My name is Bianca Huerta, and I was part of the Agency of Assets fellowship program through ICA-LA, which allowed me to work at Self Help Graphics for an internship in Summer 2024. I have recently graduated from high school and will be starting the beginning of my freshman year of university at Cal State Stanislaus this fall. 

Even though I do not plan on majoring in art, I have always considered myself a creative person, whether that be in visual arts, music, writing, or any other art form that I may be interested in doing in the future, I consider art to be a big part of my life and am considering having a minor in art. 

Being an intern at Self Help Graphics allowed me to try out new things as I participated in the SOY Artista summer youth art program during the first three weeks of my four-week internship. In those weeks, I experimented with art mediums I had only heard about but had never tried.  Aside from participating in the art classes, I would assist in things that the teaching artists may have needed, like helping students, setting out snacks, cleaning up after the morning class, and setting up, if needed, for the afternoon class.

During my first week at SOY Artista, I tried screenprinting with artist Las Chicas Peligrosas, creating a design using a couple of stencils I made on my own. I had only been able to screen print once before because of a guest our high school had, but the design was already predetermined, so it was interesting to create my design.

My second week consisted of block printing and paper lithography with Teaching Artist Yaneli Delgado. We focused on block printing for the first two days, sketching our design on some transfer paper before finalizing it on the lino block and carving out the design. I ended up cutting out a small rose and, on a larger lino block, I carved out a snail carrying another snail on their back. 

The following two days consisted of learning paper lithography. We practiced with a smaller, simpler image before choosing our own picture and making it into a black-and-white image before transferring it onto other cards. 

On the last week of SOY Artista, we focused on cyanotypes, stencils, and spray painting with artist Joan Zeta. On the first day, we found an image and projected it so that we could outline it and start cutting it out to make a stencil. The next day, we arranged plants we picked from the park across the street on cyanotype paper in a way we liked to expose it to the sun to create our designs. We then sprayed paint on top of it with our stencils. In the last two days, we experimented with the spray paint, which I really enjoyed, and I had enough time to make a second stencil. 

On Mondays when SOY Artista was not in session, in the afternoons, and on the last week of my employment, I would support in the SHG office. I would help prepare for other upcoming weeks with the program and prepare for their future events and workshops. One thing that I enjoyed was making buttons at the office. 

I enjoyed all the things I tried at Self Help Graphics and want to try them out further in my own time and expand on how I view and create my own art.

You can learn about this year’s Agency of Assets Program by watching this video.

Bianca Huerta (they/he) was an Agency of Assets intern through ICA-LA during the Summer of 2024.