Welcome House 101: Betsy Casanas and Pedro Ospina's mural story, Tuesday, October 6

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Welcome House 101: Betsy Casanas and Pedro Ospina's mural story, Tuesday, October 6

POSTED: Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 7:46 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Arts Events Welcome House 101

In conjunction with Design Philadelphia (which we covered in last week's City Paper), First Person Arts and InLiquid present the Welcome House, a 10-foot cube in which artists of all stripes settle in for a day and create. It's open-ended, inventive and often pretty wacky (we're talking knit-yourself-into-a-cocoon wacky). Our intrepid reporter Cristina Perachio will be swinging by the House all week, observing, taking photos and maybe ' just maybe ' getting in on the action herself.

Photo | Cristina Perachio

By 5 p.m. Tuesday evening, the Welcome House in LOVE Park is transformed into an art studio and gallery. Local students from Charter High School for Art and Design (CHAD) worked with Betsy Casanas and Pedro Ospina, co-founders of Semilla Arts Initiative. Semilla is a grassroots enterprise that uses art as a way to achieve social change in their community.

The students used markers, colored pencils and charcoal to create murals that hung on the surface of the cube and cutouts that sat in front of the cube. Draped across the front of the cube is a large mural that looks a bit like a colorful, flowered quilt; another hangs down the back of the cube, cut in a long thinner strip and painted with leaves in bright fall oranges, greens and yellows. On the right side, there is a cutout drawing of a paper doll with doodles of birds, hearts, flowers and feathers drawn all over her in royal blues and bright pinks alongside a happy but grizzled old man drawn in charcoal on brown paper.

Photo | Cristina Perachio

The most interesting pieces stand upright on the ground in front of the cube, three portraits sketched in charcoal on stark white paper. The faces have heavy, expressive eyes, and the creases in their faces are so lifelike, it seems that at any moment the expressions could shift.

By the end of this long day, the students mill around the cube, putting the finishing touches on some of their work while passers-by take the time to inspect the images up close.' There are no disparaging Post-Its or angry threats at the artists occupying the residency today, and I begin to see why this cube was constructed in the first place.

joel ramos

Posted 2010-06-08 22:08:02

hola como estas me encantaron tus dibujos te encontre por casualidad te quiero mucho tu prima Aly Casanas

Posted by Cristina Perachio @ 7:46 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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