Emanating Hills

While working on the California canyon-hills today, I remembered collaging this simple design in an earlier series.

In prep for going to Rwanda in '07, I read the book, Land of a Thousand Hills. The book inspired me to create a 1,000 hills !!! each hill collaged on a manila shipping tag. The emanation stopped at around 40. Here's 18 of them. Collages are around 5" x 2 1/2"

My artist friend, A.J. Picard, went to Rwanda ahead of me and took some spectacular photos for inspiration back in his studio. This photo of AJ's is one of my favorites, hangs framed in our home & was inspiring when I started collaging the hills.

To see AJ's spectacular pastels here's his web site & the link to go directly to his Rwanda artwork.

http://www.picardstudio.com/

http://www.picardstudio.com/portfolio.rwanda.html

Back to creating the California canyon-hills tomorrow.

Planning for Rwanda

Yesterday Kathie Beattie & I met with Becca Smith, visiting from Rwanda. Kathie & I will be going to Rwanda in Sept. where the 3 of us will work together under the banner of World Relief.

Over lunch we began filling in the 2 wk. schedule with genocide survivor workshops; quality time/art with World Relief staff women; leading creative retreat for NGO women; visits to Amani & Cards From Africa.

I'll be doing art & Kathie, photography. More in upcoming posts.

(top)The women at Amani made this beautiful quilt as a gift for Kathie. Becca holding her adopted Rwandan son, Iranzi.

(lower) At Amani in Rwanda, sewing from dawn to dusk, making a living for their families.

http://www.amaniafrica.org/

http://cardsfromafrica.com/

Story Ropes in Rwanda

For those who asked for more details about the Rwanda experience, here are 2 workshop pics. (top) Beginning to demo how to create the story rope at a class in western Rwanda. In the back are my original quilts also used to help them process their stories. (bottom) I'm surrounded by the World Relief staff with their newly created story ropes.

For more about this experience, link to my website at the bottom of ABOUT ME. Go to >The Journey >Rwanda.

Stations #11 update: more cutting and pasting; pushing around buttons; waiting on Pat for French translation.