What is it about water?

10th-12th grade young artists at Art & Design High School in Manhattan, taught by The Painted Cloud, asked this question of themselves, their friends, family, and neighbors. Art & Design is a Career and Technical Education school. The Painted Cloud taught the young artists production tools and brought social practice and community practice to the work, with sustained observation, dialogue, collaboration, and storytelling alongside the tools.

Asked what they wanted to investigate, the young artists chose 'environment' - a topic that matters to all of them. The Painted Cloud brainstormed with the young artists to hone the topic, and their final selection was 'water'. The young artists talked about the waterways of New York. The East River and the Hudson border Manhattan. The Atlantic Ocean meets the city at the beaches of Brooklyn and Queens. Across the boroughs are smaller waters - ponds in the parks, public pools, and canals. The young artists pass through this system every day - every walk through the city, every day on earth. This topic determined the approach - contemplative work, made by the young artists with The Painted Cloud and their community.

Each young artist listened to and looked at their own neighborhood, gathering place-based found sounds - footsteps, doors closing, and water splashing - and photographing and filming across the city, including the skyline.

Each young artist interviewed friends, family, and neighbors. The interviews were dialogue exchanges, each opening with one question: what is a place near water that you enjoy and why? The young artists chose who to interview, aiming for a broad mix - young and old, people they knew well and people they knew less. Some have lived in the city a long time, some moved here from other parts of the country, and some moved here from other countries. The answers came in English, Greek, and Georgian - the language each speaker chose.

The young artists' work is to ask, listen, and make from what they hear. Two practices run side by side - dialogue with community, and attention to place. The young artists slow down to notice what moves and what stays still - awareness-building toward people and place.

Είμαι χαρούμενη όταν είμαι στο Ανατολικό ποτάμι, στο πάρκο της Αστόριας, επειδή μου θυμίζει τα παιδικά μου χρόνια.
I am happy when I am at the East River, in Astoria Park, because it reminds me of my childhood.

People named places across the city: Coney Island, Hamilton Fish pool, Astoria Park, Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Promenade, and Domino Park - publicly accessible open spaces the community shares. They named the feelings too - the breeze on the face, the sun on the water, the calm of swimming alone, the memory of childhood, the sense of vacation, and the excitement of rides.

The young artists used Logic Pro to digitize the found sounds into percussive drum kits, learning rhythm, EQ, reverb, and chorus as they built drum loops from the recordings. With Premiere Pro and Photoshop, they made videos and GIFs from the photos and footage alongside hand-drawn animated elements. They also learned to make photo transfers using acrylic gel medium, with mark-making behind each transferred skyline photo.

The young artists combined the drum loops, recorded answers, footage, photo transfers, and animations into a Looping Musical Vignette (LMV) - a video that loops continuously, inviting sustained attention. Friends, family, and neighbors made the LMV with the young artists through their answers. What is it about Water? is a record of how people relate to water in New York City - places, voices, and feelings in three languages.

Through our work together, what is abundantly clear is that these young artists are observant, careful, and socially engaged artists. Their work and their vision gives The Painted Cloud hope for society's future.

We invite everyone to watch What is it about Water? - to slow down, observe with the young artists, and share in that hope.

Voices

"I like the beach because it allows me to relax."

"I like going to Coney Island beach because I like the breeze on my face."

"I usually feel pretty calm and relaxed when I am swimming at Hamilton Fish pool as long as there is nobody else around and I am able to swim freely."

Είμαι χαρούμενη όταν είμαι στο Ανατολικό ποτάμι, στο πάρκο της Αστόριας, επειδή μου θυμίζει τα παιδικά μου χρόνια.
I am happy when I am at the East River, in Astoria Park, because it reminds me of my childhood.

"My favorite place to view the water is Prospect Park because the sun always glimmers off the water."

ნიუ-იორკში წყლის სანახავად ჩემი საყვარელი ადგილი ბრუკლინის პრომენადია, რადგან მანჰეტენის ყველა ცათამბჯენების ნახვა შეგიძლიათ
In New York, my favorite place to view the water is the Brooklyn promenade, because you can see all of Manhattan's skyscrapers from there.

"I feel happy when I'm at Domino Park because I feel like I'm on vacation."

"I feel excited when I'm at Coney Island because there's a bunch of fun rides."

Project team: The Painted Cloud's Sarah Conarro and Julian Bozeman, with the young artists of Art & Design High School.