You can’t have enough colour on a wall!

 

Blazing sun, tuc-tucs, school kids, roaring motorbikes, street vendors, debt collectors, drunkards, goats, housewives, workmen, more kids, fire truck, stray dogs in all shapes and sizes… To say the street leading to the Vista Hermosa neighbourhood is busy, is an understatement… This was community mural painting at its best, with children who gave a willing helping hand, lots of appreciative feedback from neighbours, drinks being offered and happy teachers at the school we were painting at.

Little by little Vista Hermosa in Jocotenango, Guatemala, is being transformed from a dangerous and ugly barrio into a colourful, much cleaner and liveable community. Thanks to the UrbanHeART collective, an initiative from young people from this community, murals keep popping up. In November 2021 we painted a 12-meter-long mural at the public wash basin at the entrance of the neighbourhood. This year we continued the collaboration with Urban HeART with a workshop for a group of young painters and two murals, one at the side wall of the public wash basin, the other one at the wall of the kindergarten, along the street that leads into Vista Hermosa. The surface was a bit rough, but the dimensions nice and big (26 meter long!) and also very public. It was a pleasure to work with Denilson Larios and Gustavo Illescas of Urban HeART!

This project (the two murals and the workshop) was sponsored by the Dutch Foundation Colour4Kids.

After School Fun

I like nothing better than when you meet someone on Friday to discuss a possible mural and the very next Monday the mural is up on the wall already! That happened when I met Lynn who is setting up an after school literacy program in San Lorenzo El Cubo, a small town not too far from Antigua Guatemala. We quickly agreed on the design and I happened to have time to go paint the next Monday, so here it is!

The program  (ALAS, in collaboration with FFF Finding Freedom Through Friendship) officially starts today, so the timing was perfect. Congratulations and good luck with the project!

Mural 6.75 x 2.75m

Agua es vida, Water is Life…

 

In November 2021, I painted water in many of its facets on a 12-meter-long wall along the public wash basin in Vista Hermosa, a neighbourhood in the town of Jocotenango, Guatemala. The young people who set it up and helped paint, are members of Urban HeART, a grassroots initiative to make their neighbourhood more liveable through cultural activities. The transformation is clearly visible after two years and the area has become considerably nicer and safer, not only because the neighbourhood looks more cheerful, but also because people are more united, are now proud of their community and keep the streets much cleaner.

Nevertheless, the living situation is still difficult and sometimes even dangerous. A second mural had to be postponed. First because of COVID, then because of serious death threats towards people in the community. Tragically, the brother of one of the Urban HeART leaders was killed and a week later another (ex) member. The night before we started painting, two brothers aged 14 and 18 were shot dead when leaving the local cinema. (These deaths are unrelated to the mural initiative. But unfortunately, this is the reality children and adolescents in this community have to face every day.)

But the kids from Urban HeART don't give up and still believe in art as an alternative to a future full of drugs, gangs and violence. And that's why we just keep painting!

This time around, we painted the side wall of the pila or public washing area. Although not very big (4 x 5 meter), It was a tough wall to deal with, made of adobe, quite deteriorated and with lots of damage. It had to plastered first, then primed, to be followed by a base colour. I painted two giant water birds (egrets), based on ancient illustrations from ancient Maya codices. My colleagues painted the background, combining spray paint with brush work. I varnished the birds, but not the background, so the difference between shiny and matte background helps the optical solution of seeing reflection on the water. (Unfortunately, hard to see on the photos.)

And while prepping the wall, I touched up the big mural there where it was somewhat damaged by moisture. Now everything looks like new again, just in time for the opening of the new soccer field right across the street. A little bit of colour can make a big difference!

 

This mural was made in collaboration with Urban HeART and sponsored by Dutch Foundation Colour4Kids.