ARTISTS CREATES MURAL DEPICTING WORK OF CONGRESSMAN DANNY DAVIS

Artist Janel Young, known for her vibrant geometric murals, collaborated with artist Thomas Evans to create a mural of Congressman Danny Davis for the Safer Foundation. PHOTO PROVIDED BY JANEL YOUNG.
Artist Janel Young, known for her vibrant geometric murals, collaborated with artist Thomas Evans to create a mural of Congressman Danny Davis for the Safer Foundation. PHOTO PROVIDED BY JANEL YOUNG.

 

Artists creates mural depicting work of Congressman Danny Davis

By Tia Carol Jones

Janel Young has been creating art since she was a child. Art chose her and she’s always come back to it. Her path to doing art professionally was not linear.


In school, teachers encouraged Young’s parents to pay attention to her art abilities. When she was in elementary school, she went to an art camp, and she loved it. In middle school, she majored in art at Rogers Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Pittsburgh, Penn.


She loved how she felt when she was creating art and loved being able to explain her work to other people. Being able to get concepts that were in her mind out in the world in physical form was rewarding to her. During that time, she began creating large scale murals.


At Pennsylvania State University, Young studied Business Marketing and International Studies. She wanted to go into a field that would allow her to be creative, but was more practical, career wise. Once she graduated from college, she got a job in Public Relations in NYC. In New York, she got back to creating art again, going to shows after work.


Young started volunteering with an organization that created murals in NYC. They ended up hiring her full-time when she left her corporate job. She has been creating art professionally since 2018. Recently, a mural Young created at the Safer Foundation depicting the work of Congressman Danny Davis was unveiled.


Young is part of a cohort of the Bridging Fellows Program, which is run by Independent Sector. Being part of that program connected her to the Safer Foundation, and she was able to learn what the organization does. Someone mentioned Safer Foundation was looking for an artist to create a mural. Young decided to do a site visit at the end of 2022.

“I was really impressed with all the work they were doing. I was very aligned with the values they have,” she said. Young was directed to submit a proposal for the mural, along with some other artists. Her proposal won that bid.

To get a feel for the Safer Foundation, Young attended some events, and talked to clients and people who worked there. She was able to use all of that, along with the research she did on Davis, to create a design that tied together hopefulness and history.


Young’s work has a very distinct style of geometric-inspired shapes, colors and compositions. Young’s inspiration for her work comes from her own experiences, as a Black woman, as someone who is excited about color and as someone who is excited about helping people feel joyful. She also has been fortunate to see and be a part of so much culture and so much joy, through her work and otherwise, and she is always trying to exude that, with whatever she is putting out in the world.


The Safer Foundation really wanted Davis’ likeness in the mural, so Young collaborated with another artist who is known for portraiture, Thomas Evans, who goes by Detour. The result is a mural at the Safer Foundation that reflects Young’s mural style and Evan’s portraiture and has Davis’ likeness at the center of it.


“This project is really such an honor to do. I was able to meet with Congressman Davis and visit on site and get his reaction to the piece and it was so heartwarming. I’m really fulfilled by how the project turned out; how impactful it already is and will be. Just raising the curiosity about who Congressman Davis is, what he’s accomplished and what he’s done for the community surrounding the mural,” she said, adding she wants people to see it as a storytelling piece.


For more information about the work of Janel Young, visit janel-young.com. For more information about the Safer Foundation, visit saferfoundation.org.

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