Youth Mural Project: Escola Infancia Feliz

For my next project, I spent 2 weeks working with students in the school Infancia Feliz, which provides an education to some of Praia's poorest kids, many of whom would not have a chance to go to school if it weren't for the school. I met with them to discuss the images and themes they would like to use in the artwork. The first mural featured the Cape Verdean flag and Amilcar Cabral, the revolutionary leader, and local patterns called "pano de terra." For the next 2 murals with the kids, I invented a technique aimed to harness the high energy of the kids in the school, which can be challenging to control. The idea is that the kids, using a pre-chosen color scheme, draw anything they want-- they write their names, funny phrases, hand prints, and draw little pictures of butterflies and hearts and so on. They loved it! I then used this jumble of kids' creativity as the background to the murals. The first is an anti-drug piece that the kids wanted to do, using a poem by one of the students in their language, kriolu. The second featured a child and the phrase "Nhos djobi pa nos," which means "look at us," "pay attention to us," and "help us," all at the same time, in reference to the school's mission.

putting some finishing touches on the Cabral mural

the kids showing off their creativity!

finished piece

detail pic

detail pic

everyone wanted to paint!

completed!

detail

school children enjoying the new artwork they helped create

me and Alex with the finished product

Mural and spray paint workshops at the Palacio da Cultura Ildo Lobo

In February I led a series of workshops with local graffiti artists and art teachers, aimed at exposing them to a variety of public art styles and spray paint techniques.

students working on their pieces

me giving a spray paint demonstration

First mural project in Cape Verde is completed

My first mural in Cape Verde is located on the outside wall of the Amilcar Cabral Foundation in the center of Praia, Cape Verde's capital city. As always, I collaborated with locals to come up with images that would appropriately celebrate the country's history and culture. We choose the face and the words of the revolutionary hero of both Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, Amilcar Cabral, who fought against Portuguese colonization and was assassinated in 1973. The piece also includes images of Cape Verde's animals and plants, a typical street market, and the youth. The artwork includes a variety of techniques in acrylic and spray paint, and utilizes stencils of Cape Verdean traditional patterns that I created especially for this mural. It took 3 weeks to complete.

 "I swear to myself that I have to give all my life, all my energy, all my corage, all my capacity that I can as a man, until the day that I die, to the service of my people in Guine (Bissau) and Cape Verde, to serve the cause of humanity in order to make my contribution as much as possible, so that the life of mankind becomes better. This is my work." -Amilcar Cabral, 1969

Passarinho and albotroz

detail



detail



market scene and Dragoeiro tree

Project featured in the newspaper A Semana

On Feb. 2, I was featured in the influential local newpaper A Semana. To see the article, click on the picture below:

Exhibition of my work at the Palacio da Cultura Ildo Lobo

In January, the Palacio da Cultura (Palace of Culture), the capital city's only major center for the arts, hosted an opening reception for my exhibition in Cape Verde. The public came to see photography of many of my major public art projects around the world, with the background story of each one. I gave a presentation of my work, in which I explained the connection between education, art, social action, and community development.

me giving my presentation

Me with my friends Xina, Samira and Alex after the exhibition

Camping in the Serra Malagueta

In order to get to know a very different side of Cape Verde, I traveled out of the capital and into the interior of the island Santiago with a group of friends. We spent the night camping in the mountains, and hiked around, enjoying the beautiful views. We stopped at the mountain house of a friend and his family for a visit.

Mural project on the nightly news

As I got to work, news of the project spread quickly. Before long, Cape Verde's main television channel, TCV,  was on the scene to interview me, my friend and project coordinator Alex Carvalho, and the director of the Palacio da Cultura, Samira Pereira. The story was aired on the Sunday evening and Monday afternoon editions of the news.

Click here to see the video

The President of Cape Verde visits Joel

As I was working on the mural, the president of Cape Verde, Pedro Pires, stopped by to meet me and see the artwork. We chatted and took pictures, and the president said he liked the artwork and couldn't wait to see the end result.

Getting to work!

On my second day in Cape Verde, I got to work on my first mural! The day was January 20th, the anniversary of the assasination of the revolutionary hero Amilcar Cabral, who fought against the Portuguese colonizers in the 60's and 70's to free both Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau. To commemorate this important figure, I painted his portrait on the outside wall of the Amilcar Cabral Foundation in the center of Praia, Cape Verde's capital city. The portrait was the beginning of a mural project that would include imagery of the country's culture, history, and natural environment, images that were chosen with the collaboration of local friends.

Alex helping out on the mural!

me and Alex