Full Mural Draft 1

I posted several snapshots of the mural drawing two nights ago. Here they are all stitched together. Since this draft there have been some revisions at the request of members of the Sikoro Asaco and some people associated with the clinic.

The mural design has basic elements of the clinic, the village and the GAIA organization. The two most prominent themes within the mural are the hands and the mango tree.

The mango tree is representative of a mango tree which is planted in the clinic’s courtyard. It was planted by Annie DeGroot and the village Chief. It represents putting roots down in the village and signifies the growth of the clinic and its offerings within Sikoro.

The large hands and many of the figures’ hands within the piece are representative of the clinic’s HIV education program called Here Bolo. Basically this uses the five digits on the hand to represent different facets of combatting HIV and its stigmatization.

thumb – espoir (hope)

index finger – identite (identity which means identifying whether you and your partner have HIV or not)

middle finger – transmision (transmission which talks about how the virus is actually transmitted and informs people about prevention)

ring finger – femme, famile, fidelite (this covers caring for and respecting women, family support of HIV positive people and remaining faithful to your partner)

fifth finger – community (the importance of a communal approach to fighting HIV/AIDS (fifth finger completing the whole hand).

All of these elements are represented in the piece within scenes under the mango tree which grows from a seed to a full tree providing shade and fruit to the community from left to right.

In this form the mural also looks like one of those pages from Highlights magazine where you try to find the differences. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow. Wow, now you’ve got a lot to look forward to.

Click the image to see it big.