The
Osmosis Education Mentoring Initiative™ Express YourSelf-Portrait
is designed to encourage young people to follow positive career paths
in art and design. The Express YourSelf-Portrait program creates self-esteem
by having kids paint a portrait of themselves with the assistance of a
professional designer or artist. Osmosis design and art professionals
will work one-on-one with children to help each of them use the basic
principles of design, such as color, line and shape, to create a large-scale
self-portrait. We use the facilities of the Chicago Public Library to
encourage reading as well as artistic expression. The children, parents
and volunteers read positive, affirming literature before and during the
portrait painting. Kids are able to use this art medium to learn more
about themselves. It’s an opportunity for them to explore their
self concepts in a unique and expressive way. For each of them, the artwork
is a reflection of his or her own self-image.” This introduces kids
to creative people of color while reinforcing the possibility of the children
having a career in the arts. Kids are encouraged to give the portraits
titles and to take the portraits home when complete or have them displayed
at the library in the communities in which they live.
