I’m so glad that you stopped by Caryl’s Art Happenings!

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Hello beautiful people,  

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As you may know, this Artist with a Purpose has just returned to      Maryland from 2 months in Florida learning so much while co-creating Community Garden Art projects!                         

What a blessing-to co-create in Farmworker communities around 

our commonality LOVING MOTHER EARTH!                                                    

  

My time with the Farm Workers Association of Florida-La Asociacion Campesina de Florida this Winter has been amazing, while visioning our project there was a lot of Sharing Stories about gardening in our families, ancestry and our current practice.
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I traveled South right after the Women's March to visit four distinct Farmworker communities in Pierson, Fellsmere, Homestead and Apopka. 

                                                                                                

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FWAF has co-created community gardens at each site engaging their community in a cooperative model. This is very important, especially because often communities live in classic food deserts.  

Yes, I did say that the people who grow our food live in food deserts! 

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The gardens are a labor of love by all who participate. I was honored to work with those who love nature as I do and were open to creative action. There was so much wisdom about the plants, the land and water, the animals and birds, insects….you get the idea.

More pics and stories to follow....
This project is supported by:

Sembrando Semillas Creciendo Nuestras Historias Ancestrales Community Tótem Project

-->Meet Our Interns-

Both interns shared that they have a greater understanding of how enpowering  the act of bringing artmaking-creativity and imagination into community building activities can be.

Adan Rodriguez, 17 

                                                       


















 Mariely Castillo, 18,

 They are both students at Sebastian River High School, in Fellsmere FL.

This Week Adan and Mariely are interns with the Farmworkers Association of Florida. Their work will be with artist and Environmental Justice activist 

Caryl Henry Alexander.

Together they will co-create 4 garden totems for a project titled

Sembrando Semillas, Creciendo Nuestras Historias  Ancestrales

with the Fellsmere Camposino community.

On Thursday and Friday evening they got oriented to the project plan of action, created concepts and themes that reflect their community and developed designs and made  preparations for the painting on Saturday and Sunday.

Adan saw a post on social media and thought it would be fun to see what was going on. He was interested in the art aspect of this project and experiencing something

new. Adan has worked with the Farmworkers Association of Florida on a local, state

and national level. He says his most rewarding as well as his most challenging thing about this project was painting and getting to meet new people.

Adan said Thursday, and Friday were both interesting climax of ideas and

brainstorms of abstract thought for the paintings which were to be painted

Saturday. Saturday was a commotion which played out smoothly as the day came to

a close with beautiful art as a product. Sunday was the day that everything came to a

close, with music, food, and art to accompany the mood.

For Mariely her dad owns a plot in the community garden and Maria, the garden manager asked Mariely if she was interested in working on the community art project.  Mariely has volunteered at The Lords Table Food Kitchen since last summer and thought  that this community art with a purpose would be fun.

Mariely appreciates the fact that the project work  groups are small so that we can keep ourselves together. She said that all the nights were interesting but Saturday and Sunday were the most fun because everyone was painting.

Rollingcrest/Chillum CC Heros and Sheros Totem Project March 2016

It was a beautiful day when we installed the totems 

at Rollingcrest/Chillum CC

The young artists who participated in the project were too cute and too proud of their community's Heros and She-ros!

Got it installed just before dark!

Greetings!
Well we just got back to the studio-
my How do like Bernie Now sign has been installed at Green and Woodyard.

It was back in 1988 that NY artist David Hammons created an artwork that shook up the community. His work "How do you like me now" is explained in this NYT article.

                                 

I loved the artwork, it gave a visual start and when you really look at the painting it is interesting looking, the features and the colors that the artist used are otherworldly.

So here in Prince Georges County it is time to vote on Tuesday and from where I sit, it looks like neither candidate is expending much capital in our area. The Clinton campaign sent the mothers of black men who have been killed by police, to a local church and it looks like Hillary is presumptive. This is how the painting was handled when it came to DC.

There are not any signs around our neighborhood for the candidates. It's hard to believe that it was just 4 years ago that Creative Currency sought to bring words of compassion to the political sign pollution.

The sign was interesting to create.
I had to choose the ideas that Bernie advocates that I thought would speak to this community.
It was also a challenge to draw Bernie and then paint him black, which really changed the energy of the painting.  We'll see what happens

Lake Wales is an excellent site for our project!

The space where the conference was held is sited on a lagoon

 that is connected to Lake Wales.

 

The camp was full of air plants, all over the trees, hanging in tendrils! There were oaks, palms, water plants and grapevine, philodendron, pine, white vine and oh so many more plants.

This old building that is being taken over by the local plants, was an excellent site for gathering materials. 

The camp was full of air plants, all over the trees, hanging in tendrils! There were oaks, palms, water plants and grapevine, philodendron, pine, white vine and oh so many more plants.

We had some great fun feeling the Mother under our feet and exploring the property.

Gratitude and Gathering with Gabby

I had met up with Gabby Milch on my way down
to DelRey Beach.
Yeah! Gabby is coming to the conference with me to collaborate on the plant based visioning project,

It was late in January and she took some folks on a plant walk in her local area. 

I have to say that Gabby brilliantly shared her knowledge of the local plant history and growing habits. Offering a memorable experience

We walked talked and gathered examples of Lakeland’s interesting plants.
I saw flowers, roots, fungi, reeds and seeds, vines, trees and grasses.

At the end of the path was a beautiful burned out great great great grandmother tree. Ancient tree that was burned down by someone smoking meth!

Collaborative imagining is at the center of this year’s Florida Herbal Conference project for this Artist With Purpose.

 I know that collective imagining around our community’s future 

is a fun and fruitful creative action.

So this year for the Florida Herbal Conference I proposed, to Emily, that Our Beloved Herbal Community imagine what we see for the community in ten years time. I asked that each participant envision their role in actualizing their vision. and to create a symbol of that imagining for the community mandala.

In preparation for my Florida creative plant adventures,  I challenged my self to learn a bit about Central Florida’s botanical family. Most specifically migratory plants. And in a community of plant loving people, 

there was a lot of wisdom sharing at the site.

Three Part Harmony Farm Community Mural Project Recap

Hi friends, I want to share one of my most favorite community projects in 2015. It took place at Three Part Harmony Farm in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington DC.

 

When I first met Gail Taylor two years ago at the Annual EcoHermanas/ Centro Ache Herbal Encuentro in DC, she was selling strong healthy seedlings. I’ve since learned that Gail is such a brilliant woman with spirit, a beautiful sister with love for la madre tierra, community and growing healthy food!

So, happily in 2015 EcoHermanas partnered with 3PH to bring a USDAC Imagination Station to the farm’s Fall Festival and Garlic planting.

Our creative project involved creating an Imagination Station that offered participants a chance to envision their community 25 years into the future. And to see their role in making this happen. 

At the station there were two activities

Poet Jesse Alexander facilitated a community poem

I facilitated a community collaborative mural.

A good time was had by all as documented in a video of the day by Jordan Mendys and

An awesome photo slide show by TylerGrigsby

Enjoy!

The Allentown Splash Park Water Tank Community Mural "Coral Reef"

The Allentown Splash Park Water Tank was an outstanding site for a aquatics themed community mural. I was so excited when the MNCPPC invited me to create an artwork in collaboration with the centers community.

At the Splash Park there is a large active community in place, The Elite Rays. They are a community of young swimmers and their families that are committed to excellence.

We shared about 8 sessions, the first two were focused on concept and design and the final 6 workshops focused on working together, to create and actualize this 40ft x 5 ft round mural.

For me as the project artist, high points were during the collaborative painting process where multidisciplinary learning was in serious action. Drawing to scale, mixing colors, communicating ideas yada yada yada!

The Rays stepped up to the project with great interest and skills. Parents were also actively involved throughout the process.

See pics of project process.

Our greatest assets on this project were Stewart Seal who put the project together, Nancy Weiman who provided the tank, artists Larry Jones and Alpha Bruton, and our awesome volunteers Korey and Ashley who I want to thank for sharing their creativity!