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.

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!