Uganda Children's Project
The eyes of the children tell the story. These eyes bear witness to the worst horrors the mind can conjure... many, many times over. Had the atrocities occurred once or twice, the memories could possibly be justified as an apparition — an outlying occurrence or a random act of violence. While I was working with the children, one of them had a radio given to him by the Baptist Church to listen to Gospel Hour. President Obama's voice crackled something about senseless violence in Arizona where six people were killed and 13 wounded in a shopping mall. The kids who understood English looked puzzled, they are told by missionaries, that going to America is like going to heaven.
This generation bears the gift and the burden. The gift is that the immediate threat is gone and they have become happy, laughing children. The burden is that they are the transition from Bardo to new beginning. They perform alchemy before our very eyes, effortlessly and joyfully, transforming the raw potential of evil into the exact opposite of evil, back into love, back into innocence-into light, allowing themselves to be touched by the light of fireflies.
Fire Fly Fetishes
The children's art was breathtaking in its creativity. Art of the essential nature, uncomplicated by self-observing, simply emerges, almost instantaneously in a burst of fun, focus and innovation. I had just slipped into their world of creative innovation. They do it everyday as the need arises. For them innovation isn’t a concept. It is a necessity.
Ink and dye washes
I painted 13 of the Fire Fly Fetishes for sale in the fundraising exhibit. I felt as though each fetish was packed with the energy of the children who worked on it. As I painted, I couldn't miss. I could flick and splash paint, even throw paint behind my back. It was absolutely effortless. I focused on the shadow cast by each fetish. I felt that the shadows told the rest of the story. While the fetishes look colorful, playful and animated, they also hold the pain and horrors that the children experienced in their young lives.
15th Street Gallery Exhibit Opening & Party
All 60 Fetish Dolls were sold along with some of my ink wash drawings at the exhibit. Over $5000 was raised to send to the children of Asayo's Wish Orphanage to purchase a years supply of food, mattresses, school uniforms, a pencil and school and testing fees.
UGANDA CHILDREN’S PROJECT: FIREFLY FETISH DOLLS
Fireflies synchronize themselves into little blinking jewels of the darkness.
“I went to Uganda to complete an art project with 150 children ranging from 3 to 18 years old at an orphanage called Asayo's Wish Foundation.
As much as there is human inflicted horrors and rampant disease, there is no use of pesticides in Kaberamaido. Uganda still has its fireflies and every night we would sit outside with the children and watch the fireflies in the darkness.”