Summer 2022 M-TAC Gallery

TeenTix works in collaboration with The Colorization Collective, a teen-led organization which promotes diversity in the arts, to present the M-TAC program.

The Spring 2022 M-TAC Cohort focused on visual art and writing. The visual art cohort was taught by mentors Isip Xin, Tatiana Garmendia, Ettie Wahl. The writing cohort was taught by mentor Naa Akua.

Digital Visual Cohort with Isip Xin

Adrien

Adrien is a digital artist based in Edmonds who aspires to work in the film industry. She does digital illustrations and animations with a simple art style that draws from the movement of western animation and the strokes of Miyazaki, whose work she grew up with.

She is currently working on the pilot of The Only Chicken Boy, an animated series centering a Southeast Asian American family and the struggles of being different and unseen. The stories she tells through art are inspired by her own experiences as a Filipino American and her desire to represent the largely unseen culture she came from. She has done art exhibitions for the International Baccalaureate art program and for the Colorization Collective’s showcase at the A/NT Gallery at the Seattle Center.
 

Sally Hoy

Sally Hoy is a Seattle-based Chinese American Artist/Designer who specializes in narrative illustration centered around pop culture. She works in both traditional and digital media, currently exploring graphic novel design. She uses the internet as her main inspiration, pulling references from popular media and forming unique ways of storytelling. Her work consists of a mix of parodies and original pieces relating to life of the current day and age.

Artist Statement

My art likes to be fun and fantastical, creating worlds that form from the internet, with references to memes, famous icons and much more random wacky stuff that’s unexpected. I create what is around me. I grew up in the age of the internet which influenced me to see the world through rainbow lenses and to communicate my thoughts into stories entertaining and educating other people. I am always open to new ideas which fuel my imagination with fun and joy. The world we live in is big and beautiful and should be shared with everyone.

Naomi Huang

Naomi Huang is a 17 year old Seattle-based visual artist who uses both digital and traditional art mediums. Her work utilizes a variety of mediums and often explores themes of self, identity, and culture. Aside from illustration, she also has an interest in graphic design.

Artist Statement: Art has always been a constant in my life, and has been something I've relied on to express personal experiences, feelings, passions, and creativity. I draw inspiration from many sources, but much of my art is influenced by my Chinese-Malaysian heritage and culture.

Fork Whiteley (UnholyFork) had been using their art as comfort throughout the harsh quarantine times and has been creating digital art pieces since then. They haven’t been exposed to any ‘real’ digital art equipment because they simply do everything on their phone. Fork’s art was created to make the people who view it feel safe and worry-free. They have not gotten far in making artwork however their most significant accomplishment is making art for their school’s weekly newsletter.

Physical Visual Arts cohort with Tatiana Garmendia

Olivia Zhang

I’m Olivia Zhang, an interdisciplinary artist who loves experimenting with colors, textures, and patterns while working in a variety of mediums, from sculpture to digital art. One theme that is interwoven through many of my artworks is climate change: How can we build a more sustainable world? The piece that I created during this mentorship reflects red tide: the harmful blooms of algae that negatively impact marine life and ecosystems, turning water red. I view art as an incredible way to connect and spread awareness about important topics like sustainability.

Asma Al-Masyabi

Asma Al-Masyabi is a visual artist, poet, and writer currently residing in Colorado. In the summer of 2019, she found the strength to pick up a pencil and declare herself an artist, and through hard work and perseverance, she has been one ever since. Asma creates art as a way to interpret emotions through unique visuals. She finds herself drawn to beauty and, as such, tries to include it in all her pieces. Asma is now a student at the Community College of Denver working towards an Associates of Arts degree, and, hopefully, a life filled with art.

Hania Zubair Elahi

Hania is an aspiring architect and visual artist who has been into art for as long as she can remember. She currently resides in Lahore, Pakistan, and is in her last year of school. She enjoys making 3-d art and her favourite medium to work in is moulding and casting. She enjoys playing badminton, and volleyball and is a great swimmer. Other than that she's also a great cook, who in her free time tries replicating TASTY's recipes. Fun fact: She absolutely loves Turkish Shows and F1, which is a very interesting combination.

Alyn Vivar Perez

Visual Arts Cohort with Ettie Wahl

Monique Enriquez

Monique Enriquez is a Mexican- American interdisciplinary artist based in Seattle, Washington. She has collaborated with musicians and clubs on merchandise and branding, utilizing bold graphics and surrealist expression. Independently, she will be featured in Seattle’s A/NT Gallery by next to the space needle August 10-28, 2022, as part of the Colorization Collective, and will be in TeenTix’s 2023 youth featured artists.

Monique advocates for diversity within the arts community, and is currently working under the Colorization Collective as a part of the 2022 Mentorship for Teen Artists of Color Cohort. Additionally, she is part of the Seattle Architecture Foundation, helping coordinate and curate the 2022 Seattle Architecture Exhibit, *Junction.*

Nicole (Jayleen) Villamil

Hello, I am Jayleen, and I am an Colombian-American artist that focuses on multi media forms like photography, paintings, and theatre. I create vibrant pieces that revolve around my lived experience with common themes of fear of time. I generally focus on portraiture and the abstract using forms of mixed media. I am working on a series that focuses on the creation of art and breaking down that process into three forms which was also inspired by a play called Unraveled that I was in early June.

Hadil Owda

Hadil is a middle eastern artist who enjoys experimenting different materials and mediums, from clay to watercolors. She uses art to communicate her feelings and point out social issues she faces such as mental health problems. In her last work, Hadil tried to illustrate how she feels while doing ceramics; Not being able to control her hands and make them do what she exactly wants has been stressful. Giving a ultimate freedom to her hands was the goal while drawing this piece. This art piece was influenced by Egon schiele.

Treesha Swami

Treesha Swami is an Indian artist based in Dubai who loves to bring out her appreciation for the elements of nature, especially the sky, through her artworks. Most of the colors used in her artwork carry symbolic meaning and she attempts to paint a story or experience with the subject of her artwork. She likes to draw skylines and cityscapes as well as enjoys using acrylic paints in combination with charcoal pencil on canvas. Knife painting is a technique which excites her. Treesha has an eye for different art textures and crazy color palettes.
Treesha has attended several art classes, since she was 7-years old, and they have helped her master various art skills. She successfully completed the Norwich University of the Arts, UK Summer School in 2020 which included a series of creative art and design workshops from creating 3D characters, designing book covers to making typography art and maquettes. Treesha has completed an Art Mentorship program under Ettie Wahl and Colorization Collective.

Writing Cohort with Naa Akua

Sarah Khan

What My Brain Hungers to Know

By Sarah Khan

My brain hungers to know how my lineage, specifically the women that came before me, impacted my being. I want to know what they did not have access to that I do, or the stuff they wish they could do that I can do. I want to know what I can accomplish to avenge them, in a way, while still serving my own purpose and desires. I want to know how I can move past feeling sorry for them and instead let the anger and loss push me towards greatness. I want to know how my sacrifices relate to theirs.

During the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, an estimated 3 million people were killed, making it the largest genocide since the Holocaust during WWII. It occurred during a war between Pakistan’s rule and Bangladesh’s independence. Pakistan’s religious leaders declared Bengali women as gonimoter maal, meaning public property. As of today, the impact that this tragic event had on Bengali women often remains undiscussed. I am determined to inform my own community of these tragedies. But the real storytellers are the survivors of this genocide, the ones that’ve felt their fear rise as the sun set. Although I am safe in New York with the height to reach new things, I often reflect on what would’ve been different if this pain was never brought upon my people.

All I've ever known is survival. I don’t think of my being as brave.. The pain that these rape camps brought to me and 200 thousand women broke me. We would lay like corpses, unless the soldiers wanted to use us as shields.

I don’t want to absorb the pain in the midst of my joy. It is a blessing to have come from a place of survival to livelihood, and to have educated children in a safe, full home. It just disappoints me when I see these Americans take what they have for granted. Did they ever have to listen to the ticking of a poorly operating clock, wondering if the time stopped again? I see my daughter pull out her phone to check the time she has before class starts, wondering why this was taken away from me.

Sarah S. Khan is a Bengali-American creative from New York. She has an everlasting love for studio art, poetry, and fashion. She is motivated to make space for her being in places she often felt alienated through her artistic expression. Through the construction of her outfits, she ensures that her authenticity and unapologetic presence is known. In her poetry and visual art, Sarah often honors her female lineage through grief and through indirect vengeance. What started off as pouring feelings into words and shapes, Sarah hopes to use her art as an outlet for advocacy as well. Sarah has also toggled with graphic design here and there, and was a graphic designer of the Tech Crew club during her sophomore year of highschool. She has taken many art courses at the Young Women’s Leadership School in Astoria, including filmmaking, printmaking, and fiber arts. She fell in love with spoken word, specifically, in 11th grade English, after being asked relentlessly to join the class on Zoom. In 2022, she read aloud I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou at her graduation. Although her passion for poetry is unlike her passion for drawing and painting, in which it is newfound, she hopes to develop her creative writing through the Colorization Collective’s Teen Artists of Color mentorship. When not creating, Sarah dedicates much time to rock climbing, skincare, and mindfulness. Currently, she is attending the Zicklin School of Business.

Malaika Alilaw

The First Body

By Malaika Alilaw

From my calculations, the murders started happening during orientation week. I didn’t see it. Not that one. It’s the only time that makes sense. But how could I not see it? That doesn’t matter. The body was found August 31st by a group of college freshmen on their way to class. The students left Peterson dorms at 8:27am according to security footage, on their way to a 9 am. They went up 15th street towards 2nd avenue. While passing a gate and scaffolding connected to an office building on the corner, a putrid stench stopped the group immediately. This foul smell stunned the group before being met with a dark pool of blood. Fresh enough for everyone to know this was recent but old enough to know it was too late. Behind the gate lay a body split in half. A mess pile of the body’s abdomen leaking out of the torso.

The crowd that formed was outrageous. Over 300 students from both Peterson and The One dorms crowded around the gate completely blocking 15th. It took over an hour for police to control the crowd and tend to the body. No one went to class out of fear or just pure shock. I went to The One café with my friends after I got the news. We grabbed grape sodas and sat at the front window to watch the chaos. 90 calories. Oh come on Hero someone died and all you can think about is those 90 calories? Olly was a mess. She lives in Peterson so she automatically thought of the worst. Z and I were quiet. He almost always is when he doesn’t know much information about a topic. Kinder was coping by cracking jokes. Most were very crude if you can imagine. We are talking about a dead body here. I think I was quiet because truly what is there to say? At the time, very few knew the condition of the body and everyone figured it was a homeless person. This neighborhood isn’t the safest with assaults happening near the train and bus stops all the time. Especially on 14th and 1st. I wasn’t too surprised when the crimes began to be more serious.

The café started to fill with other students just learning the news. I’m trying to be sensitive to the loss of life here but these people are full of shit. Girls come in crying talking about how the victim was their best friend or the people who put on the dramatics trying to make the situation about them. This was a gnarly incident, one where parents could rightfully pull their kids out of The Seminary: I had to convince my grandma for a week to let me stay. Not only that but the people who were able to see the body decided to make this a social media exhibit. During this entire year, I decided to completely delete social media. I didn’t have too much hope since no one really censors anything on the internet anymore, but for some reason I expected some sort of empathy for the situation.

Malaika Alilaw, 19, is a Black college freshman from Atlanta, GA. If she’s not rewatching Avatar the Last Airbender, you can find her on astrology tik tok, building her skincare collection, or constantly changing her hairstyle. Malaika hopes to make it a practice for creative spaces to normalize conversations surrounding race, culture, and societal issues; domestic and international. She uses her social media accounts to cultivate a supportive community that encourages learning, self-love, and uplifts Black voices. With hopes of being a Fashion Journalist, her goal is to better integrate social and environmental activism into that space. As a capricorn sun, libra moon and virgo rising, Malaika is a creative free-spirit with a sarcastic sense of humor.

Makeda Armstrong

Burning Candle

By Makeda Armstrong

Mrs. Perrier sits at her vanity staring deeply into the pores of her face. “Where did the time go”. Her blush is bruised, her shine barely dim, the wrinkles on her forehead squeeze together like an accordion. She used to be a star, men would flock to her as she ruptured like a firecracker. Bright and hot giving everyone a show. But where did the time go? Perhaps time is taking a vacation, it cant stay along forever, soon people won't be lining out the door, the suitors will stop calling. The creams will stop working. She looks at the candlestick on her dresser, its wax pooling at the basin of the holder, “what mockery” she thought, picking up her silk nightgown and rushing over to the candle, blowing it out with a whizzy hiss. But the flame doesn't stop, she goes to the bathroom and sprinkles it with water. But the flame doesn't stop. She stomps in out with her foot, but the flame doesn't stop. With a chime from her grandfather clock the candle creates a slick puddle on the floor, staring into the cooling wax she can see what she always wanted to see, what everyone else sees. The young girl she always thought she'd be.

Hello my name is Makeda Armstrong, I am a digital artist and hobbyist writer based in New York City. I have been drawing digitally for 7+ years and have made a geometric style for myself. Some of my inspirations are cubism, video games, and retro aesthetics. I believe my art is important in showcasing my need to tell a story with images, and grabbing someone with a theme or message. Currently I am working on publishing my first children's book. If enjoy my work, you can follow me on Instagram @dairyfreepickles.