Westinghouse High School: Resilience

Artist Andrea Amanda worked with after school students at Westinghouse High School to explore what “Resilience” means for a community of “Warriors.” She more fully describes the mural design in her Artist Statement:

Another wonderful opportunity for Thrive Collective to create magic, this time in the halls of George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School. Located in the borough of Brooklyn, this school’s notable alumni include DMX, Busta Rhymes , Jay-Z , and The Notorious B.I.G. These pioneering emcees often spoke of the rough neighborhoods in which they grew up, or hard times they overcame.

On our first day there, we were greeted with an art show and the student’s culinary skills. We knew we had incredible talent within these walls. During the eight week after school art workshop with 9-12 graders ages 15-18, themes of triumph and perseverance weaved throughout the students art and writing. Thus the title of the mural emerged — “Resilience” — inspired from the Westinghouse “warrior” students. The images within the mural depict a tree within the background representing the “tree of life” which one student said reminded him of his mom who passed. The dragon symbolize a student who survived a suicide attempt. These images and words are tokens to ground and remind them in times of hardship it is possible to overcome. With these triumphs over difficult times, students have a bright future ahead of them illustrated with the image of students receiving degrees graduating and words of encouragement throughout.

To quote Principal Mr. Joey Arzuaga: “The mural is amazing, it brings out so much life and color to the west hall of our school. Let’s go Warriors.”