How My Art Ended up In Undocu Resource centers across the country
“what would the world be like if we affirmed the experiences of undocumented students”
How did WE get here
With all great stories, it always starts on Twitter. One fall day NASPA Undocu KC Tweeted out that they were looking for immigrant artists to make an art piece for their annual member gifts. A friend and mutual sent me the tweet.
I rushed to put down a reply saying who I was and what I do, with a follow-up direct message to my portfolio and Instagram.
From there the rest is history. The organization reached out and said I fit exactly what they were looking for and we set up a meeting for the following day!
In less than two days we had a contract signed and ready to go!
Big Takeaway: Be ready to act on any lead that comes your way. You can always say no if it doesn't fit
The Brief
Create an art print to be displayed in uncdcou resource centers or equivalent that allows us to reflect, ask questions and build a community around undocumented students and staff.
Inspiration and Ideation
The first source of inspiration for this was my own experience as an undocumented student navigating the journey of higher education. Here I looked at the professional staff and faculty that helped me along this path. A couple of questions I asked myself.
What would be empowering?
What would someone want to proudly display on their walls?
What kinds of questions leave an impact on people's hearts?
The second biggest source of inspiration for this piece was the publication “I’m Here to Fight Along With You”: Undocumented Student Resource Centers Creating Possibilities co-written by Jesus Cisneros, Diana Valdivia, Alonso R. Reyna Rivarola, and Felecia Russell.
Without getting too into the details of the piece, these writers looked at the support and tools used by undocu resource centers across the country in order to.
Ask better questions
Support undocumented students better
and better support students future-forward.
This publication was the fuel that drove the work forward and gave me the inspiration I needed. The main takeaway and the titular question of the piece was
“What would the world be like if we affirmed the experiences of undocumented students”
Big Takeaway: Be intentional about your inspiration and the inspiration will work for you.
Sketches, Concepts, the Final art.
While we did look at three different options for the piece the other two won't be shown as I don't like to publish unselected work.
The one option that was chosen was the reflective piece. The window serves as a point of reflection and questioning in the same way we would look out the window in a beautiful landscape or on vacation.
The small text at the bottom is the central question we are reflecting on as we look out onto the land. The land, water, light, and mountains is central to the stories we share as immigrants and allies. We are connected by the land and the rivers we traverse. It connects our families and holds the heritage of who we are and who we will be.
Finalization and Sending
The last step was sending this out to 100 NASPA Undocu KC Members. This did take a while as I didn't have a label printer at the time but fear not we did get through it and made some amazing content for Tikok because of it.
It felt incredibly surreal to think that my art was about to be sent out to 100+ people across the US.
A little piece of me was about to enter, institutions, homes, and educational centers. A little piece of me will ring true and inspiring to future support staff, educators and students. For that, I cannot put a value on the work done here.
For that, I am incredibly thankful.
Special Thanks
A special thanks to Alonso R. Reyna Rivarola for their guidance and support throughout the entire way! A huge thank you to NASPA for their support and trust.
As always Peace, Love and YAMZ aka Brayan
