“Wake Up” is a mural created, in the summer of 2024, for the community in Osgood Park, directed by Andres Duarte (NXN) and guest artist Irma Caicedo (ERRE) in collaboration with teens from the Mayor's Summer Youth Jobs Program. Featured teen artists are, Brenda, Ray, Darragh, and Cori.
The mural is called “Wake Up” because it is a call to the community at large from the younger generation to encourage us all to reduce our ecological footprint. The process of deciding the subject of the mural involved a meeting with the immediate community for input around the proposed themes by local residents. They chose “Nature and Community”, and from there the teens identified their personal expositions of the principal theme of the design.
They also did outreach with flyers in the community for further input on the mural before it was completed. Over the course of four weeks the group made trips to key points around the city to identify those themes from different perspectives. Visiting parks, the Aquarium, and art museums, the teens had the opportunity to sketch and present their viewpoints artistically, and to decide on the main aesthetic elements they would focus on for the final piece. The teens chose to share a message that in a world full of plastic there is still a hope to protect and save our environment, if we take action and Wake Up to the truth of what is happening
around us.
The primary technique used in this mural 
is stencil, a painting and street art style which was shared with the teens during the course of the program in studio days. Students also practiced free hand, using spray paint and acrylic latex paint.
The project culminated with a community event where we presented the mural and the participating artists to the community, and provided attendees with the opportunity to try out the stencil techniques used in the mural. There were stencils, t-shirts, spray paints, and bleach available for people to represent their own interpretation of Wake Up with wearable art. The lead artists also created a commemorative poster with the memories of the process, which community members were invited to take home as a souvenir of the event.
Follow Andres Duarte (NXN) and artist Irma Caicedo (ERRE)
More information on the mural, visit here!
