By Tina Jenkins Bell
BAPA School Liaison
Zadie Beaty, 15, a Beverly/Morgan Park resident, student at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, and a Board member for BAPA’s Teen Corps, is a budding artist who benefitted from a mentoring opportunity with the artist Won Kim last fall when Teen Corps members collaborated with the Beverly Area Arts Alliance to create two mobile murals for the Beverly Art Walk.
Zadie was one of the Teen Corps members to work on the moveable murals and meet Kim, who Zadie says gave her excellent advice, one artist to another, and who promised to connect her with community calls for art.
After the Art Walk, Kim kept his promise, and in December, Nicky’s of Beverly chose Zadie for a community art project on a garage door.
Zadie was able to choose what type of art she wanted to create. An anime fan and realist artist, she painted dragons emerging from opposite sides of the door.
“I’m glad to have met Won and for the opportunities he shared. I wanted to get out there and do something more than just creating for myself or giving away drawings,” Zadie said.
Zadie has been drawing, painting and creating for about two years. Though she’d never seen herself as an artist, her father was a graphic designer and painter.
She began her art journey during the pandemic as an alternative to boredom and isolation. As she began to create, she discovered a sense of peace and kept at it until she realized creating art was something she could see herself doing long-term.
Zadie looks forward to more ways to develop and work her art and will continue to follow Kim’s advice to continuously practice her skills and experiment with her art.
