Philadelphia Prints

Philadelphia is a place that I hold close to my heart. With a wonderful culture of love, and hard work, and passion, I chose to focus my art series on things that make the Philadelphia area so special to me. With major themes in the region being the arts, sports, and the overall hard working ethic, it was something that I felt pursued to show those who have never been. With the history that Philadelphia has of being a blue-collar hard working city, the people are some of the friendliest, hardest working people in the country. The city was once a mecca of industrial production, providing jobs to nearly the whole region, and getting the name of the “blue collar city. “For my prints I chose to include many famous figures in the region to help explain the love I have for the city. I believed that this would work best to show my love to the fellow Philadelphians, and also showing those who don’t know the city. For my prints I included figures like Mike Schmidt, Jim Croce, and Rocky to display the themes that I was creating. I felt that using these icons of the area, I could create a work of art that was able to really connect with those. I chose colors that replicated the sports teams of the area, and the overall patriotic feel that our cities history holds so close to our heart. Overall, by using famous pieces that lie within the Philadelphia region, I am able to connect with those living, and teach those about how and why they have become such a significant part of the culture of Philadelphia.

PHA essay

Brad Cutler

Words:626

Future Bear

Rachel Simmons

PHA essay

This semester I was able to work with an amazing group of 5^th grade students at Park House Academy. I initially signed up for the course to learn more about art, and the different art forms, and was initially hesitant about helping the kids with less skill than some of my peers. Immediately upon meeting Tanner and Sadie, I was glad that we were paired together. They were both reserved in the beginning, which I related to, and began to open up and I learned all about them.  Our project was to collaborate with the PHA to learn about global warming, and the affects told through the curious eye of Future Bear! I felt very comfortable with this topic, from taking classes on this subject. It was a time where I could use my knowledge to help teach them, and create images and ideas to work off of. After teaching them, we went to work trying to plan on how to stop global warming, and reverse the current affects of climate change. Tanner had the idea to have future bear become professional, and talk with Chinese officials, to have them reduce factory pollution, which is hurting their region with dense smog. Sadie decided on reducing the Ozone layer, and increasing protection. These themes related to helping to save the environment, while being creative and thinking outside the box.

The second thing that really stood out with me was the how creating the art and working with Tanner and Sadie, was much better than creating the work on my own. The creativity that the youth have is amazing, and it is wonderful hearing all of their unrestricted ideas flow from their brain. It opened up my eyes to realize how so many kids today are hindered from their creativity due to a heavy force of following “routine” through there middle, high school, and beyond. I looked forward to Thursdays getting to spend time hearing about their weekends, and how they were going to approach the next step of the project. I was able help guide them and keep them on task when they said they were running out of ideas, or they were just loosing focus. I wanted to let their minds think and keep mine out as much as possible.

I also want to touch on the idea of who this project and experience has effected, and how it could help benefit the arts as a whole, and the creative aspect in a child’s life. I confidently believe that the 5^th grade class thoroughly enjoyed working with us, and creating art, and it impacted many other people. To start, the teacher Mr., Lutins, had the ability to see how much of an impact the arts had on the students and how engaged they were in creating it. He mentioned how they never focus this long, and how proud and surprised he was with the concentration levels around this project. This allowed the teacher to understand the importance, and hopefully imput more creative and artistic programs into the curriculum. This also affected the parents of the students, as they would likely go home and share. This would open up the eyes of the parents to hopefully look at art in a positive way, and not as “useless.”

Working with the entire 5^th grade class at Park House Academy was a privilege and a wonderful experience. I got to relieve some of the most amazing times of my lives, and remember how worry free, and simple life was. They taught me to open up and communicate, and to listen carefully. It was a very rewarding experience, and I hope that I made an impression on their art career moving forward.