I chose to put the United States’ flag as a way to further tie both of the women together into one cohesive space.

The color scheme was also a greatly important part of the making of the piece. I first

started by deciding the colors that I wanted the woman in the piece to be in. I chose to make her

skin tone golden with purple undertones to represent empowerment and pride. I wanted to show

how even when the woman is being put under so much pressure, she still powers through and

shines. For the hair I was more inspired by my mom, because although she has never had blue

hair, the color radiates comfort which is what it does for my mom. I tried to make the hair an

important part of the piece which can be seen by how voluminous it is portrayed, the only thing I

would change would be the texture as it does not quite match my mom’s. Then for the shirt, I

chose to make it pink to represent how women are always being put into restricting boxes and

how they are expected to dress in a femine manner which can be discouraging. Finally for the

hands, I chose to make them green to represent power and wealth because it is often that justice

can be easily misguided because of it. There are also many things that can be challenging to do

without money and I colored the hand holding the flags green as well to represent how it is only

the lucky ones who get to immigrate to a different country with better opportunities (although

Puerto Rico is part of the United States).

This project is important to me because it was a celebration of all that the two women I

chose to portray have been able to overcome. I also found it important to include other themes

that may not have been as relevant to the two women’s lives as well because I wanted it to

acknowledge more global problems that women could face. This project was able to give me a

further insight as to how women are treated by society and it made me realize the slight progress

that has been made ever since the time when the two women faced the most adversity.

Students designed a Big Question about global education for girls, and used it to focus the topic of their art making. Students also chose an artist and worked in their style to help them explore new ways of working. Students tackled their Big Questions in their artwork, including the following:

• Why haven’t we helped? - Jubilation

• How does environment affect access to education? -Miriya

• When can education cross the line? - Sara

• Why is sisterhood important? - Ianna

• Does education lack equality? - Lisa

Girls in Education:

My Name: Ianna Banfield

Name of Project: Sisterhood

Materials: Cardboard, oil pastels, chalk, colored pencils, copic markers, and fine liners.

Year of completion: 2021

Desc: I drew the girls with the utilization of a pencil on a piece of cardboard. Then, I outlined them with the fine liner. After outlining them, I colored their clothes, skin, and hair in with the oil pastels, chalk, copic markers, and colored pencils.

Measurements:10 in by 9.75 in

My big question for the Girls In Education project is “Why is sisterhood important?” I believe that this is an important question because it is difficult for females to prosper in a world where things work against them. Large numbers of females cannot attend school because of poverty and other things that may hold them back, while others have to deal with many things such as harassment. Women are able to have a support system with sisterhood and they are able to help each other get through these tough times. Through sisterhood, females forge an accepting community to grant each other a sense of belonging and security by standing together and empowering one another. I believe that sisterhood is very important to communicate to the world since many girls out there may need females who understand what they are going through to turn to. For my artistic process, I decided to emulate an aspect from Jean Michel Basquiat’s. Jean Michel Basquiat was an activist who spoke out about a lot of social issues through his abstract art and graffiti. Growing up poor, he did not have access to basic materials such as a sketchbook, canvas, or any other kind of paper. Despite his rough circumstances, he did not let that stop him and he dabbled with unique mediums such as door frames, walls, and anything else that he may find. Therefore, I decided to emulate his artistic process by using an abstract medium: cardboard. This definitely helped me to get out of my comfort zone, being that I normally stick to pencil and paper. When drawing, I made sure to include diversity. All of the girls look different being that they are of different races, religions, and backgrounds. This was done to show how sisterhood provides an accepting community that will not discriminate. In this drawing, the girls all melt together to exhibit that they are one through sisterhood and they stand together. Since in sisterhood, deep emotional connections are established, I made sure to draw a girl crying on the other girl’s shoulder as a symbol of support and emotion. All in all, this piece was a really great learning experience for me. I was able to learn more about the importance of sisterhood while experimenting more with my artistic skill. It was wonderful to get out of my comfort zone and attempt new things.

Miriya

Girls in Education

Name: Miriya Mayenkar

Title: Landscapes of Opposites

Materials: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

Year of Completion: 2021

Measurements: 8.5x11 inch, 2 artworks

Through my final project as a part of NYU’s Visionary Studios Art Workshop, I wanted to explore the differences in girls’ education systems around the world. While researching this topic, I came across a list of the literacy rates of countries around the world, and was shocked by the statistics. I decided to look deeper into two contrasting countries, so I chose one country from the top of the list (China), and one from the bottom of the list (Somalia). According to UNESCO, China’s female adult literacy rate is 95%. Somalia, on the other hand, only has a 25.8% female literacy rate, a huge difference compared to its 50% male literacy rate. These statistics highlight the vast differences in literacy rates between countries, as well as the educational gender inequality present in Somalia.

I decided to paint a picture of both country’s landscapes and illustrate a woman in each of the landscapes to show the contrast between China and Somalia. I attempted to emulate Sam Yang’s art process to create my work, as I’m very inspired by his work. This project was one of the first times I had ever done digital art and used Photoshop to paint. I learned about the different tools in Photoshop as well as how and when to use various brushes.

Before starting this project, I had never known the drastic differences in education levels and literacy rates around the world. Now that I do know about this, as well as the gender inequality in education, I would like to help inform others about the disparities in education around the world, and hope that I can do so through my art.

Jennifer Palacio Zapata

Education Project: The Seed Of Education

For this piece, The Seed Of Education, I used a piece of illustration board and acrylic paint. The guiding question for this piece was based on the film Girl Rising and it was “How can education make a difference?” To address this question I first made a mood board with all the elements that I wanted to include in the piece. Being somewhat also inspired by Impressionism and the artist Mary Cassat I wanted the piece to have a lot of nature symbols. I did this by first answering the question which led me to the message that education instills growth even in the worst circumstances. To portray this I chose to first make the background of the piece be a fiery yellow/orange tone. This being because in nature, the yellow often can be seen as an arid climate which is the worst type of climate for most plants. Then I drew the main figure of the piece reading a book and sprouting a tree out of their head. This is meant to show the growth that education can bring. The tree is then leading to rainfall which is representing how education can make living conditions better. The reason for making the shirt pink was to connect it back to femininity and the reason for making the figure green was to relate it back to mother nature.

I learned a lot from this project from both an academic and artist standpoint. Through viewing the film that inspired the artwork, I was able to see the value of education from a different perspective. It was really inspiring to see how proud the main girl of the film was at her obtaining an education and maintaining high grades, which is something that most people would take for granted. I was also able to learn more artistically through using acrylic paint to make this piece. I usually do not like working with acrylic, but since I wanted to attempt to follow some of the impressionist themes I chose to work with it for this project. It definitely made me more comfortable with using paint and some of the techniques impressionist painters used.