Painting a brighter future

Zenaida Mendez

Pete Cartagena sat on the cement loading dock of the old acrylic lighting factory, a curious neighborhood boy at his side, attracted by all the excitement. “What's this?" the little boy asked, inspecting a small brush. “It's an artist's brush," the 15-year-old Cartagena replied in the assured tone of a veteran painter. Behind him, other youths dashed around, laying out paints, rollers, and pans. Despite his self-assuredness, Cartagena was as new to the art as any of the other four teens from Kilbarchan Paterson Residential Treatment Center who were getting ready to fill in a mural that they and Brazilian artist Renato Alarcao had designed over four months of classes.

Prior to Alarcao's art lessons, none of the boys had ever drawn or painted anything like this. The mural is in the El Roz building, on Elm Street near Route 80, which once housed a factory that made acrylic lighting fixtures and display cases. Working within an outline by Alarcao, the boys began filling in the fine details this week.

The project is sponsored by the Kids Corps program, which teaches life skills to youths ages 12-18 who are getting too old for the foster care system. The program, in turn, is the brainchild of the New Jersey Community Development Corp. agency, a non-profit organization that creates jobs and provides housing to urban residents. The young artists were teamed with four volunteers from the Americorps Vista program, which recruits college students and recent graduates to impart life skills to the Kids Corps participants. This day, the volunteers were doing the grunt work, hauling in the paint, rollers, and brushes for the boys.

"We link our resources with group homes where foster kids live," said Nicole Mandarano, program manager for the community development agency. “Kids Corps helps [the teens] find a job, and show them how to look, dress, and act [at the job]."

The mural is the third by a Kids Corps group. It features a large locomotive, one of Paterson's main exports in the 1800s, rimmed below by smaller drawings of the Great Falls, City Hall, and an early 20th century truck. Dan Fogerty, an Americorps Vista volunteer, said the project let the troubled teens feel good about themselves. “It builds their self-esteem; instills pride in them to know they're important enough to make something like this."
Pride was visible in the eager faces of the five youths as they grabbed brushes and went to work. Kilbarchan resident David Stalworth took the first stroke, applying the techniques Alarcao taught in class. Cartagena described the art classes with the Brazilian artist as the olive branch not many are willing to extend.

"I don't think there are a lot of people out there keeping kids out of trouble ... out of gangs, away from drugs," Cartagena said. Through the Kids program, “you paint, you draw, you get motivated to do well here."

Alarcao was contacted by Mandarano to teach the class. The Brazilian was available because, since September, he has been attending a master's of fine arts program at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Alarcao received his undergraduate degree at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in graphic arts. He plans to teach art in Brazil, where he is best known for illustrating the children's books of author Julio Braz.

In his concept, Alarcao wanted the boys to depict positive things about life in Paterson, not street toughs perpetuating the imagery of drugs and guns – scenes the urban youths know all too well. “I wanted to show them a different way of depicting reality. They were too focused on the bad side of life," said Alarcao. He says he and the boys had some creative differences when the art classes began. Alarcao challenged them to draw historical images, but the boys had their own ideas on modern themes. “I tried to show them how to draw the locomotive," he recalled, but the boys dismissed the idea. “They said it was too easy." But when they had to show their stuff, Alarcao recalls, laughing, “They couldn't do it."

But he also remembers that when they finally learned how to draw it, the boys really got into it. In return, Alarcao, who wanted to blend modern influences with historical images, let the boys use hip-hop style balloon lettering in the mural. In the end, he realized an artistic compromise was called for: “They don't have many options [in life]. I didn't want to force them to do anything they didn't want to do."