Murals for a Cause

A fellow artist was brought to my attention because she too creates murals to bring awareness to a specific cause.

I was in Gaza creating murals to bring awareness to the water crisis, and Jame Kim is creating murals to bring awareness to endangered migrating species.

She calls her project the Migrating Murals.

Jane Kim combines the accessibility of street art with meticulous scientific detail. She plans to paint a series of eye-catching large-scale murals in public places along the migration routes of endangered species like the North Pacific blue whale and the whooping crane. The whale murals will stretch from Baja California to Alaska and crane paintings in locations from Texas to Canada.

Her Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep murals will dot U.S. 395 from Olancha to Lee Vinning - two small California towns that mark the herd's approximate southern and northern boundaries. She hopes to complete them by October.


The Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep population has dwindled to around 400, and estimates suggest that the remaining numbers of North Pacific blue whales is currently in the low 3,000's.

Next on Kim's agenda is to paint murals of endangered coho salmon, possibly stretching all from the Pacific Northwest to South Korea.

Second Mural in Rafah

The Maia Mural Brigade was super charged at the end of our time in Gaza and painted two murals in one day. This one was created at Tuyou Al-Jenna school which is one of the sites of the water purification systems so badly needed in Gaza. Bringing awareness to this important issue was one of the main objectives of the
Maia Mural Project.







The Inspiration
Mohammad, Awesome Palestinian Artist

Rachel Corrie Mural in Rafah

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice funded one of the water filtration systems at the Afaq Jadeeda Kindergarten in Rafah, Gaza.

The memorial mural in Rafah was one of eight murals painted by American and Palestinian artists as part of the Maia Mural Project.





To find out more about Rachel Corrie, please visit the website.

Another Mural in Gaza

Our second mural in Gaza as part of the Maia Mural Project was painted at the Shatea Kindergarten outside wall. The inspiration came from one day at the Summer Camps that take place in Gaza City. About 15,000 schoolchildren in the summer camps of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Work Agency) flew around 10,910 hand made kites. It broke the record registered last year in China when people flew 10,565 kites.




Here is the sketch for the mural:


And the mural.....

Alicia Martinson one of the artists of the Maia Mural Brigade

Third Mural in Gaza

For those of you who have been following our adventures in Gaza, I will be posting the different murals that were painted by the Maia Mural Brigade.

This is the third mural we painted at the Jabalia Girls School in Gaza. The second one was finished in the evening and I await a copy of the mural from one of the artists who photographed it the follow next day in daylight.

The challenge was painting in 100 degree temperatures in the sunshine.


The Maia Mural Brigade Artists

Hillary, Vyal, Alicia, Josue, Joanne, Melissa
We found an large umbrella which saved the day!


Just some of the girls....not at all camera shy!

First Gaza Mural

Today was the opening ceremony for the Maia Mural Project at the New Gaza Boys School. There were Palestinian dignitaries from several organizations as well as our Maia Mural Brigade.

The children helped to put the finishing touches to the mural.

I think it looks outstanding!

Mosaic Murals

Since I have been focusing on the impending Maia Mural Project, my friend Rebeccah sent me a link to Lewis Lavoie's Mural Mosaic.

Mural Mosaic is a process invented by artist Lewis Lavoie that takes individual paintings and places them in a specific order to create a large painting. In 2004, Lavoie took his process and involve other artists. He pre-prepares panels with color tones and shapes. Using the color guidelines on the prepared panels as inspiration artists create a painting using their own style within the "theme" of the mural subject. All the panels are reunited to create the final image which is kept a secret until the final unveiling.

Each tile is one foot square. At the website you can click on each tile to see them in detail. Truly amazing!

Watch him create a mural....

Murals

A new art expression for me......MURALS!

This July, thirteen artists, art therapists, teachers, organizers, and psychologists from Olympia, San Francisco and beyond will be traveling to Gaza in order to collaborate with Palestinian youth and artists to design, paint and document, A Tale of Two Cities - The MAIA Mural Project!

We will begin our trip with an orientation and training throughout Israel and the West bank, where we will meet with Jewish Israeli and Palestinian artists and activists.

The MAIA Mural Project will be a series of collaborative murals focusing on environmental justice, specifically water or ‘maia’ in Arabic. The group will work with youth and artists in Gaza to paint murals at sites of the water purification units that the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) is installing at schools and kindergartens. The quality of water in Gaza has been eroded, particularly in the Israeli assault of 2008-9, creating a severe health hazard to which children are most vulnerable.

You will be able to follow The MAIA Mural Project as it unfolds on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr! You will find uploaded video interviews with Palestinian partners, giving you a real sense of our experience and all of the amazing individuals involved. This extensive documentation will become part of a growing global conversation about resources, water, solidarity, cross-movement building and non-violent resistance to oppression.

Example of mural in Olympia which will be incorporated into the project.

The leaf near the upper right corner with the bird of peace, OM, and world is the one I created.

There are many ways that you can support this unique endeavor! Donations of any amount will help towards airfare and paint! All donations are tax deductible and can be made at www.olympiarafahmural.org – click, MAIA Murals.

If you live in Olympia.......The MAIA Mural Project Café and One Big Drawing will take place on Saturday, June 18th from 5-10pm at Mariah Art School, 1403 Garfield Ave, NW, Olympia WA. Come enjoy a nice meal and drinks, and live acoustic music will begin at 7pm. Susan Greene, director of ORSMP and Ziad Abbas, director of MECA will introduce the project and share images from past projects in Palestine as well as the process of ORSMP and the MAIA Water purification units.

This will truly be life changing experience!