424 macon street
bed-stuy, ny 11233
718. 919. 8925
TRUE@TRUEart.biz
www.TRUEart.biz
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my name is TRUE, i am an artist and resident of bed-stuy. i feel that my experience, qualifications, connection to and passion for this community make me ideally suited for this project.
to download a pdf of my bio, cv, and artist’s statement, please click here.
to view samples of my work, please select from the images below.
thank you.
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KIDS’ ART WORKSHOP (2008): i helped kids & their parents beautify bed-stuy’s fulton east playground as part of “it’s my park! day.” pictured below is the barrel painting workshop. the challenge was in improvising a design that could be replicated by young hands with the three colors of paint available.
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PUBLIC ARTS PROGRAMMING / DESIGN (2000 - ): i founded and organize the annual KIDflix film fest of bed-stuy! every friday night in august in bed-stuy’s fulton park, we show free family-oriented films – with an emphasis on audience participation – focusing on issues concerning the black community in general, and the bed-stuy community in particular. we incorporate thematically-linked live performances, and we strive to feature local and / or independent artists.
every year, my responsibilities include fundraising, curating films and live acts, setting up and operating the equipment, as well as designing postcards, posters, banners, ads, and t-shirts (which we give away free to hundreds of kids).
we end each year’s festival with a sing- & dance-a-long to the wiz (note the yellow brick road).
(click here for more info / images)
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DESIGN AS COMMUNITY SERVICE (1999 - ): i’ve been fairly active as an artist / designer in the bed-stuy community, and i often provide low- or no-cost design services for local organizations, such as the bed-stuy artists association (besaa), the bedford-stuyvesant business alliance, bridge street development corporation, the brooklyn brownstone school, the brownstoners of bedford stuyvesant, the stuyvesant heights parents association, and many others. the street banners pictured below line lewis avenue from harriet tubman / fulton street to halsey.
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PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS (2004, 2006, 2008): in 2004, the bedford-stuyvesant restoration corporation held a contest to find artists to do large-scale public “wallscapes” honoring “brooklyn icons.” i won one of those first 3 commissions, my icon was Hattie Carthan, founder of the magnolia tree earth center, and catalyst for the greening of brooklyn.
i won a second commission when the project continued in 2006, this time to do a series of street banners that would be hung throughout bed-stuy (Shirley Chisholm, Jackie Robinson, and Chris Rock were the first to be honored). in 2008, i was asked to do an additional banner of Laurence Fishburne. the banners have lined fulton street since 2008.
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ARTS VOLUNTEERISM (2001): the american institute of graphic arts (aiga) set up a program called “art with heart,” which initiated a project called “oodles of doodles for your noodle.” it was an activity book for seriously ill children in which “the design world’s a-list [gave] their time and talent to one big book.” the book would then be given free to children’s wards around the country.
my contribution was a face painting idea & coloring page.
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ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCY (2002): through a program set up by the museum of contemporary diasporan arts (MoCADA), i became an artist-in-residence at bed-stuy’s el-hajj Malik el-Shabazz elementary (ps 262), working with several classes of children between the ages of 6-10 on collaborative mural collages. the children’s work was later exhibited at MoCADA.
the idea that we presented to the kids was that every healthy, viable community needs to be self-sufficient – so what then would the children want to see in their “visions of bed-stuy”? each child constructed a series of collages representing the things they felt would make the community more whole, the individual pieces were then combined in one of several mural collages. along with what you might expect (toy stores, candy shops) there were a surprising number of social programs like homeless shelters.
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ART AS COMMUNITY SERVICE (2002): after 9/11, there were a great many police officers, fire fighters and emts that were stationed on the streets of lower manhattan – exposed to the elements each and every day. a non-profit called the society for experimental arts & learning (seal) started a barrel project, in which artists were asked to volunteer their skills to create designs on fire barrels that would be donated to the city and placed wherever there was someone that needed to be kept warm. the designs served 2 purposes: they not only allowed more heat to pass through the barrel, but they were also a chance for us to offer moral support for those who protect us.
pictured below is the design – nyc as a rising phoenix – that i later cut into the side of my barrel with a blow torch.
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ARTS VOLUNTEERISM (2001): i volunteered to design & paint murals at Paul Lawrence Dunbar school, as part of ny cares day. below are 2 of the designs (which had to be in a limited palette, and simple enough that children could paint them).
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NON-PERMISSIONAL SITE-SPECIFIC PUBLIC INSTALLATION (1994-1999): i created my own versions of each of the mta’s subway instructional stickers, i then printed 3,000 of them and spent the next several months enlisting the aid of friends and friends of friends to ride the trains all night, installing my stickers over the originals.
(click here for more info / images)
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MURAL / MENTORING PROJECT (1994-1995): i co-founded the nia youth collective, a saturday program in ft. greene, brooklyn. one of our main projects was a mural across from ft. greene park, which was conceptualized and created by the youth, with the help of myself and other facilitators. the theme was community betterment through positive energy and communication.
unfortunately, i do not have documentation of the mural, but pictured below is the logo that i designed for the program. i also designed our print collateral, t-shirts, etc.
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MURAL (1993): what started out as a party invite evolved into a larger-than-life-size mural of the image, painted on the wall of my east village co-op.
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NON-PERMISSIONAL SITE-SPECIFIC PUBLIC INSTALLATION (1993-1994): i created my own versions of the department of transportation’s crosswalk signs, and installed 20 new site-specific messages on the streets of los angeles and nyc.
pictured above is “consume / conform,” which was installed in front of 1 of manhattan’s 30 gap stores (this gap at 45th & 3rd, was flanked by another at 47th & 3rd, and one at 42nd & 3rd).
(click here for more info / images)