Young Artists at Work, YBCA

Young Artists at Work is a paid, multidisciplinary arts, activism, and job training after-school program for San Francisco public high school teens.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Visiting Chukes in San Jose!

On Thursday, I got to go to San Jose City College to see the Chukes' exhibition. It was really wonderful to meet him. That day, I found out that he had a wife and a daughter. He met us at the student center, and then walked us across campus to where his exhibition was at. 

Along the way, I told him about the Endurance of Humanity exhibition theme: art exploring the different types of endurance. This includes mental, physical, and political endurance. Then he said he was really excited and glad our group chose him to be in our exhibition. 

When we got to the building, the first thing I saw was "The Journey" and it was just so cool to actually see the sculpture live in front of you instead of looking at it in the picture that I was used to looking at

I asked him what the Journey was about and how I thought it was a woman figure. He told me that it was actually a self portrait of himself and the journey he got to where he is right now. Each hand represented someone who affected his life. 

Then I saw "Almost Heaven" which he explained was his symbol for how he felt about music. He explained that the woman in the sculpture looks very comfortable and relaxed. She represents the musical instrument, and the hands around her represent the person playing the song. 


I wondered why he used a much lighter color on this sculpture than on the other ones, and he just said it fit. He also explained that he didn't have limbs in his sculptures because he felt they weren't important.

One of the sculptures we wanted to use was "Talking to myself" but unfortunately, he said it was already sold. But Chukes said he really wanted to show another sculpture he did in graduate school called "Life"


"Life" is a self sculpture about Chukes and the endurance he went through in his life. How he had friends who went a certain path and ended up in bad places. Chukes went down another path, and because of that he is who he is today. The bars around his face reminded me of Martin Luther King when he said that jails were nothing but walls and bars. MLK would say this to people who were weary of protesting. To me, this portrait shows a brave, not scared person.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Only two more months for the grand opening for our exhibition!!! :)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Couple o' Questions

Daaahhh. I'm wondering if all we should post in this blog is stuff pertaining to the Curator business... If it really is a blog where we can share what's going on with ourselves, work or play or otherwise, I wanna share my latest endeavor in drawing:


Just Move by ~elicitchaos on deviantART

Clicky-clicky. This is what my stuff looks like, colored. 8D Inspired by Lady Gaga's song, Just Dance.

Anyway, I checked the calendar and am wondering about the Thanksgiving Recess mentioned next week. On Wednesday it says we have class - are we or are we not going to show up on Wednesday and the days after? Most likely no, right I need to get my sleep on?

Just draw~

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Contemporary Jewish Museum Event Reminder

Reminder for Thursday, November 13 Event:
All YAWs will accompany Jaime to the youth event at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Remember that while you're there, we want you to have fun, but we also want to be looking at the exhibitions with your curator eyes. See you then!!!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Election Night Party! OBAMA!

The Freedom of Art: Election Night Party was a great event. The house was so crowded that there was a line around the corner of people trying to get in until about 9:30pm. Rosa and Khristine were great at the art scrawl table. I want to thank them for their efforts. A blogger for the SF Weekly took a picture of the art scrawl wall and captured one of the drawings that Khristine made. Once again YAAWers are making the news. Here's the link that somewhat describes the wild night of art and performance.

Monday, October 27, 2008

50 Visionaires who are changing your world

Utne Reader, one of the most politically progressive magazines read in the U.S., named the 50 most influential visionaries in the U.S. and a couple of people from the Bay Area were selected including Favianna Rodriguez whose artwork is starting to draw a lot of national and international attention. Read the article here.

Friday, October 24, 2008

SuperSheroes and Super Pix

YAAW T-Shirt crew at The Big Idea Day

Getting some edumacation from Andres Guerrero from White Walls Gallery
The YAAWers pounding the streets looking for artists.





With Favianna Rodriguez during a studio visit in Berkeley





Scarlett at What's The Big Idea Day









Searching for the next big artist at Shooting Gallery