Painting
Drip, splatter, and spray large scale art! Painting workshops explore visual art and creative expression through the use of drawing, color, and painting, music and conversation. Starting with pencil and paper, participants are led through a design session where they learn different ways to convert a small image to a large canvas, mix colors and apply different visual techniques. Many of our painting projects revolve around mural residencies.
Created on two 8'x4' panels during winter break of the 2023-2024 school year at the Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) in Dane County, the We Wish You Knew mural greets all visitors – including law enforcement, social workers, lawyers and family members – when they enter the facility. The mural combines the students’ wishes for themselves with what they wish people knew about them. Their wishes were handwritten in the background, a reminder to listen to their personal narratives.
The Process:
JDC administration selected the location of the mural as a way to bring the voices of the students to adults and other guests who enter the space. The artist, Maria Schirmer, has been exploring the transformative power of articulating wishes and translating them into artwork. She knew the mural would be about wishing, but was unsure what direction the students would take it.
Brainstorming and design workshops began with the central question, “what do you wish people knew about you?” Students then did round robin brainstorming, answering these questions:
- What do you wish people coming into JDC knew about you? (Your family, visitors, judges, law enforcement, social workers, etc)
- What do you wish people knew about you?
- Who or what could make your wish come true?
- What is your biggest wish? Something that maybe seems impossible…
Students then made “wishes on a stick” - transforming donated trophies into their own wishing talismans.
Rod Wave Inspiration:
In between workshops, students discussed their inspirations, and who they feel understands what it is like to be a young person in the court system. Unanimously, this particular group of students felt inspired by the musician Rod Wave, whose music talks about the fear and loneliness of being in a juvenile detention facility, heartache, and dreams of being powerful. The students particularly loved his 2022 album Beautiful Mind: the color blocking of the cover design, the power and vulnerability in his lyrics, and how the background of the cover has a secret message - what look like sound waves are actually roller coasters - which resonated with their own lives. We discussed how we could show the ups and downs of life without copying his exact cover - the students came up with heartbeats. The group shared some of their favorite Rod Wave lyrics and discussed how they resonated with their own lives.
Students made individual self portraits and practiced the technique of color blocking using watercolors. The photos for their self portraits were taken during a Bubbler podcasting session with Dee Star.
Painting the mural:
Participation in the mural could take several forms - students could help paint, they could work on their own art or poetry, or they could ask us questions from a question deck designed to bring out meaningful discussions. Stories are the building blocks of relationships, and these cards helped students get to know one another and share their wishes for their lives and the world.
We would often start the sessions with reading aloud children’s books about wishing. Watch the video below to get a glimpse into some of the workshops.
Listening to music while painting the mural is always key! To keep up the energy and participation we created a collaborative playlist - we could listen to the playlist if we were all engaged - and we’d turn it off if we didn’t have full group participation.
After we finished painting the imagery, we screen printed the students initials on the mural and then proceeded to write the wishes in the background.
Finally, it was important for the students to use their own words and their own handwriting to share their wishes with adults in their lives. The wishes are deep and truthful, reflecting the inner range of their desires and dreams, and how the gaze of the world can be harsh and unforgiving. May their wishes open your eyes and your heart.
Collection of Wishes:
- I wish you weren’t scared of me
- I wish I felt safe in my house
- I wish there were safe places for kids to hang out
- I wish there were other places for us than JDC for our mistakes
- How big can you dream if you knew you couldn’t fail
- I would give my mom a house in the Chicago suburbs
- If i could wish for anything i would wish for money so that i could break it down and give it to the people i be with
- I want to be a rapper and tell people about my life
- I want people to know what I’ve been through
- I want people to feel a range of emotions when they listen to me
- I’m not like this on the regular
- I want to get rich so I can get my mom in a better place
- I didn’t hurt anyone
- I didn’t mean to hurt anyone
- I mean well
- I wish I had a car for every day of the week
- I want to set an example for my kids when I become a parent and don’t give them any reason to run
- I wish I could be the dictator of the world and get all the money and then give it back so everyone has the same income.
- I want to send one thousand people to the moon.
- I want to build a big statue of ME!
- I wish people knew that I like to read.
- I wish you knew that I am a good parent.
- I wish you knew that I shouldn’t be here
- I wish you knew that I am not a criminal
- I wish you knew that I am open minded
- I wish you knew that I am a child of GOD.
- I wish you knew that I can make a fast beat.
- I wish you knew that we ain that bad
- How big can you dream if you new you couldn’t fail
- Hope he becomes who he wanna be
- I don’t like to wish, you grind until you become.
- I know that I ain't perfect, but you know that I'm worth it.
- I wish you knew I’m brilliant
- I wish you knew I was a good kid
- I wish you cared as much as I do
- I wish you could see my potential
- I wish you knew I’m good at baseball
- I wish you knew I want to score a touchdown in the NFL
- I wish you knew I am a good parent
- I do not like to wish, you grind until you become
- I wish there was less gun violence
- I wish there were safe places for kids to hangout
- I wish you knew I’m trying
- I wish you didn’t look at me different
- I wish people knew I like to read
- I wish you knew I’m not a delinquent
- I wish you knew I’m not a bad kid, I made a bad decision.
- I wish you knew I want to keep in touch with my inner self.
- I wish you knew my charges are not ME!
- I wish you knew I have a youtube channel
- I wish you knew I like to swim
Poem written during the mural project (by student M):
WHILE WE WAIT While we wait to hear the hard slam of a door behind us While we wait for the longest short walk down the beige hall While we wait for piercing eyes to stare as their gaze feel like a blade giving us deep cuts to the skin While we wait laying under the raggedy hole-filled sheets looking up at the ceiling as if our freedom will appear from thin air While we wait tossin’ and turnin’ unable to sleep just hoping that tomorrow comes early So the next time you're in the back of a squad car Just remember, while you wait For what wait awaits you That this is what awaits you While we wait While we wait
On the first day of group, Jerry Butler led Madison teenagers at Youth Justice and Prevention (formerly Neighborhood Intervention Program) through a conversation around a masterpiece of Black history, Judgment Day by Aaron Douglas. The work encapsulates the dynamic culture of the Harlem Renaissance through its striking colors and patterned lines. Hidden stories fill the scene, awaiting the viewer to unlock their mysteries.
Using the design patterns and techniques of Aaron Douglas, teens had the opportunity to craft images of their own using the methods of expression over several weeks.
While the hallways and classrooms are already decked out in large scale teen artwork from the previous Bubbler projects Too Much Sauce and Mask Off, the Youth Justice & Prevention (formerly Neighborhood Intervention Program) operation recently completed a building renovation and collaborated with the Bubbler to continue engaging youth in projects that define the people and the space inside the facility.
Eight local teens joined Audifax after school for one day each week over the course of two months as they worked together to design and then paint the "Bloom" mural in the YJP cafeteria, which is an open common space used by teenagers that is sandwiched between a kitchen and a wood working shop. See more about this project on Audifax's wesite.
A student says:
"I look at this mural every time I am on the phone. I like having this around me when I am talking with my family."
Before anyone started painting during this winter break mural project, artists Maria Schirmer Devitt, Savannah Starlin & Christina Theobald ran a series of workshops over two weeks with the purpose of building relationships with and amongst students, and to create a spirit of trust and openness about the creative process as the group began to collaborate toward a final mural design for the phone wall -- the space where students make phone calls to family, friends and advocates.
The workshops were sometimes collaborative, making a beautiful product that everyone had a hand in creating, and sometimes the projects were individual, highlighting individual difference and voices.
The individual workshops included vision boarding for the new year, along with shoe concept and design. It was during these sessions that the students individual dreams and styles emerged. Whereas the collaborative workshops looked like mural brainstorming, exquisite corpse trading cards with inspirational messages on the back, group writing and illustrating for the mural, patterning for the mural. We also spent time playing with them in the gym and playing warm-up silly drawing games. This helped break the ice and create a spirit positive regard for each other.
After two weeks of designing, the artists brought the students some more formal design drafts and they felt very comfortable sharing their very honest, and sometimes brutal, feelings thoughts and ideas for revisions. Most of the time there were differing opinions that we had to be negotiated and worked out among the whole group, making it very helpful to cull ideas that weren’t as important.
Several big decisions and changes were eventually made to the design throughout the process, including the addition of the symbolic stairwell adorned with an important MLK quote, but the group eventually agreed on the final design and was excited to start painting.
We painted with the students in small groups during the day often in groups of 2 or 3, and in the evenings when energy was slower, we would work sometimes with groups of 4-5. It was during these paint sessions that students shared advice with one another, their fears and worries, their own experiences, their dreams.
STUDENT QUOTES:
"When I first walked in yesterday, I was surprised to see all the colors. I saw the quote and it gave me hope.""When I see this, I see stairs to a new start in life." "I had a dream we kept painting the wall and it became a powerful dragon. I feel happiness and pride when I see it." “What I see is myself standing at the top of the stairs and not just taking the first step of faith…but a leap of faith into a new life and new doors opening…which shows that even though I am back in this situation I still have a chance to see new opportunities!”
Read the full story and feel the impact of this year-long school mascot project with Audifax and students in Madison Metropolitan School District's four METRO classrooms.
Rod Wave says:
I know that I ain't perfect, but I know that I'm worth it.