Drawing on my sold-out 2022 solo exhibition of a 100 “SCREAM” painting installation at A Hug From The Art World Gallery in Chelsea with veteran art dealer Adam Cohen and an ongoing teaching residency with the Enricho Fermi Elementary School in Yonkers, courtesy of the Hudson River Museum, I created my first teaching artist residency for toddlers.
In partnership with the Edwin Barbey Charitable Trust and the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church Day School, I worked with ninety six students between the ages of two and five years old over the course of six weeks to create what is now known as the “In The Circle of Love” teaching artist residency.
Based on my understanding of the MAPCDS ethos, which holds a strong image of the child as a capable being with endless potential, I set out to have the students respond to my practice of mark-making and music composition to create two professional installations as part of their very first art exhibition.
Using a technique derived from what is known as Glossolalia, which is the Greek word for speaking in tongues as a function of being in relationship with the Holy Spirit, I write and draw in “tongues” using this language of the heart as a platform for creating my SCREAM paintings with the intent of spreading love to a world in desperate need of it.
As a teaching curriculum, I elicit the SCREAM technique in order to further engage youth in the practice of using mark making to express themselves while simultaneously pouring love back into a world that they’ll one day be charged to lead. Starting with free-form gestures that build into a concentration of circle-making, I led students into a practice of circling their movements as a visual act of love. These circular movements are also guided by my playing of an original piano composition that I tailored specifically for the students, getting them to move their bodies and then recreating those movements onto paper and eventually canvas.
I also incorporate installation development, collaborative exhibitions and fundraising into the residency vision to expose students to the professional aspects of art-making at a young age. I worked with the MAPCDS students on creating an individually made installation of ninety six works on canvas and a community made installation of twenty six works on canvas that they, along with faculty members, contributed to. The goal was to build relationships between expressiveness through the mark making process and to build lasting impressions as a result of communal activity.
The execution of making a large scale professional installation lends itself to the MAPCDS’ and my belief that, with guidance, toddlers are capable of extraordinary things when given the opportunity to express themselves.
On May 9th, 2024 we had a group exhibition of their work to raise funds for the school and culminate the “In The Circle of Love” residency. There was a panel discussion and screening of a music video of the composition the children created their works to by me and my Director of Photography, LaVonte Robinson, starring me and the MAPCDS students.
Twenty five percent of proceeds from the sale of my work and one hundred percent of proceeds of the auction sales of the twenty six piece community installation were donated back to the school.
