CommUNITY Tree (2014 Doorways to Hope Project)
Mixed Media; 24' mural on interior doors
Current Location: Separate doors will reside in Lincoln Lancaster County Habitat for Humanity Homes
Inspiration/Application Statement
Doorways to Hope, a community art project I co-chaired in Lincoln, NE in 2013/2014 culminated at a large event on October 5, 2014 at the Abbott Sports Complex on the north end of town. The goal of the event was to bring people from all over the community to celebrate the day together and raise money for Lincoln Lancaster County Habitat for Humanity and Hildegard Center for the Arts. The project was a joint effort and called artists to work with groups in the community to create pieces of art representing hope and new beginnings. These art pieces were auctioned off during the event while fun activities and entertainment went on.
My role that day was an interactive art project. It was a smaller version of the mural I did at New Orleans two years earlier at the ELCA conference. I had learned from that experience that it was hard to get people excited to paint if they didn't have a visual example. SO I decided to have some leaves already in place before the day of the event. Working with Stephanie Novacek at Habitat for Humanity, we approached the Lincoln Children's Museum to help us gather leaves by having their camps and kids who visited over the summer create leaves on white paper. We had over 600 leaves returned to us, so volunteers helped us cut out the leaves and paste them on the painted branches so that the mural was ready for visitors on the 5th.
This project became my community project in which I got to see and experience the joy of working with others on an art project. It was exciting to watch people come together to add their leaves to the mural. The final photo above shows the mural with over 1000 leaves on it.
Statement for the Mural:
Each one of us is not only unique but extremely important to this city, just like each leaf is to the health and growth of a tree. Each leaf is positioned in such a way that it takes in the most light in order to create food for the trunk's sustainability. If even one leaf is taken from the tree, it doesn't perform at its optimum. This mural is a representation of wholeness and unity, but it took a community to finish it - each person adding his/her leaf to the door.
Mixed Media; 24' mural on interior doors
Current Location: Separate doors will reside in Lincoln Lancaster County Habitat for Humanity Homes
Inspiration/Application Statement
Doorways to Hope, a community art project I co-chaired in Lincoln, NE in 2013/2014 culminated at a large event on October 5, 2014 at the Abbott Sports Complex on the north end of town. The goal of the event was to bring people from all over the community to celebrate the day together and raise money for Lincoln Lancaster County Habitat for Humanity and Hildegard Center for the Arts. The project was a joint effort and called artists to work with groups in the community to create pieces of art representing hope and new beginnings. These art pieces were auctioned off during the event while fun activities and entertainment went on.
My role that day was an interactive art project. It was a smaller version of the mural I did at New Orleans two years earlier at the ELCA conference. I had learned from that experience that it was hard to get people excited to paint if they didn't have a visual example. SO I decided to have some leaves already in place before the day of the event. Working with Stephanie Novacek at Habitat for Humanity, we approached the Lincoln Children's Museum to help us gather leaves by having their camps and kids who visited over the summer create leaves on white paper. We had over 600 leaves returned to us, so volunteers helped us cut out the leaves and paste them on the painted branches so that the mural was ready for visitors on the 5th.
This project became my community project in which I got to see and experience the joy of working with others on an art project. It was exciting to watch people come together to add their leaves to the mural. The final photo above shows the mural with over 1000 leaves on it.
Statement for the Mural:
Each one of us is not only unique but extremely important to this city, just like each leaf is to the health and growth of a tree. Each leaf is positioned in such a way that it takes in the most light in order to create food for the trunk's sustainability. If even one leaf is taken from the tree, it doesn't perform at its optimum. This mural is a representation of wholeness and unity, but it took a community to finish it - each person adding his/her leaf to the door.