For the second Coney Island Art Walls mural exhibition, I was invited again to engage the community by creating a mural featuring members of the neighborhoods. This year, I decided to focus on children. Since my mural in 2015, I've spent time with community members and learned how rich the youth community is in Coney Island.
Following the same process as the previous year, I met with kids in person, shot their photographs, and drew their portraits from those photographs. I then composed the drawings into one design.
"who lives here
who plays here
who learns here
who loves here"
2015
I was invited to participate in Coney Art Walls, a mural exhibition in Coney Island curated by Jeffrey Deitch.
For my mural, I knew I wanted to engage the community of Coney Island. I decided to do a mural of portraits featuring residents of Coney Island - people who have lived in the neighborhood for years and have family roots there.
I asked each person I interviewed and photographed, what do you want people to know about Coney Island outside of the boardwalk and rides?
David Anderson gave a great answer that I used for the text of the piece: The day before Easter, and the day after Labor Day - people still live here. People die here. People love here.
