Category: short story series

Hello 2015!

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There is life changing magic in tidying up. De-cluttering, giving things away, simplifying and taking a step back to see what is necessary and what simply takes up space. As the London Times puts it, sometimes “something is quietly profound: that mess is often about unhappiness, and that the right kind of tidying can be a kind of psychotherapy for the home as well as for the people in it … Its strength is its simplicity.”

15075790741_5157a4874f_o So guess what?!
We’ve unloaded our beautiful art center at Haiti Communitere. For 2015 we packed up our art essentials and brought them to our favorite girls orphanage to store in rainbow cabinets. And our gardening supplies now live at Rebuild Globally, just waiting for our Gardening Class relaunch.
Instead of paying $500/month in rent. We are paying just $25 a month.
We’ve downsized, simplified and are going back to our roots.

While we have downsized our stuff. We are gearing up to maximize our impact. We have many classes, workshops, partnerships and artist internships up our sleeves for 2015 and 2016. Please stay with us in the coming years. So many beautiful children, teachers, community leaders and artists depend on your support to keep Project HOPE Art flourishing.

We operate on just $10,000 a year.
Please consider making a donation so our wheels keep spinning, our lights keep flashing, our paint brushes keep splashing color and our speakers keep boldly blasting beats!

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Joyeux Noel, Tout Moun!

#worldfightsaids

Our partnership with Ti Kay is a clear and sharply defined example between Living and Living. Very indicative of the Project HOPE Art mission to inspire joy and whimsy.
Follow @tikayhaiti @projecthopeart and @ti_kay_cares and like our#worldfightsAIDS posts


Dr. Coffee keeps patients alive. And we swoop in with art supplies and remind them WHY it’s so important to win that fight to live. Life with vibrant color, purposeful joy and intentional whimsy is really all you need — beyond a clear bill of health.

Megan — we are so very proud of all your hard work and for the opportunity to come into the clinic several times a year.

At her clinic, Ti Kay (little house in Haitian Kreyol), Dr. Megan Coffee or Dokte Coffee provides free, high-quality medical care to Tuberculosis and HIV patients in Haiti. Ti Kay, Inc. is a medical non-profit organization that aims to treat, and hence prevent, tuberculosis in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

Based at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, HUEH (L’Hôpital de l’Université d’Etat d’Haïti), Ti Kay focuses on treating inpatients and outpatients. After the earthquake when the state sanatorium was not functional, the head nurse of the TB program and Megan Coffee, a US doctor, established an inpatient program for the care. The outpatient treatment was expanded after the earthquake.

Project HOPE Art has had the privilege of creating art with Ti Kay patients. Simple coloring projects and face painting added a light to an otherwise bed-bound day.

Patients young and old gathered around every available surface with any marker available to join in on our murals. We hope to create some more creative chaos at Ti Kay soon!

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The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and PhotoPhilanthropy are excited to announce the World Fights AIDS Photo Contest on Instagram. We are seeking photos from across the globe that resonate with the mission of EGPAF, the global leader in the fight to end AIDS.

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation isn’t only fighting AIDS, they are changing the way the world fights AIDS. They work hand-in-hand with governments, partners, mothers, families, volunteers and donors toward a health and social infrastructure that can end HIV/AIDS – and keep it eliminated.

Your assignment: Every community across the world has at least one unsung hero or grassroots organization working to eradicate this epidemic or ease the suffering of those who live with it. Share a photograph on Instagram of a group or individual in your community who is fighting against HIV/AIDS. Tag it with #WorldFightsAIDS and you will automatically be entered into the contest. Please also tag @photophilanthropy and@egpaf. The winning photographer will receive the Grand Prize of $1,000 USD.

If you’d like to donate directly, Ti Kay Haiti has ongoing needs for the following: 14 gauge venocaths

Oxygen concentrators
60 cc luer lock syringes
Small stopcocks
Protein powder
Protein bars
B6 vitamins
Milk powder
Iron pills
Please contact Dr Megan Coffee to arrange shipping at tikaycontact@gmail.com

#wingsfortacloban – a hurricane yolanda aftermath project

Soaring above your everyday struggles, free like a bird.

It’s an idea we’ve all wished could come true in times of difficulty and stress. Fueled by your generous donations, Artists Jamie Lloyd & Melissa Schilling (along with community organizer, Justin Victoria) were be able to gift children (and their families) living in the tent cities and bunkhouses of the Tacloban disaster zone the ability to fly above their problems. Wings for Tacloban are imaginary art wings created for children.

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The Wings
Project HOPE Art is an art collective that responds to disaster with pencils, paints, music and imagination.
We want to remind the children of Tacloban that they can overcome obstacles by gifting them the power to fly with wings. These wings do not just live on the chalkboard or wall. These wings belong to them and will allow them to fly and rise up above their problems, environment and situations. They should use their wings not just to solve their own problems but those issues facing their communities at large.

Nothing can stop a large group of living angels.

See our Wings Art Project in Haiti, featured in School Arts Magazine: http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/141579/54

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The project outcomes are multi-leveled.
In the simplest terms children are encouraged to have a fun portrait snapped, printed and handed over. A memory to serve as a reminder to overcome obstacles and head towards dreams and goals. Our mobile printing studio was set-up onsite inside the tent cities and bunk houses. Children watched as each digital image was edited on smart phones and ipads and then sent to the mini-printer. A 4X6 image was spit out seconds later.

In addition to print portrait images, community message boards were created and left behind in every area. A frank discussion was started amongst parents, teachers, community organizers and children regarding their personal paths since Hurricane Yolanda. Lessons were taught about transforming simple, everyday ingredients into action-based toolkits.

We painted everything from a de-constructed kitchen wall in the No-Build Zone to the shell of a school classroom in Palo. We created double sided chalkboards with plywood. We painted over graffiti with bright primary colors and created sleek, glossy spaces to draw, write and dream.

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Why Wings?
It has been nearly 7 months since Typhoon Haiyan, the world’s biggest-ever storm to make landfall, struck the central Philippines – killing more than 5,200 people, displacing 4.4 million and destroying $547m in crops and infrastructure.
In Leyte Province, 70 to 80 percent of the area was destroyed. Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, where five-metre waves flattened nearly everything in their path, suffered more loss of life than any other Philippine city. Outside the town centre, in a hillside cemetery, city workers have dug a mass gravesite which stretches along 100 metres.

Much of Tacloban has been turned to rubble, leaving many survivors homeless and dependent on aid.

Visiting the city, it is clear that – despite the help of the international community – it will take a very long time for the town to recover.

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About the Bunkhouses of Tacloban
The bunkhouses are made of corrugated sheets, plywood and coco lumber and measure
8.64 square meters. 27 Bunkhouses in the San Jose District of Tacloban with water and electricity have been completed as of April 1, 2014. Another 66 remain to be built and equipped with basic necessities. Each bunkhouse has 24 units, although big families are given two units. The partition per unit was collapsed to accommodate bigger families.

We be painted broken down concrete walls, plywood, an old kitchen wall — with chalkboard paint in a variety of colors. Once dry, we cured the walls and armed the occupants of the bunkhouses with chalk. We hope to encourage creative thinking and hope.

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Close to 2 million families were affected by the weather disturbance, considered to be the strongest typhoon on record to make landfall. 30 countries have already pledged financial and humanitarian aid amounting to 2.366 billion to victims of super typhoon Yolanda.

DIY
Use what you have. Any house paint will work, though we were able to find glossy latex. Mix in two heaping tablespoons of unsanded grout or plaster paris for every cup of paint. You may also make a thick paste of water and grout and then stir that into your tub or bucket of paint.
The final consistency should be that of thick yogurt.
For every 4X8′ Plywood Board plan on 3 cups in order to paint on two coats of paint.

Purchase Primary colors and allow the children to make their own custom hue.
We painted blue, red, purple and violet chalkboard walls.

Once the wall is dry, smudge chalk all over the surface.
Using an eraser or damp lint free rag remove the cured chalk smudges and begin your project.

For chalk we love big, chunky pieces of colored chalk. We traveled with a 48-pack of extra fat chalk in red, yellow, pink, blue and purple.

Good Luck and Happy Creating!

Rooz Cafe presents . . . The Industry Collaborative Show!

Join us for a Happy Hour Reception at Rooz Cafe.
1918 Park Blvd, Oakland CA 94606
Thursday, June 12th 6-10pm

Mimosas, Beer and Espresso await you along with the sounds of Brass Tax dj’s Ernie Trevino, Alex Mace and maybe a sneak attack by Denim Ding Dong (DDD)aaaand an ambient musical performance by local, Oakland duo Charlemagne Charmaine and William Korte.
(Catharsis for Cathedral, Brasil, Drifting House)

Featuring POP-UP PONCHOS by SuperSugarRayRay
and a pop-up jewelry show by Tidalware Jewelry (Sharla Pidd).

6-7:30 Charlemagne Charmaine and William Korte
7:30-10 Brass Tax

…About the Art Show…
Industry: an activity or domain in which a great deal of time or effort is expended a group show examining hard work in specific artistic genres and spheres of life

Martin Goicoechea: Women
Exploring the female form through a variety of mixed media methods including: acrylics, transfers, watercolor, ink, wood block and charcoal.
Contact: Martin.Goicochea@me.com

Melissa Schilling: Automobile Photography
The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and, as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass-production, rapidly evolved into the largest in the world. These photographs represent frozen in time moments in Havana, Cuba where many cars from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s permeate the roadways and garages.
It was such a thrill (on blueberry hill) to experience car travel the way my grandparents experienced it.
www.melissaschilling.com

Nick Huckleberry: Recycled Creations
Its overwhelming what is thrown out these days. A large busy metal shop may throw out bunches of pieces as general waste to them but gold to the artist. I have salvaged most of my materials, always trying to bring nature to the pieces by incorporating organic shapes. Bringing new life to old waste is a way of using energies of the old and introducing them to the new, creating a balanced harmony.
www.trueburningreality.com

Project HOPE Art: Cyanotype
Art in Haiti usually requires less materials and more creativity. For this project we needed only the sun, vegetables from our garden and a few chemicals.
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ammonium iron(III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide.

Students in a Gardening Class in Port au Prince, Haiti created these cyanotype prints in February 2014. This was their very first time mixing chemicals and using their “design” eye to arrange kitchen utensils, fruits and vegetables on textured watercolor paper for 10 minutes under the brilliant Caribbean sun.
www.projecthopeart.org

Sarah Miller: Textile Photography
Laundry and People on the streets of Calcutta.
Contact: sarahmiller23@gmail.com

Interactive Portrait Project

Photo: Mica Angela Hendricks
Photo: Mica Angela Hendricks

We’re always on the look-out for collaborative art projects perfect for kids and adults.
Inspired by Mica Angela Hendricks over at Distractify we give you: The Haiti Portrait Exchange!

Simply mail us an 8.5X11 drawing of a face with room for a body, background scenery and other imaginations and we’ll take it down to Haiti. One of our art students will finish your drawing. We’ll post the results here on the Project HOPE Art blog.

Like us on Facebook to stay connected with updates from The Haiti Portrait Exchange!

Mail to: 2601 Adeline Street, Suite 101A Project HOPE Art, Oakland CA 94607
Deadline: October 15, 2014
Portraits will travel to Haiti in November of 2014. Watch for results in 2015!