Tonight was the first night of the Young Adult Action Society that I didn't lead the program. I was lucky enough to find two guests who presented very different programs for Black History Month including our first-ever guest presenter, Antoinette Cauley. She did a fantastic presentation about her work and work that inspires her, mostly focusing on an upcoming black artist Kehinde Wiley.
Kehinde Wiley did Obama's presidential portrait, and has been on the rise in the art world for quite a while. Antoinette explained that he usually paints portraits of people with a bold floral background. His art is unique because he brings the bold, noticeable background into the foreground, instead of letting your eye focus only on the subject of the portrait.
After the 20-ish minute presentation and a quick Q&A, the youth were turned loose at a table of art supplies to create their own Kehinde Wiley-esque portrait! Their subjects were people or other living things (we had one cat and one human with their entire upper half covered by flowers) from magazines, and then use collage, pastels, and acrylic paint to make their backgrounds.
Here are some pictures I snapped of Antoinette teaching and the youth working on their art...
And here are the amazing finished products displayed in our library entryway along with info about the program.
Antoinette was a fantastic guest and I'd have her back any time!
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