Lynn arts group marks city support

LYNN – Raw Art Works had a mission for this year, its 25th anniversary, to connect to the community and Thursday it connected in a big way.”We said we would connect to the community, ignite, create, connect,” said RAW co-founder Mary Flannery, quoting the organization’s motto. “Because shame on us if we didn’t thank Lynn. A great idea is a great idea, but it needs a home.”More than 20 years ago, RAW built a home in Central Square, putting paint brushes in the hands of kids and giving them an outlet, a place to go and a place to just be. The creation of the portrait project, which will eventually become a permanent outdoor mural, is the organization’s way of thanking the community for its help.”In the dead of winter we got the idea to create some portraits,” Flannery said. “We thought we’d do a couple hundred.”Then they got bold and thought they’d do 400, she said.”Now we’re in a room with 572 portraits,” she said with a sweep of her arm.Outside on the street, RAW artists helped kids paint tiny portraits of their own, add their touch to a 3-D paint brush mural and pound out a beat on a pile of makeshift drums. At the same time RAW Chief Ky Vongsa, 17, helped one woman find her portrait.Vongsa said initially he was intimidated by the process of creating the portraits. It starts with a photograph and includes oil-based ink, acetate and charcoal, “and there’s no erasing. There is no going back, you can only add, you can’t take away,” he said.Once he got the hang of turning a photograph into a charcoal and bright ink portrait, he liked it, he said.Morgan LeBlanc also got a kick out of the process. Like Vongsa, there was a learning curve. She said she worried about embarrassing the subject by creating a poor likeness.”So I tried my hardest,” she said. “It was a lot of work but I liked it.”Her father, John LeBlanc, has three daughters involved at RAW and said he loves what the organization has done for his kids.Hung side-by-side inside and outside, the portraits were a mosaic of city officials, School Department employees, residents, local business owners and employees and other artists. And many of those people and more crowded into Central Square looking for their image.Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy headed into RAW’s new studio space, scanned the portraits and immediately saw a familiar face looking down and a little to the left.”There I am,” she said. “It’s very representative and I like that they put me slightly off center. I think it’s apropos.”School Committee member Patricia Capano found her portrait as well. She laughed over the likeness and called the show impressive. Flannery’s co-founder Kit Jenkins stood amid the indoor crowd, literally wide-eyed.”I love it,” she said, taking in the portraits, the crowd and the noise. “It’s still jaw-dropping to me.”