Finding New Sparks in Our Youths

During the last few weeks, Julie, 14-years-old, has discovered new Sparks. She was part of a virtual artistic residency, organized by Friends of the Children–Portland, and coordinated by Elijah Hasan, an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, composer and writer.

Elijah worked with our youth, helping them to create short films after reviewing his work. During this process, they would talk about symbolism, representation and industry tools/technology. The residency started on June 9th and ran for eight weeks, and our youth are finalizing their films now on the iPads we provided them for this residency, thanks to a grant we received from Verizon Foundation.

Julie is one of our very talented youth who discovered her spark for arts with Melissa, her mentor/Friend. Melissa introduced her to drawing and painting, and she instantly saw her potential. They would draw together for hours, discovering new artists, colors and textures. Now they have been working collectively on this new project, where Julie has the opportunity of showing her artistic and technology skills in short videos that she produced and created herself.

Julie worked on a short video where she reveals the process of one of her drawings. Part of her creative process is to draw on her room walls, where she spends most of her time. Her room is a safe place for her, a place where she likes to be and throughout the last few months, a place where she can express her creativity. Get a view from this young artist’s perspective through the video she created; you can watch it bellow.