FAIRFIELD TWP., Ohio — Allias Harman opens his box of graphite pencils and begins drawing a self-portrait. He exaggerates the bags under his eyes and colors his face blue.
“I felt like that represents me,” Harman said. “I’m kind of a blue guy.”
The recent grad holds the sketch up to his face, telling me he emphasized a pimple on his cheek.
“I think it’s important to appreciate your flaws,” Harman said.
His friend laughs. They drove here together, to the Butler Tech School of the Arts, where the two students recently graduated after they say they never really fit in at their previous school.
“I just didn’t really have a passion for anything,” said Joey Smith. “When I got here, I just felt at home.”
WATCH: From skipping class to a Cincinnati art gallery
Smith is showing me his own project now. It’s about the devastation of war, featuring burnt newspaper headlines and two bombs heading directly for each other.
This summer, work from both Smith and Harman will be featured at Elementz, a nonprofit social justice organization in Clifton. The organization was created after Cincinnati's civil unrest in 2001. And now, a collaboration with Butler Tech includes a public gallery that gives students a chance to express themselves with pieces that reflect changes they'd like to see in the world around them.
"There's lots of things going on right now that need fixing," Harman said. "And art has always been a big part of that."
Outside the school, he gives the principal a hug.
“Art is something that is already inside you — you just have to unlock it,” said Kimheart Moeung, Butler Tech's principal and creative director. “Oftentimes art is seen as fun or a hobby, but here … we want art to be an identity.”
It’s an identity Harman embraces.
“At my old school, I felt like a weirdo kind of,” Harman said. “I was going through a lot of mental health stuff — getting high every day, getting drunk when I could. Skipping school to do those things.”
Now, he says he’s been sober for two years. And after he shows off his sketch, which he completed in about 30 minutes, Moeung gives him a fist bump.
“I don’t know if I have a purpose,” Harman said. “But if I did, it would be to create.”
