Documenting our neighborhoods

Brick by Brick is first and foremost about raising awareness of the facts of our neighborhoods. By walking and documenting with photography - and capturing sound - we can take time to observe details that contribute to the overall feeling of our streets and buildings. We discuss safety, green spaces, traffic, health of businesses, anything to communicate the particular quality of life there. These photos were taken in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, within blocks of Mater Academy.

Architectural Photographer Paul Clemence

Architectural photographer Paul Clemence accompanied us on our expedition on Miami's Metromover. Before we boarded the free tram that loops around downtown, Paul shared some tips for shooting on location, and he helped us focus on and frame interesting elements to make the best pictures. This was a real treat, because Paul has published books on some very important architecture landmarks in the United States.

Codes and personalized alphabets

Sample of students alphabet system

 The hieroglyphic alphabets were created as a personalized system to communicate between classmates and students at other locations. They engraved personal messages as well as quotes from African American History, including those of Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., and Zora Neale Hurston. The following workshop was asked to decode the text where they discovered the quotes chosen from students on the opposite side of the city.

The aluminum panel is making progress

Under the direction of artist Mike Genovese, students have been collectively creating an artwork engraving a large aluminum panel. After discussing all the text in signs on the city street, each student invented a hieroglyphic alphabet, then translated phrases by scratching them into the aluminum.

Recycling plastic bags - a inventing a new material

Inspiration is everywhere. Until plastic bags are history, we'll get busy transforming them into art. An exercise in urban scavenging, the group at Mater Academy ironed layers of bags together to form large swatches of material that we will use to make banners. The text and logos from the stores remain sandwiched in the layers, leaving ghost images.

Getting the hang of sketchup!

Google Sketchup is such a fantastic tool - we have to get into it and experiment little by little before we can begin our master plan of the New Miami.

Stephanie, from Mater Academy, made a great start.

Michelle Weinberg's Art in Public Places commission

Brick x Brick artist Michelle Weinberg has completed installation of 3000 square feet of handmade cement tile at Miami-Dade County's newly built General Services Administration facility, commissioned by Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places. The GSA building is LEED certified, conforming to environmental standards. We've learned about LEED certification during BXB, and we've taken some walks around our neighborhoods to see how they can be improved with art. Look for our solutions to ugly vacant lots and boring bus shelters in the weeks ahead. And we plan to visit Michelle's project once the building is open for work - and meet the architect who designed it.

Let the scratching begin!

Under the strict supervision of artist Mike Genovese, students at Mater Academy began to engrave the giant slab of aluminum with their encoded messages - a new hieroglyphic alphabet invented by each one of them. The slab is a work in progress. It will be added to by the students at Girl Power, passed back and forth between the two groups.

hello my name is krystal and this is a picture of me and my friend clowning around , i call this picture comic friendship.

that looks live

The picture looks good because i think that we have a good rapper in our neighborhood and me and my brother look up to jay-z. by:jackie from girl power

BXB poster mock up

Here is a sample of the poster we have been working on. Drawings, text layouts, and word play collages have been combined to create a one of kind image. The art work is a combination of both groups (Girl Power and Mater Academy) efforts amounting in a collaborative piece.

See: Poster Company

See more posters by Poster Company

and artist SIMONE GILGES

See: Christopher Wool

Christopher Wool Paintings

Beginning projects

Miami artist Nereida Garcia-Ferraz with students from Little Havana's Mater Academy. The group is beginning a poster project that will layer several different graphic and typographic types of art in one surface. Hand-drawing and hand-lettering is the first part. Digital background graphics come next, then elements from 3D drafting.