Last Mural at Home Base

I didn’t realise how hard it would be to write this out loud, but darn, I just finished my LAST MURAL IN GUATEMALA!

Well, for this year at least.

In a matter of weeks I’ll be moving to Spain, but the plan is definitely to come back next year and add some more colour to this part of the world.

I was glad that my last mural happened to be this one, at the school in San Bartolomé Becerra, for several reasons. For one, because I promised so about two years ago and I always try to keep my promises. But also because this wall is very visible from the street and the highway to Ciudad Vieja. And maybe most importantly, because San Bartolomé Becerra, or San Bartolo, as we call it, has been my home for the last five years. I have grown very fond of this community just outside of Antigua Guatemala and I’m glad I could leave something behind. It’s isn’t my fist mural in San Bartolo, but by far the most public one.

This was also the last time (for now!) I worked with my wonderful assistant Henry Calel Navarijo. He helped me paint for the first time in 2016 and since then he has grown a lot, in many ways. I’ll surely miss him!

I’d been a few times to the school to discuss the design and take pictures (I needed kids for modelling, no shortness of those at the school!), so the kids knew I was coming and most of me knew me anyway, living in the same neighbourhood. One kid came up to me and said:

“I know you”.

No big surprise, after all I have been living there for five years and painted two murals.

“Yes. You give hot-dog to the dogs.”

Well, yes, that’s me too. I think I would have cared more for a reputation as a renowned mural painter. But being known as the woman who feeds hot-dog to dogs is a pretty good second.

Anyway, off to work. The theme wasn’t my favourite of all time; the teacher insisted I’d include the school’s crest in the mural. A pretty ugly crest, I must add. I suggested camouflaging it a bit, maybe put it on a kid’s shirt? No, it had to be there and right in the centre. That took some thinking on my part but I finally came up with a design I’m okay with and that does include the schools emblem. So, ready to rock and roll.

The weather forecast couldn’t be worse. Somewhere off the coast of Guatemala a hurricane is brewing and it was indeed windy and drizzling. Drizzle is okay. Wind is doable. A tropical storm is not, for mural painting. But we were extremely lucky and didn’t get more than a few drops.

While we painted, yesterday, classed were interrupted for a celebration Día del Árbol, Tree Day. In familiar fashion, the activity included the national anthem, a prayer, a few speeches and a mini-parade of kids dressed in folklore outfits. Each class had made a huge tree which they presented to their peers. Ironically made out of paper. Even more irony: the background noise was provided by some handymen cutting down a tree at the schoolyard. But let’s not get me started on the educational system here…

So, besides a few wind gusts and thick fat raindrops, (oh, and the promised ladder that never arrived), the work went well and the mural is finished. Whether the result is better than before is for you to decide…  

A BIG thank you to Henry, not just for helping with this mural but many before and hopefully more to come.

And of course also a HUGE thank you to veterinarian Dr. Jim Bader who besides coming down at least twice a year to voluntarily sterilize dogs and cats for 14 years in a row now, he has also generously been donating towards my community murals! Thanks so much Jim!!!

So long, for now….

Busy Bees in San Cristobal el Alto

Now, this community mural was a true team effort!

For a while now the people in the small mountainous village of San Cristobal el Alto have been trying to attract tourists by offering hikes on nature trails and by selling food and homemade products. Volunteer Miki Iwatsuki (JICA) has been involved in the project and has set up a mural project to beautify this charming village. And yesterday we painted the first one!

While Miki arranged everything with the owners of the wall, Laurel Jacobson (Mesón Panza Verde) had the wall plastered. She also sponsored the materials and organized all the logistics (paint, brushes, transportation and lunch for the painters). Laurel teaches art to the scholarship students at CasaSito and it was her idea to get the kids involved.

I came in to teach the students how to copy and enlarge a design and to prep them for the hard work. I also made the design with nature as an overall theme and more specifically apiculture since the family that owns the wall has beehives.  

All nine of CasaSito’s art students joined us, as well as three of the students that participated in my mural project that we finished last week. CasaSito’s founder Alice Lee So Fong joined us too and off we went!

It was hot and humid but that didn’t stop us, not for a minute! The family of beekeepers helped us paint, as well as passersby and friends. The students did an awesome job and by the end of the afternoon the mural was on the wall, varnished and all.

What was incredible was that INMEDIATELY after finishing it, tourists started to pose in front of the wall to take pictures. People actually stopped their cars to get out and take pictures, causing a traffic jam in the narrow street. And the owner of the house already sold a bottle of honey because of the mural! I’d say, mission more than accomplished!

So all in all we had a great day. Lunch at Doña Angela’s (across the street from the mural) was delicious, as was the cinnamon bread with honey the family treated us to celebrate the completion of the mural. The only one not quite satisfied was the little boy of the house who was slightly disappointed that we didn’t paint Spiderman on the wall. Other than that, it was one of those days with a golden edge…  

Please do go visit San Cristobal el Alto, it’s worth it!

A Hole in the Wall

Four adolescents and now four painted walls. Check!

For weeks now I’ve been working every Saturday with Joshua, Isa, Eduardo and Leonardo (all CasaSito scholarship students) on how to make a mural. They started from scratch learning about the history of muralism and the differences between murals, street art and graffiti. We did a class on colour theory and of course the students learned how to copy and enlarge a design.

Little by little we came up with ideas for the mural. We took in account the space with all its possibilities and limitations as well as its purpose (a waiting area or space for workshops and relaxation). The students were very much into murals with optical illusions, although we agreed that a design with giant 3D creepy insects might not be the best of ideas.

In the end we came up with this design, which is tied to the mural downstairs.

So here we are!

The hole in the wall makes the space look bigger, the view is that of the Fuego and Acatenango volcanoes. The butterflies can represent the metamorphosis students undergo during their time at CasaSito. Also, they won’t be stopped by a wall, there’s always a way to fly even higher!

The umbrella is a bit of a joke, inspired by street art. The handle of the umbrella is an actual tube with actual faucet that “can regulate the rain”.

The mandala is a spiritual symbol that represents the universe.

This was a fun project which will hopefully inspire the participants to make many more murals! Many thanks to Dr. Jim Bader who sponsored this mural! And of course to CasaSito and participants:

Carlos Joahua Gutiérrez Paredes (16)

Isa Gabriela Samayoa Gómez (16)

Gabriel Eduardo Samayoa Gómez (18)

Edgar Leonardo ”Da Vinci” Orellana Santos (17)

And a big thank you to my talented assistant Henry Navarijo for helping paint!