Shared Water, 2022
By Kevin Ledo and Apt Arts for One Blue Sky Project/@kevinledo @samystan @aptarts
“Shared Water, my most recent mural with One BlueSky Project in Fall River, Massachusetts for Viva Murals Fall River & Beyond Walls. The image is of Juliana, one of the youths who we photographed, for this oversea cultural exchange mural with Tierra Bomba, Colombia.”
“Shared Water, my most recent mural with One BlueSky Project in Fall River, Massachusetts for Viva Murals Fall River & Beyond Walls. The image is of Juliana, one of the youths who we photographed, for this oversea cultural exchange mural with Tierra Bomba, Colombia.”
We met with some 4 & 5th grade students at the summer program at John J. Doran Elementary school, and we introduced them to another group of kids over the internet in Tierra Bomba, Colombia. In their exchanges both sides got to learn about each other’s culture and way of life.
In Fall River we brainstormed about what they all have in common, and living by water came out on top, and so we found our theme for the artwork. @samystan and I choose some of the kids to photograph and we met them and their parents at the local pool. I ultimately chose an image of Juliana to be in my design.
Each day the children would learn about Tierra Bomba, exchange videos and brainstorm about what they would like to add to the bottom of the mural which I began painting directly on their school. On one of the finals days the kids got to have a fun and messy practice run on a large canvas. The next day they painted their image or word on the bottom of the mural. They painted beautiful images of ocean life, and words of clean water and fun in the water.
The One Blue Sky Project team is now in Colombia with artist Jonathan Darby to paint a mural with the children there. The exchange is ongoing.
My mural had a heavy painting assist from Samantha Robinson and really came together with the support from the amazing team at Beyond Walls. Thank you to everyone and to Viva Fall River and FRACC for helping make this possible.
Part of Viva Murals, a FRACC and Viva Fall River project in partnership with the Beyond Walls Tour.
Photos by TostFilms.
Thank you to the 40+ individuals whose generous donations made this work possible. Thank you for your sponsorship Beyond Walls, BankFive Fund at the SouthCoast Community Foundation, SE Mass Visitors Bureau, Portugalia Marketplace, BayCoast Bank, St. Anne's Credit Union, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III, Virtual Admin Solutions, and Fall River Public Schools.