Artist Statement
Jessica Fuentes is a painter/muralist.
Educational Background
She has a BFA in Studio Art/Art Education from Manhattanville College and an MA in Art Education from the College of New Rochelle. Fuentes is currently an art teacher at a special education high school in Yonkers, NY.
Teaching Artist Experience
Jessica Fuentes has taught artist residency programs and special workshops at Westhab-Coachman, Elm Street, and School 13, Calcagno Homes, and Performing Arts Center-SUNY Purchase. At School 13, she taught printmaking, color theory and the history of pop art, and students created prints and pop art portraits. Jessica led 6th and 7th graders in a study on Jacob Laurence's migration series and helped students use watercolor to create collaborative mosaic reproductions of a Jacob Lawrence painting while learning proportion and grid drawing. 4th, 7th and 8th graders were introduced to Spanish painters and their works of art; they then created their own artwork based on these artists' styles. During an artist residency at Elm Street, students aged 10-18 learned about the gray scale and how to decoupage while creating a collage of the Statue of Liberty with newspaper. At Calcagno Homes, children aged 6-12 learned about Keith Haring, his painting techniques and the use of semiotics in artwork, and collaborated to paint a mural together.
