Standard 1 and Standard 4 classroom which we have painted with teaching aids and murals to improve the learning environment in Mzuzu schools. I have hired a Malawian friend to continue painting at Mzuzu schools see below (click the "read more" link) for the missions, core values, and budget of the project. If you would like to sponsor a classroom or donate in part please contact me. We are eager to finish painting the remaining 12 classrooms at Zolozolo Primary School and move onto other schools in Mzuzu.

MISSION

Yesterday I visited Zolozolo Primary School for the Grand Opening ceremonies for their new library. This school recieved 1.5 tons of books from the World Care shipment. Zolozolo has dedicated a small room for the library, built shelves, labeled everything by category, and are making arrangements for student library cards and class visits to the library for reading time. This is a school that only had 1 book per 6 or so kids before this shipment.

These two paintings recently sold. I wanted to post them here since I won't be showing them back home.
"The Village in The Sky" acrylic on canvas (left)
"Malawi Mama Returning Home" egg tempera (right)

Recently, I exhibited my landscape paintings at the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM) Artsfest. It was a fund raiser for the organization, and an avenue for local artists and expat artists to professionally exhibit their work. Most Malawian artists rely on selling to tourists that they meed on the streets. Personally, I was impressed with the quality and variety of work at the show.

Malawian Corkscrew

Local Classroom Before MuralsI remember mine…they were white but there was hardly any white showing. One wall was entirely huge glass windows that looked outside to a nice lawn with beautiful trees and bushes, the other had miles and miles of chalk board, the third was a wall of cabinets covered in paintings from art class, reports and pictures from class, and the last was covered in bulletin boards with a rainbow of colors, words, shapes and themes of all sorts. On top of that we had carpet with beanbags for reading time, a game corner, a mini-library, a fish tank, personalized desks, and large tables for projects. That’s what you call a learning environment. A space that is comfortable, inviting and inspiring. Surrounded by words, colors and pictures a child can learn on his own.

Makeshift ClassroomThis blog is long, LONG overdue. Back in April I started visiting local primary (grades 1-8) and secondary (grades 9-12) schools, planning for the distribution of books coming from World Care in Tucson. We were expecting the container to ship out from the World Care warehouses at the end of May, which would have it arriving in Malawi 3-6 months later. Just last Friday, October 20th , we received the container in Mzuzu and unloaded 30,000 lbs of books into an empty classroom at Mzuzu University where they will be stored during distribution. This literally doubles, even quadruples in some cases, the number of books at these schools. It’s very exciting to be a part of this effort.

I have commissioned local woodcarver and artist, Solomon and Gilbert, to make custom, hand carved frames for my paintings. I’m getting ready for exhibitions back home and thought that it would be a nice touch to have frames made in Malawi especially since woodcarving is the main art form here. In addition, it makes work for local artists!

A while back I did an egg tempera paint making demonstration with the Youth AIDS Resource Center in Ekwendeni (a small town just north of Mzuzu). The center is run by the CCAP (Central Church of Africa Presbyterian) and has some 26 youth clubs around the area. One of their clubs is the handmade paper making club. Using recycled materials (office papers, newspaper, etc) they make their own paper and cards for sale. The proceeds goes towards paying school fees for orphans and providing food for the HIV/AIDS home-based care program out in the villages. Before I did my demonstration they were decorating cards with collages (leafs, feathers, dried flowers, etc), but expressed interest in painting. It was a perfect opportunity to share the results of my experimentation with natural pigments. This group doesn’t have it in their budget to be buying paint but they can easily dig up colorful soils in their “backyard”, make charcoal and collect white chalk from schools.

I am kind of discouraged after a week of experimenting with making oil paints using natural pigments and linseed oil. The conclusion of my experiments is that it doesn’t work. My pigments all come from soils and I was using linseed oil bought at the local hardware store. The linseed oil turns the pigment powders about five shades darker, and after a week, they still haven’t dried. Linseed oil is supposed to be a “drying oil” meaning that with oxidation a chemical change takes place turning the oil into a dry plastic-like solid. It’s a bit of a shame that this didn’t work since I have 4 liters of linseed oil sitting in our shed.