Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by the members of the New Jersey Education Association.

Making public schools great for every child.

[ Music ] >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vanozzi.

>> Hello and welcome to a special edition of NJ Spotlight News.

I'm Joanna Gagis.

We continue our journey through public art across the state with our digital documentary series "Painting Community."

Now, this episode explores a Camden community art project by artist De'von Downes, who collaborated with members of the Resilient Roots Farm Collective.

The farm is a community garden that delivers fresh produce to people who live in what's known as a food desert.

The organization recognizes the Vietnamese roots of its founders, as well as the Black and Latino communities that it serves.

And the artwork captures all of it.

Let's take a look.

(music) Public art and growing food in the community, they both kind of feel like giving back.

When you see something huge on the wall down the street, every day, it does change you.

It changes the way you think, it changes the way you operate, the way you walk, the way you talk to your neighbors.

It really does give you a chance to switch your perspective on life.

I am an artist, art educator, muralist, public artist, community worker.

Some people call what I do graffiti or at least borderline.

They're all the same thing if you ask me.

One just has a stigma to it and the other one you get a grant for.

My family is from Camden.

I love Camden.

The stories that I grew up with are all about community.

It feels good to like walk down the street and not just know that my family's been there but now literally have something that came from like hands of ours of mine.

I'm trying to bring back the like essence of neighborhoods.

That like open-door policy that sitting on the porch vibe.

Everything I do is about feelings and like healing in myself so that you can heal collectively as a community because it starts with you.

There's this big stigma and like idea of what Camden is supposed to look like.

Camden is a food desert.

That means we don't have access to fresh food and vegetables.

We don't have access to big supermarkets, which is why the garden is so important because a lot of our community members don't have access to their cultural crops.

Land is very important for communities to grow not just our cultural foods but also a place where we can just exist as we are and just really lean into our cultures and be in ritual with the land.

(upbeat music) - The farm history began with the Viet community here in Camden.

A lot of Viet elders had migrated to the US and really felt homesick.

They were missing the sense of community.

And so they saw this location as a possible site for a farm.

So they came together, cleaned it up themselves.

- With their own blood, sweat and tears, they cleared it out and brought soil and built beds.

These trellises were built by our community members from old fence posts.

It's a lot of like makeshift of like people just trying to figure out what to do with what they had at the time.

- But over time, they noticed that there was a shift in who community members were to more Latine and black African-American community members and transferred ownership of the farm back to the community.

And this will be our first season basically stewarding the farm as council community members.

Who knows what Camden is going to look like in five years?

We don't know.

I don't know what it's going to look like in two years.

But what I do know is right now, these are the people that are here.

Not everyone speaks English.

So it's a lot of communication that happens with like signage and gestures and things like that.

But we're all community.

So like, everyone's always happy to see each other, even if they don't know what each other are saying.

You'll have elders speaking Vietnamese and some speak in Spanish and they'll point to say it in their language and then the other elder will respond in their own language, but they completely understand each other.

And that is beautiful.

This is like a safe space.

Hmm, nah, I think this can be easy fix.

And I will gladly help you out.

When we were designing the mural, it was critical that the artist had a connection to Camden.

I'm very happy that the Vaughn was chosen.

In public art, when you have the opportunity to tell the narrative of people, you should, and especially if they can be included in it directly, you should.

We basically asked the growers, what represents you?

What represents home?

What represents your place here?

I collect the information, I write it down, I log it.

So somehow, some way, the artwork that we make collectively is also seen.

In the mural, it's more than just a pretty picture.

This really is the story of the farm.

These are literally moments from this farm.

They're all snapshots.

The story is really just a process of food, but food that we grow together.

So in the beginning of the mural, we have seeds, then transitions into planting the seeds.

You see sprouts coming out of the ground.

You see vines starting to grow up the trellis.

From that, we go to harvest.

We grow this together, we eat this together, we serve this together, and we sit together.

I also do things super organically, so everything is by hand.

Very hatchy, very loose, but that's on purpose.

I like the idea of sketchbooks because sketchbooks are how I started.

It's how most people who don't have the money to go to an art school as a kid, your parents give you a sketchbook and you just draw on it.

I say that because art should be accessible.

This is my way of saying, you too can do what I'm doing.

Birds are my markers, how you identify where you are in the world.

These kingfishers are Vietnamese.

When you hear birds chirping, you're usually in a safe space.

There's no storms coming, there's no immediate danger, close enough to make the birds fly away.

Birds are super important to me and my artwork.

They are something that we should include and think about.

A big part of their culture there is like eating and sharing like food and moments where we can like just talk and be neighbors and be people.

Sharing food and cooking together is such a like healing thing.

So this is actually supposed to be the plants that we grew in the farm together.

So this is them prepared.

We chose rice for the reason being rice culturally connects us.

We also chose a pot.

Originally I wanted this to be a bowl and the community members immediately told me no.

A bowl and a plate meant serving one person instead of like serving us collectively.

I really do include in all my projects the community feedback.

So I don't believe in putting public art up as advertisements.

I really do believe that it should include like what the people feel like they need, want, and see themselves in it.

It should reflect back to who they are.

I didn't do this by myself.

I painted it and I designed it, yes, but this was truly a community effort.

The Growers Connection is through food.

They're interested in having a place where they can cook their cultural foods, especially during outdoor events.

That came to be this kitchen.

Having a kitchen in a space where they grow those crops is important and they want to share that with other people in the community.

It only makes sense that collectively we had the food that we have grown together be served to eat also together.

At the end of last season.

We had a community gathering.

We weren't sure what we were going to make and the suggestion came up.

How about everyone just grab something from their plot and we'll just make a stew and it worked beautifully.

It was so good.

I dream about that stew and I can't wait for more of our events for this upcoming season.

We were definitely the happiest when we were all eating.

Art is so important because it's a representation of who we are in the past, who we are in the present and who we can be in the future.

My art is solely about healing.

Public art gives you a chance to see an outdoor gallery.

So if you see something huge every day, whether you think it's affecting you or not, it does.

When you put up art that speaks for people and to people and about people and educates people, you really do have the chance to like, either spark something or keep the spark going.

You're honoring them.

Public art is like altars to the living.

They're all little fragments of stories.

They all are linked to one big story.

This is what it looks like when we paint it on a wall.

It's a connection.

It's like a heartbeat, like a rhythm.

When you're out somewhere and you hear music in the background, you pick it up.

And I think the same thing happens with like good deeds.

You see it, you pick it up, and you just keep passing it forward.

It feels good.

It feels really good to do art here, especially to have these large-scale outdoor paintings to where now the neighborhoods are my gallery.

That feels beautiful.

What I want people to think of when they think of Camden, that they're people.

They wake up, they go to work, they might even make a mistake, they make it right, they level on each other.

And I think public art, those are the things that not only like how people change their view of these places, but it changes the way the people in these neighborhoods see themselves.

This is someone's home.

People live here.

I want them to see them as people, as family members and neighbors.

As we just saw, the public art at the Resilient Roots Farm truly was a collaboration.

De'von Downes not only recognized the culture and the sense of community that exists there, but they also got direct feedback from the people to capture the Vietnamese, the Black, and Latino roots that have converged there in recent years.

I'm thrilled now to welcome De'von to the show.

Welcome.

So good to have you here.

>> I'm thrilled to welcome De'von to the show.

Welcome.

So good to have you here.

>> Nice to be here.

>> Your artwork is so beautiful.

And the first thing that struck me was that in a way there's a combination of art forms going on here because you're painting but you're also painting about food, which is its own art form.

Do you see it that way?

>> I do.

I believe that arts are so wide in a range of things.

I think that culinary, dancing, writing, acting, I think that painting and drawing is one thing, but the arts in general, it's so vast.

There was a reference to music there at the end too that I saw.

Oh yes.

Honestly, for every mural I do, I make a playlist.

Do you?

I do, actually.

How does that work for you?

It's great.

It's really just become a part of a process.

I think that for me it has to feel fun Like my heart has to be in everything I do So who's on that playlist?

Does this end up being?

Music that relates to the type of art that you're doing or just something that inspires the feeling that you're in a little bit Of both it's usually where I am at the moment And also something that keeps me up because I need to be those days are they're long.

They're hot I need to be I have to keep it going.

I'm curious you said that you believe that food is healing art in many ways is healing.

Music also can be healing.

What has that healing process for you look like as you're as you're painting or as you're eating or as you're experiencing new foods, new arts?

Well I'm the happiest when I'm eating.

I'm usually, if you give me a plate, I have the smile, I'm doing a little dance.

But arts to me is, before I realized what it was doing for me, it really did help me keep going.

It was my way of telling a narrative that I didn't realize I was trying to tell.

And it just kept building up that way for me.

And then I went to school, I was going to school for art therapy.

That became a long thing, and I realized that I can just keep going in my own way, and do my practice, and take it to the community directly.

You say that when you have the opportunity to tell a narrative, you must.

Yes.

I'm curious why and how you feel that sense of responsibility.

Really I think it's my duty if I'm the one that they're choosing to put up these large scale paintings and drawings.

These are not always my neighborhoods.

Sometimes I resonate with the neighborhoods really heavy but they're not always my neighborhoods.

I don't always grow up there directly.

And I do think that given the opportunity if I can have a workshop or even a programming to where I can open the community members up and ask them like what do you think should be here.

That's what it's really about to me.

How do I reflect the people who are here.

Like how can it be educational.

I can be inspiring and how can it be reflective.

And you did that.

And we saw that.

It's funny because we've watched a lot of these.

But I think the first time this is the first time that we saw someone actually visibly get that input from the community about what it should look like and feel like you offered that to the people.

How did they give you feedback and what did those responses sound like.

Well there was a slight language barrier for some of the elders.

But it was really easy.

Again I try to make everything fun.

When you're coming to one of my workshops, you're coming to a mural, you're coming to any programming that I do or that I'm involved in, one thing about me is you're going to feel safe and invited when I'm around.

That's like my duty as a person.

It's like what I take really dear to my heart is to make people feel comfortable.

So it's really not that hard to make sure that the people are involved because they're there with me.

And what kind of things were they telling you that they wanted to see?

Both.

One, we talked a lot about colors.

I'd use a lot of like really vibrant, bright colors.

I gave them three options and kind of one, we ended up combining them.

So we didn't really have to choose.

It was more so just what was definitely going to be a part of it.

The other part was the food.

So they loved the idea of like telling the narrative of like seed to a pot.

But the one thing that they said and it was in the documentary is that they really, really, really wanted it to feel like it was community.

So we changed it from a plate to a pot to keep it super universal to everybody at the farm, but universal in general.

And I love that rice was kind of the tie that binds.

Yeah, that was, rice is all over.

It's like music.

It ties all the cultures together.

Vegetables tie all the cultures together.

Fish is something that we thought about, but there aren't really any fish on the farm.

Not many fish on the farm.

When it comes to the idea of art for art's sake versus art for a public good, do you see a difference?

Do you see a line there?

There can be a line.

Personally, I think that there is a difference between my studio and my public art practice.

For me, the public art is again community art.

I do consider myself more of a community artist when it comes to the public.

I think the difference is one highly values what people have to say and what they think and what they feel.

And the other one is just more art in the public.

Something to like bring beauty to the space which is also important and that's fine and that's beautiful.

But I do try to prioritize like stories.

I think it's really important that we take the time to tell people's stories.

Art also is not always accessible but public art creates that accessibility.

Why is that important to you as an artist.

Because honestly I wish I had more of it.

Like art was always encouraged to me growing up.

It was never once and I do mean ever, no one ever said to me that I could not be an artist.

It was always encouraged by my community, by my family, by my neighbors, by my friends.

It was never not seen as an option.

However, I don't think that I really understood it and I really thought of like the ways that it was helping me think of like the world.

Like it's a creative thinking tool.

Like it's a problem solving thing.

It's a it's a way to socialize.

It's a way to bring people together.

The difference truly to me between studio and public art is I guess the intention and the execution because that that matters.

When we talk about accessibility to you we're working with a space that is feeding the public where food is not always accessible where access to fresh and healthy foods aren't accessible.

This is an area in Camden that's known as a food desert.

Right.

They don't have access to the same types of grocery stores that many communities have.

I'm just curious first your thoughts about a space that is bringing food and meeting that need.

Well first of all I think we need more of those.

I love the idea of a community fridge.

I love the idea of like a shared pantry.

I don't think people should be hungry.

That's something I do not believe in.

I believe there's enough resources and opportunity for everybody.

And I think places like community farms not only give you a space to grow food and share food but it gives you the idea of like again art is like tool for problem solving.

We don't have food.

We grow food.

And yeah I guess to elevate that you know your art elevates that story right.

It elevates that conversation.

So again kind of going back to that idea that this is a twofold process right.

You're telling stories you're sharing the narrative of a community but you're also telling an important story about work that needs to be done.

Yes.

Expound on that for me.

Truly, honestly, I really just like the idea, the concept of art really is healing.

It's not hard to, I mean I say that because art can be hard and because it's not accessible people run from it.

It can become scary, especially when you're talking about feelings.

Feelings can be scary.

But I think there's something so beautiful in the ability and the opportunity to bring people together and heal.

I think a lot of the times people feel isolated, especially as an artist.

Someone said this last week around me and I think about that often but I'm also an only child so isolation to me isn't the like ah but... You're comfortable with it.

I'm very comfortable with it.

I do prefer my space but they say that artists sometimes are isolated but I do think that there's magic and like so much whimsy and the idea of having people come together and share stories because sometimes people don't realize how much they have in common with their neighbors or the person sitting next to them the person on that train.

We're all doing so many different things we don't really get to stop and like talk.

And when you're in these spaces where you walk past these public art pieces and these murals and even just it doesn't always have to be when I say public and community art I don't just mean public like sculptures and murals I also mean like workshops, programming like those yoga lessons at the park, those singing sessions at the park like those are all like when I say art I mean arts in general.

Those community art practices really do help people build like communities.

Yeah.

Let's talk about the Camden community.

Your family is from there.

Yes.

Give me just your sense of connection to Camden given your family's history although I know you moved out and we'll talk about that in a minute.

I'm going to take it to a project that I did in 2016 with the PACO station.

It was my first project in Camden.

I love Camden, but that was like my really big moment because it felt like it wasn't a moment for me, it was really a moment for us.

And I do say a lot of us and we when I talk about public art, really for the sake of like, because it's not just about me.

Yes, I can put up a pretty picture that's like my artwork and that it would probably receive really well, but the point is like we do this together.

So what I did was I opened up a submission online and I had people submit a story of their favorite memory in Camden and a photo.

And what I did is I made like a giant scrapbook page that was like installed on vinyl on the side of the Walter Rands station.

Oh, and I did a spoken word piece.

So those stories that we made became like a love feels like and love feels like is a practice that I do.

It's a gratitude practice.

It's basically a way, because gratitude practices, what they really do is they rewire your brain.

So when you look at gratitude and you, even if you just pick two things a day that you're just so grateful for, what it does is it shapes your mind to look for things to be grateful for throughout the day, big and small.

And so like you just kind of, honestly, it's something that I did myself.

So I also don't teach things that I also don't practice as a person and not just as an artist.

So let me ask you, you collected stories, favorite narratives about Camden.

Do you have one yourself?

One of the favorite things that I wrote down on that list was lining up to race.

It sounds so small, but one of the things that I remember doing frequently with my cousins, we used to have a family barbecue and we would switch houses every weekend.

One of my favorite things was just lining up down the block.

Sometimes you take your shoes off and you probably should not.

But and you just sprint and we just race.

But that was one of my favorite things.

And that was one of the my favorite memories that I also put on the list.

You say in the documentary that this is someone's home.

People live here.

Right.

And there's perceptions about Camden.

Certainly the city has changed a lot in the last decade.

But as someone who moved away and maybe who's come back and reconnected to the culture.

Did did any of your perspectives about Camden change.

No I feel like I knew.

Let me read this very specifically.

What I grew up with and and showed me what like family and community is caring for each other, checking on each other, talking to each other.

My perspective of Camden was not really shifted from any of that.

My family's from Camden.

A lot of my friends' families are from Camden.

Some of them still live in Camden.

I've made new friends in Camden.

I made new neighbors.

I don't even live there anymore, but I've made new neighbors in Camden.

The point is to like show exactly that we are people.

I don't really have a negative idea of Camden.

I think that Camden has shown me so much love.

I don't think I have an image that was ever bad, I want to say.

I think that I understand where it came from.

What is Camden to you?

To me, Camden was a fresh start.

I think that after my mom passed, she was from Camden, Camden down.

She was raised in Camden.

She left Camden when she was a teenager, maybe like four years before I was born.

My mom loved Camden.

I feel like not only did Camden and Philadelphia open up their heart, but they opened up arms.

It was such a place for me to start over and be held.

I'm not used to being held, I'm used to holding.

That's beautiful.

What do you hope people take away, maybe as a conversation piece, or maybe as a feeling, when they see your artwork?

Realistically, I used to say love immediately, and I still do believe that.

I do think that I'm a-- I used to say this thing all the time, that I was a love connoisseur, and I think that I'm so rich in love in so many ways.

In my career, with my friends, my family, with my home, my environment, like I just have so many things to be grateful for.

When you look at my art, I used to think it was love, but I really think I want people to see hope.

Because it doesn't matter the situation that you're in, but like where you are now, you can change that.

And even if you can't change it alone, you can ask for help.

And that's what community does.

We lean on each other.

That is the hope.

I did a project in Trenton right after my mom passed, not long after the Patco station.

And we were, one of the words I put on there, I use a lot of text in my artwork, I put hope in the heart like birds in the sky, with the idea of never losing hope in your heart, always keep it there, even if it's just a little bit, you just keep it there, keep it going.

I'm glad you said birds, we just have a little bit of time left, but you say birds are really important to you, why?

Yes, birds are a spiritual thing to me, but they're also just beautiful, so birds are everywhere, there's such a, like humans and like flowers, there's such a wide range of birds.

But when you're looking at a bird, usually when you see a very specific bird, you're in a very specific area.

So they're not just my way of like saying, oh, you're in a safe space, but they're also my way of saying like, oh, this is where I am.

So they're a geographical like location marker for me.

But they're also like a way of saying like, oh, you're in a safe space, like in a beautiful space.

And of course, you feature the Vietnamese bird in your mural.

I'm a Vietnamese kingfisher, specifically.

Each one of my murals, and I do mean each one of them, I don't have a mural that does not have a bird in it because what I do is I tie plants and flowers to the locations and like the cultures of the people who live there.

So if I can put you in there directly, I will always find a way to put like this group of people, this culture into this mural.

De'von Downes, you are an artist, you are a beautiful person.

I'm so glad we had the chance to meet you and talk to you and see your artwork.

Thank you for coming in.

- Yes, thank you for having me.

- That's gonna do it for us.

You can check out the painting community documentary series at mynjpbs.org.

I'm Joanna Gagis.

For all of us here at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job, and projects on track.

Working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

We've got New Jersey covered.

We're going to talk about the New Jersey State University of New Jersey Connection.

We're going to talk about the New Jersey State University of New Jersey Connection.

We're going to talk about the New Jersey State University of New Jersey Connection.

We're going to talk about the importance of the word.

[music]