09Ls art projects

As you may have seen from other blog posts, this expedition we have been lucky enough to have had an artist among the team of volunteer managers. Full of energy and creativity, Becca has bought another dimension to the expedition, encouraging staff, venturers and members of the communities in which we have worked to express their creativity and try their hand at making their own works of art. Becca's vision on Raleigh has been to make art accessible and appealing to everyone, regardless of their past exerience and ability, and to this end she came up with a range of projects that everyone could get stuck into and feel part of. The best example of this has to be the community centre, where each member of the Raleigh team and each member of the village, from babies to grandmothers left their colourful handprint on the wall. Becca also created her own work of art, a series of poems printed upon photos of the places which inspired them, and this in turn has inspired staff and venturers to write their own poems, many of which are now proudly displayed in the windows of fieldbase. Below is a selection of the artwork created by 09L.

The work of 09L

Becca on her birthday with absent PM's David the photographer and Alex the driver brought to life in fieldbase

One of the most exciting projects which every member of 09L fully embraced was the challenge to look at the environment in a different way. This was inspired by Michelangelo's perfect circle drawn in 1508 and the aim was to find as many perfect circles in nature as possible.

Land Art-The Costa Rican flag and the Raleigh logo created from Raleighreallia (everyday Raleigh objects).

Nicaragua

Costa Rica

Even in the Jungle, Becca found ways to keep out of mischief by making a chess and monopoly board out of an old piece of wood she found.......

...and she created a mosaic to mark the beginning of the trail Raleigh constructed, which was the pride of the Park Rangers.

While living in the community Becca and the whole Miraflor crew put on an art day with the whole village, it was well attended, starting with the children making pasta jewelry and ending with the local Policeman doing a painting. This got all the community excited about the art that was to be painted on their community centre and they all seems very proud.

The village of El Zacaton asked for this local bird- a Quetzal, to be painted on the wall, and it was the talk of the village..........

and the hand prints of every member of the Raleigh team and all of the community of El Zacaton. 'La union hace la fuerza' translates as, 'Unity makes us strong'.

The other end wall was decorated with a world map, which some of the community members had never seen, so after painting it, a red dot was put on the map to mark where each member of the team came from.

Note from Becca

I have been so inspired by all the ideas and passion that I have witnessed in the members of 09L. Some of my most memorable moments of this expedition were; sitting in a rainy Jungle with 8 ventures crowded around a table drawing in candle light, then to see people who said they couldn't draw end up painting the most beautiful birds and animals on the wall of the community centre in El Zacaton, (Dudley, Joe, and Dennis you know who you are), to see all the work displayed at the end of this phase, and there is so much of it, to see people's poems hanging in the windows and to have the absolute support of all the VM's, PM's, Ross, Julian and Don Martin without any of who the art wouldn't have been the success it has been.

Tonight there will be a showing of the short films the venturers have made.

I have been so happy to have been here on 09L with such an amazing group of people. Becca