Moving the Lives of Kids Community Mural Project artists joined forces with Haitian artists and youth to create a mural on the corridor which leads to Hopital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles Haiti. We teamed up with a community group called ODES which stands for Organization for Develepment of Economics and Social. They gave ideas of what they thought were important in their community. Among ideas was the Hopital, agriculture, markets, trees, and the various things sold on the corridor such as sugar cane, and animals.
The trip was led by MLK COO Edward Rawson who has been a long time visiter of Haiti and grandson to the founders of the Hospital Larry and Gwen Mellon. Edward was joined by CEO Kyle Holbrook and Digital Design Manager Nicolas Atkins.
Here are some photos and video of the experience:
The wall was first primed with white primer.
The space was then divided into different sections with broad color washes.
The first few days we all worked on sketches for the mural while we waited for lunch.
Every day all the artists and youth ate together, huge meals of rice with bean sauce and okra prepared by friends of ODES. Very filling and very traditional food for the region.
While we painted it was business as usual on the corridor as vendors sold sugar cane and provided rides on motorcycle taxis.
Many youth loved to paint the fruits from the region.
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One day all the adult artists took a long hike to the Verrettes waterfalls.
We always had a large audience of young school students who would come by to watch before and after classes.
Raji and Suresh, who work at the hospital, invited us over to their house for a very traditional Indian dinner one night. mmmm
We found Nico a pet for his birthday which fell on Friday the 13th. He named him Jason Vorhees the MLK Haiti mascot.
School children watched Edward paint a portrait of his grandparents Madam and Dr. Mellon.
We stopped by the market for things to cook for our special pig roast to celebrate the mural being finished.
Lets all eat together!!!
