After a Pandemic Pause, S.O.Y. Artista Returns In-Person at SHG
By: Gabriella Padilla
Self Help Graphics is thrilled to have welcomed back S.O.Y. Artista teaching artists and students earlier this summer. After more than a year of only engaging online, we were thrilled to receive youth in the space, as well as virtually, for this iteration of S.O.Y. Artista. Youth participants learned photography, printmaking, cyanotype, zine-making, stop motion animation, and more from the teaching artists such as Pável Acevedo, Rafael Cardenas, and Martha Carrillo.
As an emerging educator, I have learned that cultural centers such as SHG play a crucial role in serving their diverse audiences and most importantly, their surrounding communities. Youth programs such as S.O.Y. Artista are an example of how arts education serves as a new model for learning in the 21st century. Having the opportunity to work alongside a group of talented young adults for the past five weeks has been an amazing experience that has not only helped to reinforce my goals but also the participant’s goals and vision as young artists for a better future.
We had the opportunity to interview three participants, Yolitztli Torres, Isabel (Izzy) Jaquez, and Karla Rodriguez (pictured L-R below), who spoke about their experiences this summer. Read the Q& A below.
Q&A with S.O.Y. Artista participants:
Yolitztli: My name is Yolitzli Torres, my pronouns are she/her.
Izzy: My name is Izzy, my pronouns are they/them and I am from El Sereno.
Karla: My name is Karla Rodriguez, my pronouns are she/her.
Where’s home for you?
Yolitztli: Home is where my family is, but mostly in LA right now.
Izzy: I've lived in El Sereno pretty much my whole life. We moved to the house that I live in when I was four years old. El Sereno has always been my home.
Karla: Home for me is, I think, all of California but I am from Northern California.
How old are you?
Yolitztli: I’m 16 years old.
Izzy: I am 22.
Karla: I am 24 years old.
Have you taken part in the SOY Artista program before? How did you hear about the SOY Artista program?
Yolitztli: Yes, I started since I was 12 So I've been doing this for three years.
Izzy: Yes, I did the program when I was 16. That was my first time doing the SOY Artista program but I have done other youth programs at Self Help before that.
Karla: No, this is my first time taking part in the program.
What week did you enjoy the most? And why?
Yolitztli: I enjoyed the first week, Self-portrait photography because I really liked photography, and I learned a lot.
Izzy: That's hard because I really enjoyed a lot of the stuff we did but I think mono-printing was one of my favorites because it’s a medium that I really had never done before. And I realized there were so many different ways to make monoprints. Using a lot of tools that I've never used before or thought about using, I thought that was really fun.
Karla: That’s so hard, I think my most favorite was when we did screen printing. I think I've always admired screen printing and I've always had an interest in it so it was really fun to finally be able to do that.
Overall, what are the biggest takeaways or lessons learned from participating in the program?
Yolitztli: Learned to explore art mediums and take more risks with my art.
Izzy: I think it's just like when you know the rules, or like the basic foundations of certain techniques, it's easier to break them and kind of manipulate what you've learned and create something that’s all you. I've had a lot of fun just being like, given the freedom to use these materials in the way that we were taught, and also in a way where, you know, just to see the limits of these kinds of materials that we've been working with. So yeah that's been fun.
Karla: I think I took away confidence, really.I think a lot of these things were really intimidating in the past and coming here was very welcoming.
What’s next in store for you?
Yolitztli: I’m definitely going to continue with my art.
Izzy: Right now, I have been trying to work on this kind of large Zine, like a standard size paper Zine. Usually, I've done very small ones so I'm kind of just compiling stuff to make a larger one, that kind of is like, I guess like a portfolio of the summer. Like I want to have a lot of my summer work and projects in there and then hopefully have it done, you know, sometime in August.
Karla: I think it's just to continue exploring the things that I have learned so far, and then maybe finding more what's my favorite thing to create with those practices and what else I can learn.
About S.O.Y. Artista
S.O.Y. Artista is a free five-week summer art program for youth, ages 12-24 years old, from the communities of East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, and the greater Los Angeles area. The program provides youth with access to the arts, one on one instruction, and an in-depth art experience that culturally connects them to their community, establishing translatable skills towards their participation in higher education and the workforce.
Gabriela Padilla is a Getty Marrow Undergraduate Arts Education Intern at Self Help Graphics & Art. She recently receive her BA in Art History and is an emerging educator and arts administrator.