During this camp, students will learn to draw with various techniques, using lines and shapes, geometry, typography, landscape, and abstraction. Students will become confident expressing themselves freely through drawing and mixed media. At the end of the workshop, students will create a large canvas roll combining their favorite sketches, themes, studies, and techniques—an abstract masterpiece.

About Christian Mendoza:
Christian Aaron Mendoza is a New York City based artist from Nicaragua whose work draws from early experiences with nature, architecture, art history, books, and the influences of New York City, Miami, Tokyo and his travels. Mendoza’s style bridges the modern, primitive, and organic. He draws strongly on the nature and folklore of his Latin American heritage, while interpreting the density and chaos of daily urban life. In the 1980s, his family moved to the Bronx where Mendoza began to develop a style that combined the architectural draftsmanship he learned from his father with the new inspirations of museums, libraries, galleries, letters, faces, and forms that then covered the subways of the city. This inspiration brought Mendoza to the study of ancient civilizations, hieroglyphs, petroglyphs, calligraphies, and alphabets from both past and modern cultures in the Americas. With great dedication, he continued his study of world alphabets, art history, color, light energy and movement, working in a range of styles that culminate all the influences of his early development. His paintings are grounded with descriptive line work that creates a sense of movement and energy.

Mendoza has been commissioned by large organizations including Altoids (Brooklyn & Miami), Crispin, Porter + Bogusky for Kaiser Family Foundation (VH1), Deutsch LA, RayBan (benefiting ONE SIGHT) Luxottica, Timberland (benefiting The National MS Society), HBO, and Sony, among others. His work has also appeared in media outlets such as Harper Design, Juxtapoz Magazine, The Miami Herald, and NewYork1. Mendoza has been in exhibitions at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Center; Joshua Liner Gallery, New York; Museo deArte, San Juan Puerto Rico; White Box Gallery, New York; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem; Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico; Museum of San Diego; Transport Gallery, Los Angeles; Dyezu-Exp Gallery, Tokyo; Stolen Space Gallery, London; Shooting Gallery, San Francisco; and many more.

Detail from Christian Mendoza, Silk Road