Cuba/New York | Muralist Katie Yamasaki On Giving Girls A Voice Through Art
April 1, 2013 · Leave a Comment
Katie Yamasaki. (Photo by Michael Chung)
BY CLARENCE A. HAYNES | GIRLS ISSUE | SPRING, 2013
Katie Yamasaki, a New York-based muralist and children’s book illustrator, is at the helm of a number of community-based, large-scale murals with teenage girls. One of those projects, Voices Her’d, creates a place for teenage girls to come together, choose an issue affecting their community, and express their ideas through public art. In their murals, the girls address serious issues such as women in the military, the exploitation of inner city youth by military recruiters, women and immigration, and homelessness and health. Yamasaki has also created art projects with children and youth in Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Argentina, and Namibia.
Her work, she says, is about providing “a visual platform where different communities can have a public voice.” She tells us what she’s learned from the girls of Voices Her’d, her experience working with children in Cuba, and her just-released children’s book Fish for Jimmy.
US | Jose Parla’s ‘Walls, Diaries and Paintings’
March 13, 2011 · Leave a Comment
José Parlá “Order, Pattern, Organization, Form & Relationship.” Courtesy of Bryce Wolkowitz.
“I bring the language of my community and the conditions of my community into the gallery environment.” ~ José Parlá
BY LERONN PHILLIP BROOKS
José Parlá’s paintings are an empire of broken languages governing the landscape of old cities and the decaying spaces therein. Through his work, the artist proclaims a global aesthetic, stretching from Cuba to Beijing, Harlem to Sao Paulo, that exposes the perishable nature of often neglected communities laying at the center and periphery of hard-hearted metropolis.’ By using layers of advertisements, graffiti, posters and bits of typography as source material, Parlá reproduces the rugged lining of the city’s belly. While the artist relies partly on the appropriation of a material culture of poverty for his work’s gravitas, his ability to use fluid and improvised painterly gestures (or as he calls it, “writing”) allows his paintings to blossom into beautiful and imaginative moments.
Cuba | Terrence Jennings: Invincible
May 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Havanna, Cuba. 2000.
of note interviews photographer Terrence Jennings, as part of its FOCUS series.
of note: Take us through this image. What’s the story behind capturing it?
Terrence Jennings: The young boy in this photograph is Bernardo, Jr. He’s standing in front of a house that was being rebuilt. Stacked around its frame were bricks and other building materials. Bernardo ran to the top of the bricks. He wanted to show me that he could bend the piece of metal in his hand. I remember him saying, “Look what I can do.”
Featured Articles
