When Kelley Prevard was asked to be part of an arts project featuring local talent, she immediately knew what her focus would be.
“I wanted to create something that was beautiful, yet meaningful to this community,” the Atlantic City artist said.
Prevard’s artwork went straight to its heart — and its heartbreak.
“Son-Shine” is the portrait of Micah Tennant, the 10-year-old city boy who died days after he was shot during a high school football game in Pleasantville.
But the violent way he died contrasts with the light the aspiring DJ known as “Dew” brought to many.
Prevard said she reached out to Micah’s mother, Angela Tennant, for permission and to learn more about who Dew was.
“He was a charismatic boy who had a smile that could brighten up a room,” Prevard said. “I wanted to create a piece that acknowledges his beautiful spirit and the lives he touched within this community and beyond.”
Behind the boy’s smiling face are several patterns that each represent a different part of his light, she explained.
There are the repeating doves in a blue-and-white pattern symbolizing love, while also holding on to hope and peace.
There’s the sacred Kente cloth worn by royalty.
White lilies symbolize rejuvenation of the soul and are associated with innocence, purity and angels, she said.
And, of course, earphones, representing Dew’s love of music and dream of becoming a DJ.
"I hope that my painting truly honors his memory and brings some peace and healing to this community,"
Kelley Prevard
"I hope that my painting truly honors his memory and brings some peace and healing to this community," Prevard told BreakingAC. "So far the feedback has been amazing. Some people said they cried when they saw this, others said they were overjoyed. I received nothing but love."
The painting is one of several local works of art NJ Transit is featuring at its bus and rail stations in the city.
“Our goal is to connect NJ TRANSIT customers and the surrounding Atlantic City community by bringing new, exciting and inspiring experiences to the spaces our customers pass through every day,” said NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin Corbett. “We’re also pleased to provide New Jersey artists with exhibition opportunities and a supportive environment in which to showcase their art, particularly as customers return to the system.”
The project is part of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts' focus on supporting artists and connecting them with a new way to present their work to the public, explained Danielle Bursk, the council's director of Art Services.
"With two locations and a distinctive, local base of artists featured, the Atlantic City exhibition gives us the opportunity to really showcase the city's burgeoning art scene," she said.
Prevard said the painting at the rail station is a copy of an earlier version of the painting. She plans to give his mother a framed copy of the finished version, and maybe even get it placed in the park dedicated to him.
Now, she is working on a mural in Pleasantville that will be along West Jersey Avenue just off Main Street.
