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| The mural in it entirety |
If
people talk, it sounds like they’re at each other in a way that makes Italians
sound like meek sheep. But that’s just the noise level. Nothing is happening.
Which is what happens most of the time, a whole lot of doing nothing, preferably
on the veranda you see in front of every house.
All
in all it was quite a culture shock, going from the mountains of Guatemala with its humble indigenous people to
the lively Caribbean town of Puerto
Plata…
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| The school with upstairs 3 new classrooms built by Colour4Kids |
How
I happened to end up there is because of the connection with the Dutch
foundation Colour4Kids.I’ve worked with this foundation twice before in mural
projects in Progreso, Honduras and last year they funded part of the community
mural I painted in Chimachoy, Guatemala. In Puerto Plata they built three extra
classrooms to an elementary school and the mural was the cherry on the cake to
finish this project. The project was initially scheduled for late November last
year, but at the time we had to postpone the trip last minute because of the
rains and flooding in the area.
The
school is located in a lively middleclass neighbourhood of Puerto Plata. The
building used to be a basketball court, but was converted into a school thanks
to the effort of some mothers from the neighbourhood who got organized and
whose president, Rosa, helped us with the logistics for this project. The front
wall is an entire street block long and is very visible along a well travelled
street, a perfect location for a community mural!
The
theme was Children’s Rights, as determined months before we started the project
in collaboration with Yudelka Morán, the director of the school. The idea was
to have the children help paint but since it was logistically too complicated
to have all 200 students involved, I designed colouring pages based on the
mural design to be distributed among all students. There are six colouring
pages in total, each depicting one of the six main figures/children’s rights
and they fit together as if a jigsaw puzzle. Actually, each colouring page
depicts much more than just one right. For example, the second scene of the
mural refers to gender equality, but it can also be interpreted as a call
against racial discrimination or any other form of inequity. That’s open to
discussion.
Each
student received one or more colouring pages which helps them to have a
stronger connection with the mural and hopefully also be more aware about
children’s rights (and obligations).
Erik
van Middendorp, of Colour4Kids had already been in the DR for two weeks when I
arrived and one of the things he had arranged was to have the wall cleaned and
primed. The weather forecast wasn’t good – it was actually pouring rain when I
arrived- so the less time we would waste, the better. On May 1st,
while the kids had a day off, Erik and I started drawing the grid and sketching
in black.
The
second day we added some colour and slowly the wall started to transform. We
worked from background to foreground and from top to bottom. We outlined the
bottom part, so we could have the kids help us colouring those parts, which
happened on day 5. About twenty kids were picked out to help us paint and then
the transformation was complete. The last two days were for touching up and
details. And then, on Sunday May 7th, the work was done! The last
thing I did was painting the light post in front of the mural in a cute polka
dot pattern, because its ugliness stood out too much.
All
in all I was very happy with a result. The Toucan acrylic paint that I had
never worked with before was of excellent quality with nice, bright colours.
The wall was even and smooth and our audience very supportive. The corner on
the left happened to be the meeting point for the moto-taxistas, guys dressed in orange vests who drive you for 50
Pesos ($1) on the back of their bike to your destination. From that corner they
loudly discuss the world, the mural included (very positively!)
The
old man who lives with his kittens across the street was so moved with the
mother I painted, embracing her child, and he kept telling me so. The lady from
the corner across the street lent us her ladder and brought us our daily dose
of sugary coffee. Rosa was there too the whole
time, keeping an eye on everything from her chair in the shade and frequently
telling Erik to work a little harder. Despite the heat and the noise level, the
result was what I hoped for and the weather had collaborated beautifully. Ready
for the next one!
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| With Yudelka, Erik and Rosa |
The
next two murals were painted at the side walls of a new school building in La
Union, about a twenty minute drive from Puerto Plata. The school started by
Roberto and Judith Terrero in a nearby slum that is mostly inhabited by Haitians.
They soon had over 200 students cramped into a very inadequate space, but now
have two school buildings and a kitchen built by the Samaritan Foundation. The
school currently caters to 300 students, but can expand to 500.
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| Colegio Evangélico Asher, La Unión |
The
theme the director had asked for was the Dominican Republic’s history, but I
felt rather uncomfortable with the choice. First because I hardly know anything
about it, and interpretation of a nation’s history, especially with such a
controversial past as this one’s, is a very delicate issue. Especially if most
of your students are Haitians. It’s also visually not an easy task, so after
some emails back and forth, we settled one mural about children’s rights, the
other one a portrait of the Mirabal sisters.
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| Painting with kids and more kids! |
Actually,
the design was based on the random picture of a girl I had found on the
internet. I just wanted to use an image the kids could relate to. The fact that
they recognized all kinds of friends and relatives in her means I succeeded.
But when I explained that the girl actually represents all girls, or even all children
and that I painted her purple on purpose, because black and white are not skin
colours at all, they just looked at me blankly. The purple, okay, but the girl?
Nah, that really is Tatiana!
Two
days of painting and the mural was done. The kids received a colouring page of
the design and I was ready for the next!
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| Tatiana??? |
This
one was a bit different in colour and tone. I started with the features of the
women in the darkest shade and then added one lighter tone after the other.
The
Mirabal sisters were easily recognized by all the children, but when I asked
them why they were so famous and what they had achieved, not all of them were
too sure.
Patria,
Minerva and Maria Teresa (and their husbands) were all involved in the
resistance against dictator Trujillo.
The husbands were jailed and it was when the sisters came back from a visit on
November 25th, 1960, that their car was stopped and the women
clubbed to death by the secret police, most likely on Trujillo‘s direct orders.
Ironically,
the disgust and revulsion abut this deed made the resistance fiercer than ever
and Trujillo
was finally successfully assassinated on May 30th, 1961.
The
sisters are now national heroines and nationwide acknowledged on murals, on
monuments, on banknotes and souvenirs.
On
the afternoon of the first day it all of a sudden started to rain. At last!
Luckily, due to the high temperatures, most of the paint was already dry. Only
Minerva’s cheekbones that I had just applied started to run and looked like
bleak tears. But that was quickly fixed the next day.
The
last day of painting was hot and humid, but it didn’t rain. Erik painted a LOT of butterflies while I focused on the faces and text.
And then we were done! Mission
accomplished, finally time for some sightseeing…
