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I'm so excited to work with the super rad students at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts.
I'm hoping to paint the roof of the Permaculture center around the block on Atlantic Avenue, we're still working out the details but one way or another come May 19th it's ON!!
Here's the press release:

Painting the Summer Fantastic with Sofia Maldonado and Molly Dilworth
Brooklyn Artists announce art projects celebrating Bklyn_Youth

From the People’s Republic of Brooklyn, April 8, 2010 – Artists Sofia Maldonado and Molly Dilworth have teamed up with The SPARK Program to lead all-day workshops culminating in a large scale painting projects that celebrate the achievements of students enrolled in The SPARK Rise Above drug prevention and youth development programs at The Brooklyn High School of the Arts.

Molly Dilworth is a Brooklyn-based painter who, since earning her MFA from NYU in 2003, has exhibited her large scale works nationally and internationally. In October 2009 she created a rooftop painting for Google Earth Paintings for Satellites/547 West 27th for the exhibition Architecturally at the Hendershot Gallery.

Says Molly of her own process: “All my work begins a series of rules derived from existing conditions. I have an inclination to work with materials that have had an obvious life before I use them; it’s a challenge and a pleasure to make something from nothing. In the last year my practice has grown out of the studio in the form of large-scale rooftop paintings for Google Earth. This project uses materials from the waste stream (discarded house paint) to mark a physical presence in digital space. My work is generally concerned with human perception of current conditions; the Paintings for Satellites are specifically concerned with the effects of the digital on our physical bodies.”

Sofia Maldonado is a mural painter with an interdisciplinary art practice that incorporates her admiration of the Caribbean landscape, themes of chaos and urban decay and abandonment, fashion trends and the Latina female aesthetic with various elements of street culture. Sofia earned a BA in art and design at the La Escuela de Artes Plasticas and her MFA at The Pratt Institute. Her solo show, opens on June 17 at The Magnan Metz Gallery in NYC.

Caught in the public eye amidst controversy over her recent Times Square mural, she says, “…the much-debated 42nd Street Project mural is not meant to represent all Latina and Black women – after all, we are very diverse. Although I have been working with this female imagery for about 10 years, this is the first they have caused such a debate. As an art piece, I think it has accomplished its purpose: to establish a dialogue among its spectators.
The SPARK Program provides drug and violence prevention programs to Brooklyn's public high schools. By collaborating with school staff, parents, community-based organizations, and cultural institutions to provide school-based programs that target risk-factors and bolster individual strengths, SPARK Drug Prevention Programs reduce the likelihood of teenage involvement in drug use and other health-risky behaviors.

We help teenagers build and practice the social and other skills they need to keep them on a positive developmental trajectory. SPARK actively engages teens in meaningful supervised and structured projects--activities like community service clubs, after-school recreational, academic skills building, and creative clubs. Those are just some ways that we help students build stronger attachment bonds to adults within their schools and their communities.

This project was conceived to celebrate the achievements of students from the SPARK_BklynYouth program at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts whose members have been hard at work with their tutors from NY Cares preparing for the SAT college admissions examination, engaged in community service projects with the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, and leading their peers in achieving excellence by sharing their positive pro-youth message throughout the People’s Republic of Brooklyn.

These projects will be a great way to recognize the kids’ efforts and to let them know that their families, community and schools are behind them, and to bring people together in the spirit of “SPARKing” the beginning an ongoing commitment to getting Brooklyn’s Youth what they need to succeed throughout the year.
Dates are as follows:
Sofia Maldonado’s all-day mural - Saturday April 24, 2010 (9am-5pm).
Molly Dilworth’s workshop - May 19, 20, 21 (4:30-6:30) and on Saturday May 22, 2010 (9am-5pm).
Contact:
Jerry Otero MA CASAC
SPARK_BklynYouth
345 Dean Street rm. 250
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718-664-7420
jotero@brooklynartshs.org www.twitter.com/SPARK_BklynArts