Art Club Adolescents: Stencils and spray paint

TEENAGE GROUP sessions 3 to 5: stencils and spray paint 

3rd session 12th March: Stencils and windscreen panel

4th session 19th March: Name stencils and t-shirts 1

5th session 26th March: Name stencils and t-shirts 2

Art Club with Fundación Junto Con Los Niños - JUCONI 

facilitated by the Charlotte Miller Art Project in Guayaquil, Ecuador

IDEA AND AIMS:  To continue the teenager's Art Club group with an age-appropriate and stimulating activity.  Entrusting the kids with scalpels to cut out stencils, and to comply with health and safety rules whilst using spray paint we hoped to generate further trust and confidence between them and the facilitators.  Another key aim was for these activities to generate pieces for the pop-up carnival float exhibition: a windscreen panel and the teen's costumes. 

PROCESS Session 3, Stencils and spray-painting the windscreen panel: 

1. During our second session with the teens Emily and I interviewed them about their communities, recording their answers in written questionnaires.  One of these questions was "What are 3 words to describe Socio Vivienda?"  In preparing for the workshop I drew out the words they chose onto thin card.

2. Emily and I cut cardboard and paper to fit the windows of the JUCONI truck and Emily spray painted a gradient on shiny white paper to fit across the windscreen panel.

3.  During the workshop the teens cut out the letters to create stencils, using scalpels or scissors as preferred.  Each started with one of the large letters from the title: "Socio Vivienda" and then continued with the full words.   

4.  Covering their nose and mouth with a protective mask, and wearing latex gloves, the kids went out the back of the CNH building to spray their stencils onto the windscreen panel with Emily in the open air. 

The words that the teens used to describe Socio Vivienda and that they sprayed onto the windscreen panel are an interesting mix: pretty, beautiful, clean, love, peaceful, friendly, very happy,  a lot of noise, fun, intelligent and… a bit strange ("medio raro"!) It was refreshing to hear these very positive words after spending so many months seeing Socio Vivienda through the JUCONI lense, which, due to its work with the most vulnerable children living with high levels of domestic violence, inevitably focuses on the negatives that JUCONI hopes to change.  I was certainly happy to hear these positive descriptions and simultaneously felt ashamed that I was surprised that the kids chose this words. Thanks to all of our teens for helping me to see Socio Vivienda in a fresh way! 

PROCESS Sessions 4 and 5, Name stencils and spray-painting t-shirts: 

1.  At the very last minute I pre-prepared an Art Club logo (CDA for "Club de Arte" that by coincidence turned out looking like a musical clef, making the link with the initial teen musician-referenced workshops).  

This week we had our second Jorli group volunteer, the amazingly helpful graphic designed Daniel who was a great help with a couple of suggestions for the logo and in scapeling it out, plus the kids responded to him really well. 

Thanks Daniel! :-)

2. In the 4th workshop each teen wrote out his or her name in pencil, and then cut this out with a scalpel or scissors. 

3. One-by-one the teens sprayed the CDA logo and their names onto the back of their t-shirts under the supervision and instruction of Emily outside.  They also added a smaller version of the CDA logo on the front and some added numbers to the back or sleeves.   This process spanned across the 4th and 5th workshop. 

N.B. The choice to pre-write the words for the children to cut out in session 3 was as a result of observing how the process of writing out their names in session 1 had been very slow.  Recognising that for the teens to feel satisfied by the workshop it would be important that they would each get to the stage of spray painting at least one letter during this workshop,  we gave them this head-start.  In the following session we encouraged the kids to each go through the whole process, from sketching out their name in pencil, through the cutting and spraying.  Between workshops 4 and 5 I made some adjustments to stencils for kids who had particularly struggled.  

It's been great to see that, as we'd hoped, the kids both really engaged with the age-appropriate activity and really responded to the trust we put in them with the materials.  They have been working very calmly and with concentration and enthusiasm, and these Thursday afternoon workshops are really enjoyable spaces to be in.  Now we're looking forward to seeing how the teens respond to the dance rehersals coming up after the Easter break!