Giving back
As I had recently tweeted, I was fortunate enough to connect with the youth parole office in Las Vegas and have a chance to speak to young adults, ages 14-19, about Art & Design. I was afforded this opportunity through my best friend and fiancee, Roberta. She and I had talked about the possibility for me to be a guest speaker during one of her group sessions. Since she’s a licensed therapist specializing in teen alcohol and drug abuse, she was able to approve it through the county.
Roberta and I had often talked about joining forces to help others less fortunate. We imagined it further down our career paths, at least I did. We talked about using art & design as devices for self expression and therapeutic healing. We talked about co-facilitating workshops and lectures. We even talked about the possibility of writing a book together. Well now, here it was, staring me in the face, my first chance to collaborate. Naturally, as it is my style, I stayed up until 3am working on the outline and sequence. I didn’t want them to get bored, I wanted to be engaging, passionate and surefooted. I had no idea what to expect! These were young parolees and I was suddenly involved in the process of keeping them from becoming another statistic.
“Once I was in the middle of it, I relaxed and they started engaging with me, asking me questions and proving their own observations about the world.”
The time finally came when the kids started to file in. This was the first talk out of two that I would be having that afternoon. I struggled at the beginning to get a nice flow going. They talked over me and started having side discussions. I had to get tough but not so much as to alienate them. Once I was in the middle of it, I relaxed and they started engaging with me, asking me questions and proving their own observations about the world. I ended the session with a quick, grid-based drawing session—which they loved, where they all struggled to do as best as they could. My favorite moment was when they all saw each other’s work and how they themselves were surprised at how good they were.
The second group was a bit more timid as they were mostly under 16. I tailored the talk to have less technical aspects and difficult concepts. They were so happy and enthralled that they shook my hand, and even showed me some of their work. I certainly felt it was a huge success. And thanks to their direct input through survey cards, so did they!
My main intention was for them to look at the world around them and think about how they too, can create something to make people’s lives better. From product design to branding to photography and fashion, we talked about all the forms of communication and human ergonomics unseen and unnoticed that we all take for granted. I talked about school and the universal elements of design and composition. Hopefully instigating a curiosity to investigate the objects they interact with everyday, visually, tactfully and viscerally. My aim is and will always be to help others in some way through my work. I want to teach and I want to inspire and mentor. I have the unique opportunity as a visual communicator to effectively impact the lives of others, why try to only sell them something?
Great writeup! Congrats on putting in the time and effort to do this — it sounds like it was a success to me. Do you think you’ll try doing something like that again?