Afterschool program taps childrens' artistic spirits

Afterschool program taps childrens’ artistic spirits

The Desert Sun, February 13, 2007
By Nelsy Rodriguez

Water spilled from the top of the double-layer fountain, soaking colorful, tiled flowers that a group of children placed there as if they were decorating a cake.

They laughed as they reached through spurts of water, dropping more petaled pieces in the spray much like dropping pennies into a fountain. They smiled as the colors of the stained clay mingled with other tiles to create art. Cemented along the base of the fountain are more floral tiles in vibrant shades. And along the edge where a neighbor of Las Flores Apartments in Coachella might stop to dip a finger, lay even more tiles.

“It’s gonna be prettier,” said 9-year-old Sonia Gallardo, her black, glossy hair and pink-glittered skin shimmering in the sun. “You can see it as a wave of flowers.”

Taya Kashuba Gray,
The Desert Sun
Junior Nuñez, 6, looks for his handmade tiles on the fountain at the Las Flores Apartments in Coachella on Monday. The project gave children the opportunity to create artwork for their apartment complex.

A group of 24 kids, who live at the Avenue 51 complex, met during the fall of 2006 to create cement tiles of flowers through an Indio S.C.R.A.P. Gallery and LINC Cares Housing after-school program.

Artist and project coordinator, Jennifer Johnson, lead the kids through floral and faunal exploration, discussing the desert’s unique species, and guided them as they created hundreds of flower-like tiles in a myriad of varieties. No two flowers looked alike: tiles were made to resemble a shell, a sunny-side-up egg, an Aztec calendar, a cookie-cutter and a starfish.

“It’s so great,” Johnson said, as the kids picked through their creations. “We could have an arts center in the Coachella Valley the likes of which no one has seen if we just harnessed the power of these kids.”

Return to Index