Leaving my mark!
This year I was asked to create an outdoor art installation in addition to conducting the four workshops I had planned for the week. With technical help from local artists I created a sculptural piece titled “the nest” which was installed on the neighbourhood artists’ boulevard in the centre of the barrio. In addition, four different workshops were conducted this year in order for me to accommodate more children. They created delightful handmade books of various shapes and sizes. We worked at the end of the street at an outdoor recreation centre of sorts.
Father and son artists of Muraleando
Work also began this week on a block-long fence mural which highlights work by each of the neighbourhood's volunteer artists...again I was asked to participate as the first “honorary artist” of this delightful project.
Mother and son in workshop
Thanks to the fundraising efforts back in Winnipeg we were able to sell greeting cards to friends, family and others, depicting the art murals in the neighbourhood, and we made enough to once again purchase all of the supplies needed for the workshops but also to be able to leave a suitcase full of art supplies that they could continue to use throughout the year. I have already committed myself to return next April and again I leave in tears, because now I am leaving a whole group of friends and my new Cuban family.