Teens' art to fly above community

With a few mouse clicks, Dominique Shaw-Jones twists the shape of a hexagon on his computer screen into something resembling a jet.

The 16-year-old Rainier Beach High School football player loves sketching, chemistry and math. Here in the Rainier Beach Community Center's computer lab after school, he is learning a new skill — graphic design — creating funky, molecular drawings from basic geometric shapes. Not that he's eager to show his designs off.

"I have this thing about my art being judged," Shaw-Jones said.

He'll have to get over that soon.

The community center will host a public reception at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 21 for the Rainier Beach neighborhood to review designs developed by Shaw-Jones and other area high-school students. The public will have until Feb. 28 to comment on them.

Professional artist Hiawatha Davis will incorporate the students' ideas into five designs to be displayed on 25 fabric banners in the neighborhood's business district. The plan is to mount the banners on poles next summer along Seward Park Avenue South, South Henderson Street and Rainier Avenue South — places the students pass by frequently.

"I think it will give them encouragement and let them know they're part of the community," said Davis, who is leading the students' work.

The Rainier Beach Merchants Association sought the banners to give the business district greater visibility. The Rainier Beach Community Empowerment Coalition and SouthEast Effective Development (SEED) organized the graphic-design workshop with funds from the city's Department of Neighborhoods and the Northwest Insurance Council.

The banner project is one of three youth arts workshops that SEED is offering this year in Southeast Seattle.

The students attend Franklin, Rainier Beach and South Lake high schools. A few are there for court-ordered community service.

Rainier Beach High eliminated its technical-drawing class two years ago, and the graphic-design workshop fills some of that void, said Rainier Beach principal Robert Gary Jr.

Davis, 46, said the students are creative and quickly pick up how to use the software, though not all are as proficient in organizational skills or at meeting deadlines. Every student who participates signs a work contract, and those who complete the project will receive $150.

The only restriction Davis placed on the students' creativity was banning letters, words and logos from their designs.

"A lot of them wanted to use the Nike swish," he said.

Not Marilu Cervantes, 15, a Rainier Beach student. She's been drawing for years and sees herself as a future graphic designer.

Inside her bedroom closet, she's hung her favorite drawing — of Tinkerbell, the fairy from "Peter Pan" whose pixie dust confers the power to fly.

Says Cervantes: "I'm a fantasy thinker."

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com