Supersizing Their Canvas: Mural arts program offers students a chance to really paint the town
Aching for Aiken: 'American Idol' star Clay Aiken to thrill
'Claymates' at Caesars this weekend
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Supersizing Their Canvas
Mural arts program offers students a chance to really paint the town
By Donna Andersen
ON A SUNNY JULY afternoon -- a perfect beach day -- five Atlantic City High School students are inside the school's industrial arts classroom, painting a mural of the Atlantic City night skyline. Their canvas is large -- five feet tall and 26 feet wide, and they've been working on the painting for almost a month. When it's finished, they're moving on to an even bigger one.
The students participate in the Atlantic City Mural Arts Program, which is sponsored by the Martin S. Wilson Jr. Center for the Arts and the Atlantic City Arts Commission. Janet Bodoff, executive director of the Martin S. Wilson Jr. Center, started the after-school program in October 2003 so high school students could learn the skills and techniques of creating murals. The group's first project is installed in the hallway of Atlantic City High School -- a trompe l'oiel mural of a mountain lake scene. This summer, they're working on their first paintings for paying customers.
The new International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurant in The Walk Atlantic City Outlets commissioned the students to create two murals. The Atlantic City skyline mural is being installed inside the dining room. Next, the students start work on a mural for the restaurant's exterior -- a scene of kids flying kites on the beach. This one will be 17 feet tall and 100 feet wide.
The murals have actually turned into a summer job for the students. The group works on the paintings Monday through Friday afternoons, and students earn money based on the number of hours they put in. An official from Fleet Bank came to talk to the students about using their money wisely, and they all opened bank accounts.
That's because there is more to the Mural Arts Program than painting. "The kids are getting art training and art skills," Bodoff says, "but they're also getting life skills and job skills."
Learning and Growth
The Atlantic City skyline mural started out as a photograph of the scene, which was digitally output onto canvas in the exact size of the finished artwork. The students then repainted the scene directly on top of the photo.
The exterior mural will be much more complicated. It will require 44 panels, each four feet by eight feet. The original small-scale painting of the beach scene will be projected onto the panels in one-foot sections, and the students will trace the image onto the panels, outlining the edges of each different color. The panels will have tracings for distinct sections of color, much like a giant paint-by-number picture. The students will then paint each section in the appropriate color.
Painting murals, therefore, involves not only art, but math -- figuring out how to increase the size of the artwork to the right scale, and in the right proportions. "There are many ways in which people learn," Bodoff says. "A lot of the kids we work with might not be 'A' students, but they can learn math through our program."
In fact, Bodoff takes every opportunity to broaden the kids' horizons. "I try to expose them to as much as I can beyond MTV and gangsta rap," she says.
Of the 17 students who participated in the Mural Arts Program during the school year, 16 had never been to the Atlantic City Art Center on Garden Pier. So Bodoff arranged a field trip. Through a grant from the Atlantic City Education Foundation, the students visited an exhibit that featured artists from around Atlantic County. After lunch, the students painted at the Art Center, experimenting with the styles of some of the work that they saw.
Art and the Future
Twelve of the students who participated in the program during the school year spent time working on the IHOP murals: Kayla Abbott, Elizabeth Ceinowski, James Francis, Mark Menzie, Trung Nguyen, Loan Pham, Jennifer Presidente, Eduardo Alvarez, Rahim Gallagher, Stanley Noel, Marianne Ortiz and Janice Siu.
While the kids work, they talk. They talk about the presidential elections --some of them are old enough to vote. They talk about their families and music. And they talk about their futures.
Jennifer Presidente and Trung Nguyen have already graduated, and both see a role for art in their careers. Presidente will be attending the Philadelphia Art Institute to pursue a degree in fashion design. Nguyen will be attending the Institute of Technology in Mays Landing to learn auto body repair. Eventually, he wants to do custom artwork on cars.
Stanley Noel, Mark Menzie and Rahim Gallagher will all be a juniors in the fall. Noel is an immigrant from Haiti who has been in the United States for six years. He's already won a prize in a local art contest. Menzie is absolutely positive about his future -- he's going to be a fashion designer. He already has a notebook full of clever sketches, and sews dresses and accessories for his sister and friends.
Rahim Gallagher will also be a junior, and he's thinking about becoming a construction worker, an electrician or a firefighter. So what has he learned in the Mural Arts Program? "I've learned how to paint," he says. "And I've learned that if you all come together as one, you can get a lot done."
The Atlantic City Mural Arts program will benefit from Atlantic City Arts Alive, a fine arts and crafts show on Aug. 13-15. Nearly 50 artists are expected to exhibit on the Boardwalk, from Kennedy Plaza to Georgia Avenue. Hours are Fri., 12-6pm; Sat., 10am-7pm; and Sun., 10am-6pm.
Donna Andersen is a freelance writer based in Atlantic City. She can be reached via e-mail at donna@donnacopy.com, by phone at 348-0960 or on the web at donnacopy.com.
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Aching for Aiken
'American Idol' star Clay Aiken to thrill
'Claymates' at Caesars this weekend
By Sandy Posnak
A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR ago Clay Aiken was a relatively unknown entity pursuing a degree in special education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "I fell in love with working with individuals with autism," he said. But that was before the lanky, bespectacled, spiky-haired, 25-year-old Raleigh, North Carolina native captured second place on TV's second season of American Idol and first place in the hearts of millions of viewers.
Since then Aiken has enjoyed a year filled with fan mail, concerts, the release of his first single, "This Is the Night" and his debut chart-topping album, Measure of a Man. Earlier this month Aiken embarked on his first solo tour, a whirlwind event of more than 44 summer concerts that brings him to Caesars Atlantic City on Friday and Saturday nights.
Aiken finds it difficult to comprehend the fact that he has reached star status. "I don't think I'm a pessimist. I'm a realist. I try to allow myself to be as successful as I believe I can be. Yet, I prepare myself for failure ... It's possible that I could be back teaching within a few months," he commented recently.
Aiken never seriously considered music as a career, although he had been a member of the Raleigh Boys Choir and also appeared in high school productions of Oklahoma, The Sound Of Music and The Music Man. He says that he decided to audition for American Idol just to appease Diane Bubel, the mother of 13-year-old Michael Bubel, an autistic child that he worked with during his college days. She had heard him sing and loved his voice.
Aiken recalled that his American Idol audition got off to a rocky start and he came close to bowing out after he opened his act singing the wrong song. He intended to sing Heatwave's "Always and Forever" but when he opened his mouth, out came the theme song to TV's Perfect Strangers. Still, his voice impressed judges Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson and eventually earned him a berth on the show. Aiken kept advancing week-by-week singing pop classics such as "Somewhere Out There," "Solitaire," "Mack the Knife," "Unchained Melody" and "Bridge over Troubled Water." He credits his love of classic oldies to his mother, Faye Parker.
"I really like big ballads. I got pigeonholed for singing ballads on the show, but I alternated every single week. I did a ballad one week, an up-tempo the next, and no one realizes that I was very particular about that," Aiken said during an interview with Billboard.
The second American Idol series drew to a suspenseful close with only Aiken and Ruben Studdard left in the running. Clay eventually lost the top spot to velvety, teddy bear Studdard by just 134,000 votes out of a total of 24 million votes cast. But you can bet that the American Idol runner-up hasn't remained idle since that time. His Measure of a Man album went number one during its first week of release after selling 613,000 copies, and is currently racking up sales of close to three million. His debut single, "This Is the Night," was the best selling single of 2003, and his fan club members, who are dubbed "Claymates," number more than 3,000 people -- mostly women -- of all ages.
Andrea Mace, a 50-something-year-old Claymate from Philadelphia, describes Aiken as "One of those rare singers with a great voice who is also a good person." She noted that he created the Bubel/Aiken Foundation last year (with Diane Bubel) to raise funds to help people living with disabilities. "His voice is just enthralling," Mace told Atlantic City Weekly. "He can take a song that isn't even one that you cared about and make it one of your favorites."
Aiken says that his singing style hasn't changed since his American Idol days.
"There are certain things that I'm able to pull off, and certain things that I'm not able to pull off," he noted in a People Magazine interview. "I'm just not a Justin Timberlake. I'm not a dancer. I'm not a hip-hop person. I don't want to sing about things that are inappropriate. I'm not going to sing about sex and drugs because I don't feel like that's what my responsibility is."
Aching for more Aiken info?
Clay struck a sexy pose on the June, 2003 cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
Clay was born Clayton Holmes Grissom; his mother and biological father separated when he was one year old. Aiken is his mother's maiden name.
After making the top 12 on American Idol, the singer had his red hair cut and re-styled, his teeth whitened, and his glasses replaced with contact lenses. He also got outfitted with trendier clothing. It paid off!
Clay shares a five-bedroom home in Beverly Hills with Kimberly Locke, a platonic friend and former American Idol contestant.
Clay Aiken performs at Caesars Atlantic City on Friday, July 30 at 10pm, and Saturday, July 31 at 9pm. Tickets were priced at $75, but both performances are sold out. For additional information phone Ticketmaster at 1-800-736-1420 or Caesars box office at 1-800-677-SHOW.
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