"Art can impact the social context of family dislocations and can serve as a powerful tool in encouraging an open national dialogue about Zero Tolerance in our country"
So (sew) America Cares is a participatory social art project with a commitment to raise awareness about the lives of the children separated from their parents at the border. All the faces stitched together strengthen the very fabric of our own society.
In 2018 a Zero Tolerance immigration policy was announced, requiring that all families who cross the border shall not only be separated but also charged in federal court with the misdemeanor crime of illegal entry.
This Project’s mission is to advocate for these children and to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to participate. Thread by thread, fiber by fiber, a participating community will increase its understanding of the circumstances of these children who never asked to be illegal aliens. The project consists of 10 different faces that will be repeated 100 times each to add 1000 faces. The faces had been laser etched on raw canvas to allow the participant to use any kind of thread, yarn, wool, fabric, paint etc. So (sew) America Cares has a plan: to "sew" them back, to never allow these children to be lost again, to create a quilt of 1000 faces representing a portion of these children.
We cannot allow these traumatized children to disappear and in time, be forgotten.People are encouraged to stitch, sew, knit, knot, crochet, embroider, or braid these drawings so as to symbolically recover these children’s faces and lives again.
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So (sew) America Cares is an international call for people to participate and raise awareness as to the consequences of this immigration policy and its devastating effect on children. As citizen, artist, mother and a child that suffered being separated from my family for eight years, I am concerned about the hundreds of separated children across our country.
ART EDUCATION
“A teacher is one who makes her/himself progressively unnecessary”
EXPERIENCE
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2020
Project Art Residency, Hispanic Library Branch
Arts for learning Lewis Art Studio, summer Program
2019
Play Studio Artelier, developing Vocational art programs for kids/young adults.
Teacher Development workshop Miami Dade Public School
ICA, Kids Portfolio Prep
Family Day, Wolfsonian Museum
Artist Workshops, Members Special Event Miami Children Museum
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2018
Inside /Out Program PAMM
VSA Arts4 All-Natural Bridge, Hialeah High, Coral Reef Elementary, Howard Elementary Artist Residencies
Hartvest Project, PineCrest Garden
Hispanic Branch, West Little River Branch Library, ProjectArt Residencies
West Little River, Arts4 Learning
MOCA, Summer Camp Art Teacher Instructor
2017
Art detective program, PAMM
The goal of the program is to create new channels for community interactions – particularly between youth and law enforcement officers-that provide a foundation for mutual understanding and respect.
Alternative Arts Miami Country Dade, North Miami Beach Elementary enrichment Program
BakeHouse Art Complex, Gap Days outreach program Little Haiti Cultural Center Overtown Youth Center.
Link Gallery experiences through art making and critical thinking
Private Art Instructor for kids on the Autism and DownSyndrome Spectrum.
Developmental art skills, motor skills, cognitive levels through art making.
2016
Arts For Learning, Art Works program and Lewis Art Studio Instructor.
Connecting the arts through nonconventional art mediums and subjects to support academic achievement and child development, critical thinking and skill levels.
All kids Included, Arts for learning/ Children Trust
Youth Arts in the Parks is an inclusive, socially-oriented arts program for children and youth with and without disabilities.
2015
Portfolio Development, ICA Young artists Initiative
Teaching Artist Coral Gables Museum. Workshops
Fiber Art Workshops @Lewis Art Studio Arts for Learning
2014-2015
Teaching Artist at Perez Art Museum Miami
Using inquiry based method through gallery experiences and developing activities for the kids to better understand the museum context.
2014
Invited Artist to the Textile Museum. Oaxaca, Mexico
Taught a series of workshops on how to incorporate art education through a collaborative project between artist, children and artisians.
Educational Residency Sewon Art Space. Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Series of workshops using batik techniques to children 6 to 12 years old.
Artist/Teacher Residency. Fienberg Fisher. Miami Beach, Fl
2013-2014
Educational Residency. Oaxaca, Mexico
Retra-tablos is a project as part of an artist residency where I collaborated with a group of kids and artisan to produce a series of works that were reinterpreted as hand embroideries.
2013
Art Instructor. Lewis Art Studio, Guest Artist. Miami, Fl
Art Instructor. MOCA Museum Youth Summer Program. North Miami, Fl
Art Instructor. Bake House Art Complex, Summer Portfolio Prep for teens. Miami, Fl
2012
Instructing Art Workshops. Block Printing techniques. Kota, India
Presented the students the advantages of different art forms in a critical thinking methods that analyzed contemporary art. Introduce different kinds of art forms though music and intuitive drawing. Create portraits using all kinds of patterns, and elements of design.
2010-2016
Art Instructor. Miami Dade College, Community Education Department
Wolfson Campus & West Campus. Miami, Fl
Contemporary teaching approaches and their applications in Photography, Drawing, Contemporary Art forms, Mixed Media Collage, Photography and Painting Classes for adults that want to broader their knowledge and creativity, presenting the students the advantages of different art forms in a critical thinking methods that analyzed contemporary art.
2010-2011
K- 6th Grade Art Instructor. Thinking Child Academy Elementary School. Homestead, Fl
Developing a curriculum to better instill in the kids critical thinking, life skills through art.
2009-Current
Art Instructor. Arts 4 Learning, Miami FlFall, Spring, Summer Art Residencies at Biscayne Elementary, Horace Mann, Thinking Child Academy, Riviera Middle Schools, Toussaint Elementary, Southeast Park, Barn Yard in Coconut Grove, West End City of Miami Parks, Feinberg Fisher, Primary Learning Center, North Beach Elementary, Scott Rakow Youth Center, Lewis Art Studio, Highland Oaks Park, Miramar Art Center, West Little river, Happy Kids Child Care Center.
Increase proficiency of visual arts from early childhood to college level.
Equip young audiences with valuable life skills and encourage creative and critical thinking based on Inquiry methods and gallery experienced.
Expose students to career paths in the arts, teaching them job skills and high-school and college readiness, through portfolio preparation and group critiques.
Support students with artistic talents to instill confidence and inspire them to stay in school and pursue career paths within the arts.
Work with kids with special needs to improve motor skills through visual memory practices.
Miami, FL
Workshops with Harvest project, thanks to Crazy art Camp and Carola Bravo for giving me the chance to keep spreading my textile fever and to continue to educate young girls to be creative through traditional textile techniques.
Free motion sewing, patch work, batik and dyes techniques all in one exquisite afternoon, all about the processes.
Oaxaca, Mexico
​​El taller consistirá en reproducir la idea del taller en Santa Ana zegache , donde el grupo de niños participantes interpretaron símbolos autóctonos de su pueblo y los incorporaron a un autorretrato. En el caso de este taller específicamente queremos que los participantes se concentren en incluir simbolismos. Una vez que este terminado el retrato y esten dibujados el area negativa del rostro con símbolos que pueden ser formas de cualquier genero, geométricas, orgánicas, representativas etc, el participante guiado por Doña Cecilia maestra bordadora traducira su dibijo a bordado.
Yogjakarta, Indonesia
​​Worked with a group of kids introducing elements and principles of designs. The kids worked with a self portrait image that was segmented with patterns. This drawings were later done in batik by artisians in the community that interpreted the kids work using a textile tradition. The pieces were then, stretched and mounted to be exhibited, this way creating a crossover between cultural traditions and new aesthetics.
Yogjakarta, Indonesia
​​The kids worked on creating paper masks, taking the topeng traditional concept into a more contemporary aesthetic. They used paper and makers and traced their mask onto fabric that later were make batik pieces by artisians in the community.
Oaxaca, Mexico
​​I worked with a group of 25 kids ages 5 to 12 years old. I introduced to the kids the work of Chuck Close an American painter that works in segment pixels self portrait. we talked about color theory and i made them conscious about this idea of building up an images made of little images. The kids had to sketch 20 different design from the facade of the church, which i learned it was inspired by the town's lost hand embroider tradition.
Kota, India
​Intuitive drawing techniques, the kids developed a great amount of freehand strokes while listening to music, traditional hindu music. It developed from an abstract drawing to a figurative piece. At the same time another group of kids were working on self portrait, where they filled in the negatice spaces of the face with patterns and designs related to the aethetics of their cultural traditions, very intricate and detailed embelishments.
Lewis Art Studio, A4L
Kids work with marionettes. They represented themselves through thread and fabric. Kids had the chance to experiment with different textile tecniques, using pattern making methods to assamblage their marionettes.
Portfolio Development
Through this series of hands on exercises, students have incorporated all elements and principles of design to their self portrait. Students were prompt to describe themselves through elements that told their stories. Elements of repetition and visual narratives were use by students to represent themselves.
