Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Today we gto tons of printing done. Al we have to do is print three more blue robots on the front of the shirts and print the words on the shirt. Everything was completed on time and we even got a twenty minute break because we didn't have enough room the hang the wet shirts. After the break we finished printing the red robots with hearts on the front of the shirts. Overall today was a great day everyone was on task and completed everything that we were assigned.


Danielle Tribble

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Today, we had to finish the screen printing for the remote control, and also the blue robot. i think we did better working this time, more comunication, and good results.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Today we finished putting the remote on the back of the shirts and started to transfer the red robots on the from of the shirts with the hearts. Everyone stayed focused and was doing what needed to be done. Although we aren't finished we got really far with the printing.






<3Danielle Tribble<3

Monday, November 9, 2009

Today we finished the prep for the screen making and the screen printing proccess. and we also set up eye hooks to hang the t-shirts after we print them.




Brandon New

Friday, October 30, 2009

Thursday 29,2009

Yesturday we all sat at the table to make the final copies of the drawings to transport them to screans. Everyone had a different tasks and for those who finished their tasks early they had to come up with places where we could hang up the shirts. A few ideas were that we could make the work room look like a factory with lines going all through the room another idea was that we could hang the shirts all over the walls that way they want be in the way of others working. Thomas and Frank helped finish moving the rest of the games out of the room so that we could have a new work room. This week was very hetic.

Danielle Tribble

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Performance Evaluations Started

Hello. My name is Thomas. Throughout the program I have learned many skills. One being media literacy, and another how to present to a board of members. The skills I’ve learned about media literacy are logo design, the process of professional research, and how to make an idea into a practical layout to be presented.
Thomas – DIAL

Here at ArtWorks programs I learned a lot of different and valuable things. At the beginning I was a little deterred about meeting new people. But after a month in the program everyone has become a new friend. The things I learned was how to make a sale, even if the idea isn’t all that good. Speakers came in the beginning and talked about how gang violence can ruin someone’s life. And I also learned a lot of things about gangs that I didn’t even know about.
Frank – Rufus King

I have learned so far , how to ask questions when I need to. I also learned to get along with people who are different than you. I also learned what to do if you are nervous when you are presenting something. Something that I also learned is how to be more social. Finally I learned responsibility.
Josh – West Allis Central

So far I have learned many things, the best thing that I have accomplished more after is how to communicate a little more with my peers. How to speak more and say what I think of. I got to know more about other employees. So now I feel more comfortable around them. The thing I have learned is how to make a message out and make it be seen. How to make the ideas expand it and make it come together.
Jesus – Supar H.S.


The biggest learning experience that I have had is talking to people I have never seen before. I figured out that I can take and answer their questions pretty fine. Another thing that I had to deal with is that I have to take every idea that my customer has and put in the design and always tell them and give them what they want to hear.
Nicole – Pius XI

I learned a lot from the event that happened today. I learned that the best work is not always good work. I learned that our work may need some improvement. I had learned a lot more through the last couple of weeks. I learned that everyone is different from one another. I learned a new way of drawing. I also learned how to do team work.
Desmond – Rufus King

Over these couple of weeks I’ve been here I learned a lot. What I learned was, how important it is to not be in a gang. When I first came to ArtWorks I didn’t know anything about gangs but now now I know a lot of different things about a lot of different gangs. I also learned different techniques like how to put different ideas together.
Brandon – Milwaukee School of Entrepreneurship.

I have learned that people have different opinions and that evaluations are nothing that you would expect, especially when you’re being told what you need to improve on and what you are good at.
Nicole – Riverside

Thursday, October 22, 2009

9th Session

Today we split up in to groups again to come up a new design for an anti-gang violence t-shirt. We talked about our ideas on the what the design was going to be about and how it was going to look before we did the final draft. So far we have used problem solving, creativity, and collaboration employment skills by working together to come up with t shirt ideas.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

8th session

Today we used creative thinking skills and begain to create t shirt designs. So we did rough ideas before making the actual t shirt layouts.We also finished our t shirt designs that we started yesterday.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Session 7

Today we got in groups and brained stormed some t-shirt designs. We split up into two teams. First we figured out a slogan then we rough sketched a drawing. After we finished with our slogans and drawings, both groups got together and shared their designs. We gave each other productive criticism so we can improve and make our designs better.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Sixth session

During work today we finished listening to eachothers music, and sat in peace circle and talked about various gang relateent topics, then we did a self tought paper on what we learned about gangs so far.We also we also went over paychecks and how to cash them.


Thomas and Danielle

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Cops vs Gangs

Today we had lots and lots of fun. We had a vister, Officer Harris, who was really intresting. We talked about how some gangs arent really gangs. Most of them just have the title. But we did talk about the police force as well and how they want us to become a force in are community. So lets try to become one.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

4th session

Today our anti-gang violence program met Torry Johnson. He came and talked about his life,got some insight on gang violence and his life experience in the "penitentiary." His speech motivated me and made me see another side of an individual who joins a gang and how life was incarcerated. It was so fun and educational!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

First Week

This week apprentice youth met for the first time. We met three times this week.

On Day One students underwent an orientation outlining the expectations for the program.

On Day Two we were able to get some art supplies out of the cabinet. They each created a drawing that represented them and their artistic style. A speaker also came in on Day Two: Rodney Campbell. He spoke with the youth about what made him want to affiliate with a Milwaukee gang when he was younger, and what made I'm leave the gang. He served as an open book for the youth apprentices allowing them to ask any question they wanted and he answered openly and honestly. By the end of the night the youth apprentice were more open with their own gang knowledge and the group became more open to each other.

Day Three: Apprentices researched a particular subject involving gangs. Many chose to gather information on particular gangs and there history while other researched topics like girl gangs and Milwaukee statistics. Each person then shared their information with the group. We went over a few design element and the youth created drawing based on what they heard.

Overall this week was a very positive one the group of young people are strengthening their knowledge of gang violence as well as getting more comfortable with one another.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Congratulations to our newest Apprentices!

Anti-Gang Violence T-Shirt Campaign with Lead Artist Katie Van Velzer:

  • Nicole, PIUS H.S.
  • Tyretha, Travis Academy
  • Desmond, Rufus King H.S.
  • Joshua, West Allis Central H.S.
  • Brandon, Milwaukee School of Entrepreneurship
  • Jesus, SUPAR H.S.
  • Danielle, Riverside H.S.
  • Thomas, DIAL H.S.
  • Frank, Rufus King H.S.

Work starts Tuesday, October 6th!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Welcome to the Anti-Gang Violence T-shirt Campaign Program!















Under the direction of Lead Artist Katie Van Velzer, and in collaboration with Safe & Sound, Inc. and WCS-Project Excel, Apprentice Artists will work together to design and produce a “line” of T-shirts, whose messages/themes reflect a commitment to reducing gang participation in our communities & the illegal activities associated with it.

Apprentices will work under the guidance of the Lead Artist to: Learn from experts about recurring themes related to gang participation, learn screen printing techniques, brainstorm t-shirt design ideas, meet with organization clients & customers to “pitch” design ideas, and then make the commissioned designs a reality by together producing a minimum of 200 t-shirts for the Safe & Sound organization.