Roy Secord

I am a 21-Century modernist and public artist. My artist language draws from the universal and timeless vocabularies of line, shape, and geometry. Utilizing this as I do, I create an art context which all cultures and ages have an affinity to. I am also a dynamic colorist creating art of dimension, depth, and rhythm through visual dances of color. My work (paintings, mosaics, terrazzo, metalwork, glassworks, sculptures, and graphics) is contemporary, abstract, rife with color, and filled with inherent movement. I often draw from sources of nature, emotion, and beauty. In doing so, my work is often portrayed as poetic in expression. Public Art: I am a New York City fine artist and photographer who primarily creates artwork (usually in large-scale formats of painting, sculpture, glass, mosaics, terrazzo, tile, and graphic arts) for corporate art for public art applications, as well as for general, art gallery sales. Artwork medium proficiencies are broad-based (2- & 3-dimensional) with a practice base of painting, photography, graphic design, and sculpture. High proficiencies in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Krita digital art programs for art project development and synthesis, as well as experience in art fabrication techniques and lead development for public art/corporate art projects. I am a public artist awardee for the NYC Department of Transportation, designing, fabricating, and installing a twenty-foot-high, contemporary, totem sculpture of steel and wood construction for a traffic roundabout in the South Bronx (installed 01/19). In 2017, I was the awarded, public artist-in-residence for “The Resiliency Project 2017 (funded primarily through the NYC Mayor’s Office and NYCEDC) addressing the need for climate change resiliency (in anticipated, high-impact, disaster areas) through the creation/exhibition of a large, public sculpture. In January 2018, I was awarded a major, permanent, NYC MTA subway art commission creating eight, large murals of glass mosaic & printed, kiln-glazed, porcelain tiles for the NYC subway system (installed early 2019). My 2020 commission award was with the State of New Jersey creating a colorful and dynamic, custom-formulated terrazzo and zinc metalwork, 2200-square-foot art floor for the lobby of the NJ State Public Health Building in Trenton, NJ. Photography: In my practice of photography, I am primarily a nature and landscape photographer, capturing nature within the “dense urban matrix” of NYC, Westchester County, and surrounding tri-state areas. In 2021 I was awarded the NYC Artist Corps Grant to capture nature’s beauty within the Bronx and mount the subsequent exhibition, “Bronx Urban Nature”. I was awarded the highly-competitive, NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts) New Work Grant in FY2022 to survey and document, through photography and graphics, the beauty of the entire 23-mile stretch of the Bronx River and adjacent greenways throughout the four seasons. As well in 2022, I received additional funding from the Bronx Council on the Arts 2022 Art Fund Grant award to further photograph the Bronx River within Bronx County, and mount the public exhibition “A River Runs Through It” at multiple, Bronx venues, plus create a social media campaign on local nature awareness, environmental justice issues, and environmentalism.

Possessing strong, social mission, I am also an arts educator (in a variety of art mediums: drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, paper arts, mixed media, photography, and mosaics) and a social reformer through "the transformative vehicle of the arts". I act in the capacity of lead artist/facilitator, developing and implementing arts programming for community youth/young adults which often culminates in group creation of public art for donation to community. I have extensive, teaching experience with all age populations, with focus on at-risk youth, youth/young adults in the criminal justice system, and the health impacted. My arts programming with youth/young adults has been supported by, and integrated with, NYC Police Department, NYC Departments of Probation and Corrections, NYC Housing Authority (public housing), Manhattan Family Court, NYC public and private charter schools, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, Bronx Museum of Art, NYC Public Library, Harlem Arts Alliance, Harlem Hospital, AmeriCorps, YouthBuild/Youth Action of East Harlem, and F.I.T. (Fashion Institute of Technology) University Department of Fine Art, and more. I often seek to create intergenerational bridges through my arts creation programming. I have educational training in developing and implementing art programming for senior citizens. In 2020, I was the awarded, teaching artist-in-residence (at the William Hodson Neighborhood Senior Center in the Bronx) with the NYC Su Casa (arts for seniors) program sponsored by the NYC City Council and Departments of Aging & Cultural Affairs. I was also a NYC Su Casa teaching artist in June 2021, teaching art-making virtually via Zoom (internet and standard call-in) as well as re-awarded for the Su Casa seniors art program in 2022 for physical teaching at senior centers. Throughout school year 2021-2022, I was an awarded, teaching artist-in-residence for nonprofit ProjectArt and taught art classes virtually (via Zoom) to middle school and high school students in both NYC and Los Angeles. The program culminated with the creation of a student-created bicoastal mural. I also engage youth in educational, nature photography programs. Unfortunately, many youth today have a very restricted relationship with nature. My programs include photoshoot field trips to a variety of nature locations to expose these youth to nature and inspire beneficial future relationships with local nature.