Mural Painting in the Center of the Peas and the Mudd Community

On Sunday February 5th, we held class in the center of the Peas and the Mudd. We received permission to paint a mural on a building in Pigeon Pea, one of the two large Haitian communities in Marsh harbor where most of our students live. Students from all ages were able to join in at any point, and paint. About 25 local children participated including those who regularly attend our Sunday classes. 

We began the mural by outlining a wave, a tree and some flowers on the plywood wall while the kids eagerly waited to start painting. Armed with new brushes and egg cartons filled with paint the kids jumped right in. The oldest girl who painted the sun and large flower was particularly dedicated to the process, wanting to assist in making decisions on placement of objects within the mural.

Soon there were too many children trying to paint the wall, as the mural began attracting more and more children. Luckily we anticipated this problem and brought a huge role of blue paper. Jaclyn and Jessica spread out a couple sheets of paper on the ground and quickly sketched an underwater scene. The children who did not have a spot on the mural immediately flocked to the paper, painting within the ocean scene.

As the day progressed the students quickly discovered the joys of finger panting and then body painting, discovering the joys of using paint, which many had not used before.

People walking by stopped to watch the process of the mural, which created a small audience. The mural was well received by the community. The children were very excited to paint and told us repeatedly it was their favorite project so far. Before we left some of the community members asked us if we would paint another building next week, which we look forward too.

Organizing the Mural

Jaclyn and students worked on a large continuous painting, while taking turns working on the Mural.

Figuring out colors.

Students working together.

The finished mural.

Jessica with Students in the Peas and the Mudd

February 3rd at Hope Town School

On Friday, we started our fish mobile project, with the whole school from pre-school up to 6th grade. The project is to learn about our local ecosystem and native fish to the Island. Many students taught us, about some of the fish. One student mentioned which parts of a Grouper, are the most tasty, and how to tell the difference between a male and female.  The hanging mobile will have different levels of sea creatures relating to their place in the ocean. Another goal of this project is to learn about creating 3 dimensional work, for people will be viewing the creatures from all sides. 

Pre-school working on creatures

6th grade beginning their sculptures of their creatures 

Student example 

Island Waves Community Center, January 29th

Jessica Filkins and Jaclyn Brannon Working together on Mural

Devon Bootle Working on Center Piece 

In front of the Island Waves Community Center with local Artist Devon and Center Coordinator Garnell. 

Today we worked along side Island Wave community member Devon painting murals for the interior entrance space in the building. The murals consisted of island scenes giving the space a peaceful, calm, vibrant and relaxed feeling.

We held a small class today, teaching students how to create paper boxes. It was raining for most of the day, which scared a few of our students off. However we had a very successful intimate group of 5 boys, who were very excited to see our work with the murals and were intrigued on how to make boxes without using glue! The point of this lesson was to show the students how to create something that one can use out of something very common.

January 26th at Hope Town Primary School

Today we worked on learning colors. Students were introduced primary and secondary colors. How one mixes colors to get another color, and how to create lighter shades and darker shades of colors. Students worked on making their own color wheel to have as a reference. In an effort to make this fun, we worked on creating color wheel turtles, which students then decorated, and made come to life. For most students this was their first introduction to understanding color.

One of the questions discussed in the older 5-6th grade class was: What is white? What is black? These questions then generated the in depth discussion about how black is the absence of light or color, and white is all colors. We talked about prisms, and how light gets filtered into all different colors.

Students working on Turtle Color Wheels

Students working on mixing colors

January 22, 2012

Today’s class was particularly rewarding as we are now getting to know the students better and they are becoming more comfortable with us.

We met Ronalle and a group of 10 vey excited students at the DNA office. All of the kids had attended our previous classes. We walked with them to the Island Waves Community center. The children were particularly energetic today. The boys ran ahead chasing each other and jumping over puddles and off curbs while the girls walked behind us shrieking and singing Michal Jackson songs. The ages ranged from 6 to 13. They all lived in the slums known as the Peas and the Mud and least 3 of them were orphans.

We learned from the last class that this group of children very interested in music so we decided to make musical instruments with them. We had them draw on paper plates with markers and then we glued them together and filled them with beans to make maracas. We showed them how to draw starburst designs and spirals on the plates.

Many of the students are not confident in their artistic ability and constantly ask us to draw things for them so the challenge is to show them how to draw what we are drawing so that they can do it themselves. Most of the girls and the more artistic boys got really into the project and focused on drawing intricate designs on the plates while 3 or 4 of the boys could not sit still for more that a few minutes at a time. For the last half hour of the hour and a half class I ended up doing yoga and gymnastics with the boys out side while Jackie helped the other kids hot glue their plates together.

One of the students, Jonathan, who is about 10 years old, particularly reminds me of me. He is constantly running around doing flips and cartwheels and picking flowers. Although his attention span is short, he followed my directions well and was able to reproduce some of the designs I showed him how to draw. Ronalle mentioned to me before class to help encourage him to go to school because he has not been attending regularly. I explained to him how important it is to go to school if he wants to play sports and do fun things. He started to really open up to me and told me that both his parents are dead.

Ronalle later explained that he lives with his 15 year old and 13 year old brother in a tiny room with just one bed in it. He says the room messy and strewn with dirty cloths because they have no shelves or storage spaces of any sort. We decided it would be great to raise some money to build them a bunk bed and some shelves and maybe give them some posters or a tapestry to put up.

When all the students had finished their maracas we fed them a much-appreciated snack of green apples carrots and peanut butter. All the kids left reluctantly but with huge smiles of their faces. We look forward to working with these kids again next weekend.

Second Week at Hope Town School

On Friday January 20th, was our second week in the Hope Town Primary School. We worked on creating banners, posters, and a school mural encompassing their school motto : "Share our Care, Be Aware". Students told us about what they are doing in their community to take care of their environment. Some common themes were, picking up trash on the beaches, and throughout the mangroves; water collection, and conservation; growing gardens. One student told us what it meant to be an "Eco-Warrior", someone who strives to better our earth, which they all expressed was really important to them! 

Work from the first week displayed in their classroom.

While working on the mural, we discussed with the 5-6 graders how to include perspective and shading when painting.

Frist Class with Island Waves Community Center

Today Sunday January 15th we held our first class in the new building with the Island Community Center. We meet our students from last week who attended our last class, and walked them over to the center. There we worked on making individual sketch books, using rubber bands, copy paper, and construction paper. The children seemed to really take to this project, decorating their books, with drawings, their names, and stencils. We talked about how one can use a sketch book, not only drawing, but also writing. We had a small group of about 7 students, aging from 6-10. At the end of our class, we were joined by Devon Bootle, a local artist and member of the community center. He showed us some of his own work from his own sketch book. The students were blown away. He started to show them how to make shapes come alive by shading. Next week we plan on making musical instruments.