WNPR

Creative Currents and Jazz Theodicy make it onto WNPR!  The PJS section begins at 6:13 and I speak at 23:46!

http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/content/wnpr/where-we-live-local-art-activates-change

Sony's Artwork online for sale!

http://worldofgood.ebay.com/Painted-Egg/150539999160/item

Here he is!  The artist who I met in the tent city of Fond Parisien and who helped me paint the school mural along with several other volunteers.  After Carine and the rest of the Westerly Road Team brought back a suitcase of his goods to the United States, we decided to try and find a market for his goods.  With the suggestion of Mr. Barmeier, we're currently posting his goods on worldofgood.com

http://worldofgood.ebay.com/Painted-Egg/150539999160/item

Empowerment Works Article

Very exciting - my article about Haiti is up!

http://empowermentworks.org/inspired/?p=125

New Haven Home Recovery Mural

Today I met with Carmen Brown and the staff of New Haven Home Recovery.  The location is rather small, but the kitchen -- where most of the clients spend their time -- was in need of some love.  Carmen informed me that she wanted to put up recipes and information about spices on the adjacent wall.  To compliment the idea of cooking, we decided on creating a Tuscan scene on this wall:

and putting flowers and vines over these windows:

While painting, I got to meet several of the clients as well as their children.  One four year old girl immediately declared her desire to paint.  I got out a canvas, and she covered it an abstract array of pinks and purples.  After she painted and wiped her hands on my pants and the kitchen chairs, she immediately moved on to some installation art with my tape, and then photography.  There were over forty pictures on her camera of her face, my behind (an object conveniently at her eye level), and random kitchen appliances.  Her energy and enthusiasm proclaim her a future artist.  Her masterpiece:

A cute picture she took of our feet and an artsy profile shot she also took:

Her installation art:

Two other adorable children decided to join the fray.  Their mother was less willing to let them paint, but they threw their hands into a container of open paint when neither of us were looking.  I hurried them over to the sink to wash off the paint, and they seemed to enjoy the process immensely.  Nevertheless, they continued in a vicious cycle of dipping their hands in paint so I would wash it off.  Needless to say, today was not the most productive painting day, but it was interactive. :) I need to finish the sunflowers and spice up the colors, but this was the result at the end of today:

(the perspective of this photo makes the archway look like a silly shape...but have no fears, it is more symmetrical than not)

Rutgers Newark Fundraiser

Last night, Rutgers hosted a Symposium about Haiti: why it is the way it is, what needs to be done, and what we can do.  Vickie, Carine, and I set up a table with my paintings and Sony's artwork.  We raised over two-hundred for the trade school!

MLK Park Day 3

Today we finished up the mural, adding the rest of the text and filling in the scroll.  The sun and sky are so bright you can see them from over a block away.

Some new text:

I added some doves:

Hard at work...

Cole didn't want his picture taken so I had to sneak shots:

Picking the font for the scroll.  Cole said he didn't know cursive but liked that font the best.  I made him practice and paint it.

And what a great result!

The crew that came today:

MLK Park

Henry Street asked me back -- not to paint at the Senior Center this time but to paint their Martin Luther King Park with the adolescent program.  I was more than pleased to accept the challenge the 10 ft by 40ft wall presented.  The kids got to decide every item that went in the mural and I just helped them put it together.  They chose: a sunset, Martin Luther, hands reaching for a diploma, people playing basketball, a scroll with an encouraging quote, and text with words of their choice.  Here's the progress of the past two days:


Step 1 & 2 (prep days): The old, peeling, faded mural was scrapped and the wall was primed:

Step 3 (Day 1): We painted the background

Step 4 (Day 2): I added the clouds

Step 5 (Day 2): We began adding the foreground elements...

 

Step 6 (Day 2): We add text "Hope, Courage, Diversity etc" and step back to evaluate.

The next steps today include finishing the text, adding the Henry Street Settlement mission statement, and the Martin Luther quote.  Working with the kids (young adults rather) has been extremely rewarding.  They work hard and take ownership of the images.  I'll often hear things like "Fix that mountain, man!" or "That color just isn't right".  They are often pickier than I am about shades, tones, and shapes!  The project was supposed to be finished in two days, but everyone wanted to come back for a third to add the finishing touches with me.  Thanks to everyone at Henry Street who made this wonderful experience possible, especially Matt and Jen who left their busy, important work to come paint with us.  :)  

6 Year-olds with Talent

Yesterday I returned to Womanspace to paint with the children.  Not all who wanted to come could, so I left supplies for those absent to use at their leisure.  The two little girls who I did work with blew my expectations out of the water.  Not only were they well behaved, not only did their attention spans hold for over an hour and a half, and not only did they want to learn the basic elements of color theory, but also they created beautiful work. 

This first piece, by a girl we will call S, wanted to paint a mermaid -- an especially exciting subject matter for me since I was (still?) am obsessed with mermaids from an early age.  What impressed me about S's technique was her methodical, careful approach to the piece.  "First, I will paint her skin.  Then once that dries, I will paint her suit and hair.  Once the hair dries, I will paint her crown."  Not everyone who paints understands the very important concept of layering.  Most students want to put down all their colors right away or else they compose a piece of many separate parts - ie, paint the suit then paint the skin around it instead of painting the top after painting all of the skin.  This "all at once" technique often dirties the colors and makes painting around previously painted parts painfully meticulous.  This is why S' colors are particularly vibrant; she was patient.

S surprised me in other ways.  Instinctively, she added more water to her brush to paint the ocean water, creating the effect that the mermaid is floating among light reflecting water.  Beautiful!  S was also unafraid to attempt depth by placing a light blue dolphin in front of the mermaid.  Each blade of seagrass was painted with extreme care, and the two-toned green was S's own idea.  

The contributions I made to the piece were minimal.  I taught S how to make peach by mixing orange and white.  I suggested she create a background for her mermaid.  I would on occasion point out a detail she might want to add, but the vision and execution was entirely hers.  I think you will agree the result is impressive. 

"Underwater Mermaid"

This next piece is very exciting for its innovation and color.  We will call the young artist C.  C created a painting of a lively, green bird.  I helped coach C to develop an outline slightly more proportional than she had originally drawn, and I was impressed with C's openness to my suggestions.  With C, I taught her about color theory: how red and green are complimentary colors and therefore make each other pop.  She took this concept to heart.  We also investigated the world of mixing colors.  C mixed red with yellow, blue with green, white with black, along with other less successful combinations.  

What I loved about C's approach was her ability to at once heed what should be in the picture realistically and then also add her own additions.  For example, she knew the beak should be in the middle of the face.  When I asked if she wanted to fill in the beak yellow, she said, "No, I want to add another red circle and a pink dot."  Well, I had never gotten such a specific, pre-meditated response so I said, "That sounds like a great idea." The result is fairly magnificent.  The bird's face is far from bland; it actually moves.  The fresh, single stroke of red atop the yellow could be Chinese calligraphy or a stroke from the expressionist era.  C used similar techniques in the background, adding spots of pink, yellow-orange, and blue-green.  She gave her subject not just a background, but an environment -- a field of emotion that is just as important as her foreground.  

Another note about C's work: she perfectly drew her outlines and then violated them.  C carefully outlined her bird, its feathers, and its feet.  She then without hesitation put dots and blobs of color that trespassed the dark green border.  These explosions of color then are not the childish inability to control the brush, but rather thoughtful and purposeful strokes.  C knew that boundary and structure (even if she didn't know the words for them) were essential to art; she also knew that structure without personal experimentation and imagination would be boring.  Imagine this bird without the spots of color: it would simply be a bounded bird floating in space.

"The Bling Bird"

So while "adults must learn from children" is a slightly hackneyed phrase, it does hold true -- at least in this small, artistic context.  I am reminded that patience, boldness, and openness are essential to creating art.  S and C also are examples of fearless, innocent ambition.  Too often we let our own desires or dreams scare us.  Too often we think the converse, that we have no desire or ambition that is worthy of others seeing; or that if we do and if we were to try it, its failure would be inevitable.  Both sentiments are false.  Here two children reached beyond what even I (shame on me!) expected of them.  I assumed their visions would be less than their work suggests.  These lessons thus stand: 1) allow yourself to be amazed by your creativity 2) creativity is necessarily a mixture of success and failure 3) your failures lead to more successes than your successes.

Coloring in Tents

After gathering together one to two hundred kids from the tent city, the WRC team led an afternoon of activities in the big church tent.  We sang songs, put on a skit, and played games.  I decided to bring paper and crayons for those who might want to color too.  The response was enormous.  Nearly everyone wanted to draw, including many adults.  

To my surprise, everyone came and handed their work to me (or one of the other volunteers) when they had finished.  I tried to explain they could keep their work, but they insisted on handing it in.  They were gifting the art back to me.  Their desire to create and then to give the beautiful objects away they had just made overwhelmed me in its generosity.  I have and treasure almost all of the three hundred drawings created.

The subject matter of the drawings varied, but common themes included hearts, houses, flowers, trucks (every little boy drew one), and plants.  Despite the suffering and the difficulties these people have experienced, beauty and hopeful words such as "God is good", "God loves you", "transcended the pieces.  Here are a few samples:

Thank you to the Haitian artists who made these!  I hope to make a series of paintings based off the shapes, colors, and themes presented in these drawings to raise awareness about Haiti.

Another view of the tent: