Collaborative Mural Project with artist Kenny Scharf
Nov 28, 2011
Youth Insights Teens listen to artist Kenny Scharf's sources of inspiration, October 2011. Photograph by Berry Stein
On Monday, October 24, Youth Insights (YI) Leaders were surprised with a change from their normal routine of planning Whitney events for other New York City teens. Instead of hashing out the next steps for an artist talk or workshop, we were on our way to complete another mural project at the Details Guild Wall. Youth Insights worked on two previous mural projects with Dan Colen in September 2011 and with Mario Ybarra Jr and Karla Diaz in June 2011.at the Details Guild Wall.
To create this mural we worked with Kenny Scharf, a talented artist whose work is included in the Museum's collection. He is passionate about art and was very excited to work with YI teens (us!)–Artists, Writers, and Leaders. His style and approach to painting is very interesting, loose, and playful. He doesn’t sketch anything out beforehand. The highlight of our day was getting to know him, discovering what he had accomplished, and hearing about other artists that he had collaborated with in the past, for example, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.
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YI Teens pose before they begin, October 2011. Photograph by Berry Stein
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YI Teens at work, October 2011. Photograph by Berry Stein
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YI Teens at work, October 2011. Photograph by Berry Stein
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YI Teens Evelin and Sarah show off their creations, October 2011. Photograph by Berry Stein
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YI Teens take inspiration from Kenny Scharf's artwork, October 2011. Photograph by Berry Stein
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YI Teens take inspiration from Kenny Scharf's artwork, October 2011. Photograph by Berry Stein
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The final product of the collaboration, October 2011. Photograph by Berry Stein
For this mural project, we used spray paint. At first, it was a bit nerve-wracking, holding the cans and becoming familiar with how to use them. But after a few free-drafts for practice on foam core, our comfort zone expanded and we went wild on the untouched areas of the wall. Kenny had already begun the mural by laying out some creatures in bold colors. We continued to work our way around Kenny’s caterpillar and flowers by adding patterns, other characters, a twisted edge of color along the bottom, and whatever else we thought was best. Taking a few steps back and seeing the full image was breathtaking. Not only did we think it was amazing, the public also agreed by standing around and admiring our hard work on a chilly day.
by Evelin, YI Leader