My Art Show Happened!!!!!!

Hey guys! 

I just read an article about how a lot of people are stuck in this cycle of accomplishing things and needing to always be moving forward and working towards the next goal. We don't always stop to just say: "hey, I just finished/achieved a thing!" before trying to get to the next thing. I just want to take a minute to feel excited about a thing I just finished. 

I displayed a series of 13 paintings that I've been making since 2010, when I returned from the Peace Corps in Madagascar. The paintings tell the story of my life there. I showed those paintings, along with drawings that Malagasy friends made me while I was there, for 2 weeks here in Portland. On March 24th, I invited my friends, family, and others in the community to come see the show, and also watch me narrate a slideshow of pictures from my time in Madagascar. March is Peace Corps' birthday - in March of 1961, President Kennedy made Peace Corps official, and started sending people overseas. So, Peace Corps as an organization, likes to help Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV's) have events like mine in March. The goal is to "bring it home" - to tell stories and share other parts of the world with Americans, that they might not know much about.  Peace Corps' main goal as an organization is literally, "World peace and friendship" (so 1960's.... either that or so Miss America). So a big part of that goal, is just sharing what you learn from living in a different culture, with people at home who may not know anything about that culture. So that's kind of why I did the presentation, and I think it went really well! Almost 80 people came! Lots of RPCV's attended - only about half of which I actually knew. I had all of them stand up and say the country they went to, and the years they were there. Pretty emotional to see all those RPCV's in the audience stand up - their support means a lot to me. 

It felt so cool also, to be able to show a series of paintings that are so deeply personal to me. I am a commercial artist; most of the time I am making art, I am making it for someone else, the way they ask me to make it. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy that - getting to help people solve their visual problems, or brighten their spaces with art, is very fulfilling. But when I have something I want to say to the world about something I have personally experienced, it also feels incredibly fulfilling to see those feelings come alive on canvas. People's responses have been great, too, which is always nice. I'm not yet ready to sell any of the originals (who knows, maybe I will try to show the series again at some point). So I made a ton of prints of my work, and have been selling them both at the event, and online here:

www.etsy.com/shop/coriehinton

So far, I've made almost $800 in profits from selling these prints, and I am getting ready to donate it all to an organization that I believe in very much. Population Services International is the single most impressive charity-type organization I saw while in Madagascar (and that's saying something, because there are a lot!). PSI actually walks the walk of being a sustainable development agency. I never met a PSI employee in Madagascar who was not themselves, Malagasy. They work to improve health conditions for people around the country (and also all over the world - their headquarters are in Washington DC). I once went out with a group of PSI-employed sex workers, equipped with PSI fanny packs full of contraception info and supplies, to a park where younger, more inexperienced sex workers often found clients. Peer-to-peer education. PSI also hires Malagasy pop stars to make hit songs and music videos about health topics such as maternal health. Then, PSI educators will go out to rural villages with generators so they can play those music videos for people, as part of their presentations. Anyway, I could go on and on about PSI and their work... they're just really great. So if you like my art and wanna support a great organization, you can buy a print from me from the link above, and I will donate all the money I've made so far in one big chunk at the end of April. Or, you can go to www.psi.org and donate to them directly :) 

Anyway, just taking this moment to stop, exhale, and feel proud of what I just worked hard at making happen. It's been a great few years of painting and was a great event. I'm so happy I was able to do it and so thankful to everyone who came and helped me make it special. I won't ever feel really "done" talking about Peace Corps (sorry, friends!) and probably will continue to paint about Madagascar throughout my life. BUT, this whole thing has given me a bit of closure, too. Yay. 

Onward!

Annoyed at Mom-a-razzi

On Losing All Your Work

I just read this article that popped up on facebook called "Pixar, U2, and the Horrific Feeling of Losing all Your Work" . Not that much too it, just saying how it indeed, sucks to lose all your work. Just reminded me of my own experience losing an entire body of work. Here's the story.

This is what my house looked like while I was living in Madagascar. This is the "before" shot. Pretty gorgeous, huh? (Some days, it's painful how much I wanna go back to this exact spot and hang out.)

 Aaaaand this is the "after" shot: a bush fire rolled through the village and burnt my house entirely to the ground. I was out of town on business, but came home to this.

That's what the neighborhood looked like. :( My amazing friends and neighbors went into my BURNING HOUSE and rescued a lot of my belongings though, which I was so grateful for. They weren't however, able to rescue all the paintings I had been working on. I had them all hung up on my walls, and they were all done on paper, so I'm sure they were one of the first things to get swallowed up in the flames.

For me, the fire was kinda like spilling coffee on your laptop. And it was a horrible sinking feeling, knowing that all I had left were the fuzzy memories (no pictures) of what the paintings looked like, and some sketches in my journal (which thankfully, I had with me and was not in the house.) Anyway, I guess my point of this story is, things can get lost in an instant. A whole series of artwork can get lost in seconds. And it really sucks. But when I got home to the U.S., I re-painted them ALL. And you know what? Had I NOT lost those paintings, I never would have painted the following ones. And I really, truly, am much happier with the way the re-dos came out, rather than the originals (it helped that I had access to much better art supplies for the re-dos, too)

The series of paintings were all based on books I read during peace corps. I read a lot there, and just started painting the female protagonists of the stories, as I imagined them. I called the series, "Literary Heroines". Here's some of the work from the series. To see them all, clicky. 

So I guess my point in all this is: keep trying? Try again. Make it all the way over again. You might like things better that way anyway. :)

Latest painting and making plans!

I've had "Blog" on my to do list for awhile now, but haven't felt like I've had much to talk about. So I'll show you what I've been working on:

That's the latest in a series I've been working on since I guess technically, 2008. I've been drawing and painting about my experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer living and working in Madagascar, since my first week in the country back in February of 2008....(holy crap I was 22!) Drawing in my journals, and painting murals on walls (the ones I could find that were sturdier than the ones made of reeds...like my own house there, haha!) kept me sane and happy. After I got evacuated, the need to paint about it was even stronger, since I was absolutely not ready to leave yet, but had to (I got to go back and finish my service tho...yay!) And now, coming up on 4 years since I came home, I still feel the need to paint about it. But now, it's mostly to help me feel connected to a place that's full of things and people I love, but is incredibly far away. I'm not sure how many more paintings I'll make for the series... or if I'll ever stop painting about Madagascar.  It will always be a second home and therefore something that feels good to paint about, but also, a wealth of ridiculously beautiful and inspiring subject matter. An artist's paradise. But I would like to start a new body of work at some point, too. Anyway, for the sake of putting things in writing that you want to have happen someday, here are my plans for the series, whenever I do finally decide it's done:

I work as a marketing person/graphic designer at a community center that holds a lot of events. I've talked briefly to our events person about the possibility of displaying this series sometime. I want to make it a party: Malagasy music videos playing, some fried banana donut things or other delicious street food that I will probably fail miserably at replicating, a little slideshow presentation/talk, a display of some of the awesome art that was done by Malagasy kids and friends that I brought home, and all my original art and a bunch of prints for sale, with most of the $$$ going to an organization or two that I trust and support that works in Madagascar. That's what I forsee: a giant art party with all my friends and family and strangers who want to support Mada. Yep, that's the plan. And I just put it out there to all of you, and the universe, so it's gonna happen. Right? Right. Now.... to finish the paintings! :)

NEWS! Murals for Madagascar

Hi All,

I just received exciting news from Madagascar! I used to work there as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and when I got back to the US, I started a project with a 4th grade classroom in my hometown, where I taught them about Madagascar and we did art projects related to the country, and then we also painted a big mural on cloth. The mural was about how to care for a mosquito net - in pictures and also with words in Malagasy (pictures speak louder than words in rural areas with high illiteracy rates). We shipped the mural to a contact in Madagascar, and the mural was installed on the wall of a rural hospital. Here was my original design, the kids who made it, and its final installation:

I told Peace Corps staff that they were welcome to distribute my design to new volunteers looking for projects they could do in and with their communities, to help fight the spread of Malaria. Well, I've received some pictures of new Peace Corps Volunteers' murals! Love it. I can't wait to do this again with another classroom. Really teaches kids to think globally, while teaching art technique and skills and also about another country they may not know much about. Want to get involved? If you are a current Peace Corps Volunteer and want details on installation and my design, contact me!! I'm still hoping to create a set of instructions for classroom teachers to be able to re-create this whole project themselves... but that have to come in time. :) YAY!!!

Done aaaand done!

Hey guys, 

Finished my painting this morning and thought I would update! There wasn't much of a consensus on whether or not to mess with adding animals and/or bugs in the bubbles, but in the end I decided to let it be. Might be too much, and I can always add those in later. For now, I'm just going to let it hang on the wall for awhile and see how I like it. ;) Can't explain how much I've been needing to paint something like this. Feels great! Especially when this particular imagery has been rolling around in the back of my mind and pages of sketchbooks for far too long. Was about time it got made. :) Now going to go out and enjoy the sunshine. Happy weekend everybody!

Madagascar side detail

Portland side detail

CRAZY NEWS!! (and progress on latest painting)

Hi All,

First off, I have to share some exciting news!! I was brought aboard to work as a muralist for a company that builds and manages memory care and senior living facilities all up and down the west coast!! The sad part of this is, I will be taking over for a muralist who had worked with the company for 15 years, and sadly passed away before he could finish one of the projects. So my first job will be to finish that up. That facility is in Eastern WA., so I will be heading up there to work on that very soon. Luckily, I have a stellar boss at my other job, who supports my mural work 100% and will let me re-arrange my hours at work so that I can go up to Washington for a bigger chunk of time than just a weekend. This is exactly the kind of thing I had been envisioning and hoping would happen with my mural business. I've only been in Portland less than 3 months, and already I got connected with an interior design firm who gave me a great nursery job, and now this other company who could potentially turn into a long-term, repeat business type of deal. It's really crazy to me how things are all of a sudden happening once I: #1, moved to a bigger city, #2, deliberately decided that murals are the kind of art I would most enjoy making for people, and then #3, worked really freaking hard and learned all I could to make that happen. Then the universe just kind of started dropping things in my lap. Pretty grateful for all of it, and feeling so stinking lucky.

In other news, please help me decide what to do with this painting!!!!! I posted a blog about it last time...part of my Madagascar series, and kind of just about how it feels to live in another place and culture and make it your home, and then come back to where you lived before. Adjustment. Re-adjustment. And also it's about this Malagasy proverb: "Tsihy be lambanana ny ambanilanitra", which basically means, "everything under the sky is woven together like one big mat."  So. I'm definitely going to be writing those words in the border - the Malagasy on top, and the english along the bottom. What I'm debating about, is whether or not to put little critters in those circle bubble things in the middle. (I used a cut paper collage for this and then painted over it). I was thinking different cool bugs - dragonflies, etc. - one inside of each bubble. Paint those in, or leave it the way it is??? Help! I can't decide. Leave me comments if you have an opinion :) Feels really great to get into a groove on a painting I'm making for myself again. Will post again when this is finished... so close!

Corie

Sneak peek of a new painting, and a look back...

I'm starting a new painting! Always nice to get my brushes in the paint, and especially when it's on canvas, for myself. (Although I have to say I am in the mural-mindset... feels weird to use such little brushes, and I'm squeezing out WAY more paint than I'm needing) Anyway, here's the start:

It's a new painting that will be part of this Madagascar series (about my Peace Corps experience there, in case you are brand new to my blog and haven't heard me mention that a thousand times!). This one is based on the Malagasy proverb: "Tsihy be lambanana ny ambanilanitra", which basically means, "everything under the sky is woven together like one big mat." I love that.

I felt caught between two worlds a lot. It's the old metphor they teach you during Peace Corps training. They say that before Peace Corps, you see everything out of yellow glasses lenses. Then you go to your host country, where they see out of blue ones. By the time you're out of Peace Corps, you end up seeing through green ones for the rest of your life (cuz they mix together. color theory and stuff. right?). Anyway, sometimes I feel so far removed from how I lived there and my friends that are still there that I have no way of contacting. This painting is kinda about trying to feel connected to that still... hence the Portland cityscape that's starting to come together on the left, and my village I lived in on the right. We'll see...long way to go yet, but I'll show you when it's done. Painting this tonight has got me all sentimental and listening to my Malagasy music playlists and reading through old journals for inspiration. Found one from St. Patrick's Day, 4 years ago:

"Happy St. Patricks' Day! Wishing I had a big green Guiness to celebrate with right about now. Yesterday was a good day. Lori fell asleep laying her head on my lap at Silvio's party, which went late into the night. The moon was already high in the sky, shedding blue light onto everything, the petrol lamps shining yellow light in pools. Warmth. Lori's heavy, sleepy head on my leg, her little body curled around my knee. In this light, my skin didn't glow, and give me away as different. Not tonight. Not dancing and clapping and singing... tonight I am just a person in the dark. To Lori, I am still just Kori, just "Mama", Soa Vanona (my Malagasy name), her friend."

Summer in Madagascar

WOW, it's been a long time since I blogged. But I'm back!  Where have I been and what have I been doing, you ask?  I've been away all summer working (and playing) in Madagascar! Why Madagascar you ask?  If you're new to me or my blog, then maybe you haven't heard me mention Madagascar about 769 times.  I was a Peace Corps Volunteer and lived there from 2008-2010, so it's pretty important to me.  Only 2 years of my life, but it's become a part of me and a second home.  

Last spring, I found out about an opportunity to go back there to illustrate a field guide of medicinal plants.  The project was created by the MAHERY organization, and funded through National Geographic. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC! The book will be a guide of medicinal plants in the Maroantsetra area of Madagascar, written all in the Malagasy language (the language most spoken by people in Madagascar).  The book will be printed in 2014, and distributed for free to health workers in rural villages. Totally a Peace Corps-style project, but with a bigger budget and huge name behind it.  Pretty exciting stuff. I submitted some work samples and the hiring committee was tied between me and another applicant. So we split the work, and the pay, and we both went! I was there for about a month, knocking out 2-3, sometimes 4 illustrations per day, all digital!  Now, I knew Photoshop before, but doing 85 realistic plant illustrations using the program definitely refined my skills.  I also learned a lot from the other illustrator on the project.  Below is a picture of one sample. See more by clicking here.

The project happened to be located in a town close to the village I lived in my first year of Peace Corps. (That's when and where I met the guy who started this project). So during that month, I took a trip out to the village for a few days and stayed with my "family" (sister from another mister, and her family).

The Fam

Trip to the waterfall with the kiddos!

My family's store

It was SO great to be able to get back to the village for a visit.  It had been a long time, and it was good to see how things had changed - and not changed.  Someone remodeled my old house! (ok, remodeled is a strong word. They added a porch and put up wood walls instead of reeds). There's also been a few family moves, a few deaths, a few new houses built, a few new babies.  The murals I painted all over for people are all still there. Faded, but there. That was pretty cool to visually see something I left in the village. Great part of the trip. Before I knew it, the work part of my trip was over, and I flew back to the capital, Antananarivo, to meet my family! (my real, blood one). My parents and sister came out to meet me, and spent the next month traveling around with me! I can't even begin to explain in blog form how amazing that part was. Maybe I'll dedicate my next post to that part. But for now, i'll just say that it was definitely one of the highlights of my life so far, to be able to show them around.  My worlds collided: My life here, and my life there. Now they get it. They understand me in a way that they didn't before. And I got to share with them this beautiful country and the people there I care about, so that they could experience it all as well. It was amazing and I'm SO grateful that my parents and sister were able to make the trip. We'll never forget it and will always share those memories as a family. Anyway, more to come! If you're STILL interested in my trip (really?!?) then click here to see the chronological facebook photo album. Thanks for reading, dear readers....it's good to be back. :)

Goodbye for 2 months!!

Hey everyone,

Thanks for reading and your support on this blog. I'll be taking a 2 month break from blogging consistently, as I'll be working on an illustration project in Madagascar starting this Saturday. Wahoo! I'm really excited and grateful to be able to go back and for the great opportunity. (I did Peace Corps there from '08-'10).  I got offered a job to help illustrate a field guide of medicinal plants through a grant from National Geographic.  Super stoked. Anyway, thanks for following and I hope you will check back every once in awhile.  If I get a chance and find an internet connection that moves faster than dial-up circa 1998, then I will post updates while I'm over there.  In the meantime, thought I would share an old blog of mine that I kept while I was in the Peace Corps.  If you're interested click here to visit that blog.  Below is an excerpt from that blog, which is an excerpt from a book I was sort of kind of piecing together about my random experiences there. This part is about my best friend in my village, Bory. Enjoy! See you again here soon! :)

“Aia ny masaka e!” What’s cookin’? She called out from the path running
North to South between our houses. The sounds of tiny, squeaky voices
and tinkling seed pods as the dry weeds were parted got closer and
closer.
“Karibo e!” Come on in! I’d yell back from my place on my couch-bed,
hurriedly folding down the corner of the page in my book. I’d stick my
head out the door just in time to see the last of the weeds opening
like a gate and her family streaming out into the dirt clearing around
my house. Bory first, with her baby on her back, then her oldest, Lory
(12), Joby, her Nephew-turned-son (10) and finally Zaranay (3)
straggling behind still fighting the weeds. She would sit on the
ground outside my house as we exchange the usual, “What’s going on?
Nothing much, you? Nothing much.” I’d sit leaning against my door
frame, half in, half out of the house, facing her…the door’s curtain
blowing around me like a wild mane of hair.
Bory smiled at me, the upper corners of her grin growing wider and
wider, revealing her overbite and the dark place where she was missing
one tooth exactly in the center. I’d try to replace the tooth in my
mind imagine her with it there. I could never figure out which front
tooth she was missing; it looked like her teeth had just slid over to
one side so the missing notch was neither right nor left, but
perfectly, beautifully centered. As she jumped into a story concerning
our neighbor, I held her friendly gaze. Bory always looked me in the
eye when she talked to me. When I first met her, I remembered being
slightly taken aback by the bugginess of her large, round eyes. Now
familiar with her face, I let myself study her features, the high
cheekbones, the full lips, the sharp jawbones held up by an impossibly
thin neck. She had an un-obvious beauty that made me glad to have the
time to appreciate.
Still chattering on, the endless stream of words spewed out of her
tiny self and just as fast, my mind tried to compute them. Some words
stubbornly seemed to hang in the air, dancing around in front of my
face, waiting for recognition that would not come. If I focused my
attention on them, I would lose all that came after. It was like
having to squint at those magic eye posters to be able to see the
image. If you just focus on all the squiggly little lines, you miss
it. She was talking about how our neighbor had picked a fight with her
yesterday while I was out. A cow had wandered into Bory’s family’s
manioc fields and destroyed a lot of plants, so her and her
sister-in-law, Denise took it by the rope and led it back to its
owner, Maman’I Zafy. Apparently this led to a shouting match and ended
with ‘Antandroy’(dialect of ethnic group in Southern Madagascar)
insults hurled at Bory. A beggar. A dirt poor bitch. As far as I could
see, neither of them was more dirt poor than the other, and I’d never
seen Bory beg at Maman’I Zafy’s door, which I can see from my house.
It embarrasses me still to admit my naiveté in those weeks before I
came to Madagascar, when I’d lie in bed at night, eyes squeezed shut,
trying to picture my future home. I’d conjure up a golden plain
surrounded by rolling green hills, dotted with mango trees as the
backdrop. There would be a clearing with a few little huts built in a
circle. Women would cook outside their houses on fires and chat. Men
would walk around in the center, saying whatever was the equivalent of
“Hidey ho Neighbor!” in the local language. All wide smiles, laughing
children, bright clothes, bare feet. In this utopian image of the
village I held onto, African-print sarongs might as well be tie-dye,
their wearers whispering “Peace, man.” into the warm breeze.
This drama did not fit into my scene. I understand now more clearly
than ever the saying, the world is a village and each village, the
entire world.
Bory was still going strong, lifting her eyebrows and pausing from
time to time, for effect. I grunted and made noises to show I
understood and was listening, which I was, but I couldn’t honestly say
I was riveted. By this time, Lory and Joby had gotten restless and
started chasing each other around and around my house, screaming “No
you’re a dog penis!.” Zaranay had been restless from the start, but
now just
wanted attention. She picked a pinching fight with the 6 month old on
Bory’s lap. This of course, was completely one-sided. The baby
screamed and a clump of dirt he’d been munching on fell from his
mouth. Bory whipped out a breast to quiet him. Zaranay kept pinching.
Bory’s eyes never left mine.She holds Zaranay back from the baby, her
slender forearms stuck out separating them, all the while, spitting
the words quick like butterflies that I tried desperately to catch
before they fluttered away. By the time they go home, I am exhausted
though all I’d been doing was sitting.

IT HAPPENED! - An Idea Becomes A Reality.

I can already tell, this post is going to be a meaningful, mushy one.  Way back last Summer, I had an idea.  This idea was to create a mural with kids (something I already do in my job a lot anyways), but on specialized fabric, instead of a wall. The mural would get sent to a rural village in Madagascar (the country I served in as a Peace Corps Volunteer 2008-2010), where a current PC Volunteer would help recruit villagers to finish and install it on the wall of their hospital.  The mural's subject matter would have to do with Malaria prevention, helping to educate through pictures, those who could not read.  If you want the WHOLE scoop, read this earlier post.

Anyway, so then after forming the idea last Summer, I found an extraordinary Principal with an extraordinary staff (Bertha Holt Elementary), to help me make this idea into a reality.  They wrote a grant to the Eugene Education Fund to get a residency with me funded through my employer, Lane Arts Council.  I also got my old Peace Corps supervisor to help me find the right PCV and village to coordinate with.  The villagers there already knew the deal about using mosquito nets to prevent Malaria, but they needed more info about the care and maintenance of the nets to be dispersed.  I came up with the design below, explaining to wash the net with regular soap not detergent (so as not to wash away the mosquito repellent), dry the net in the shade not sun, tuck it tightly under the mattress, and repair any holes it gets.  The language is Malagasy.

Then, during a week-long residency with the Holt 4th graders, I taught them about Madagascar, did art projects with them that related to it's unique flora and fauna, and facilitated them in painting the mural on the fabric.

When completed, the mural was shipped to Madagascar, along with some adorable postcards that the 4th graders hand drew and wrote on in Malagasy (with some help from me of course). What follows are the pictures we received of it hung in it's final home, the hospital wall in Tsivangiana, Madagascar.

Women waiting in line at the hospital to get vaccines for their babies.

Eddie Carver, the Peace Corps Volunteer who helped us coordinate and finish this project.

Now comes the mush.  I really just am so floored to see these pictures.  That a mural my students did, made it all the way across the ocean and is now on a wall in a hospital in the middle of nowhere, where it will help educate some people on an important health topic.  I can't wait to share these pictures with the 4th graders, along with the postcards we received back from Eddie's english club in response to theirs.  I can't wait to show them that at such a young age, they can make an impact.  This is how it feels to make a difference, I will tell them. YOU MATTER. 

Eddie also told me that the original design template I created is now being replicated by Peace Corps Volunteers all over Madagascar, in their own villages.  During training, Peace Corps Volunteers are all encouraged to paint world map murals on the walls of schools, and murals about Malaria are starting to be encouraged more and more in recent years.  Peace Corps wouldn't push this so much to people who aren't necessarily artists, unless they found it to be worthwhile as a form of community development.  These pictures disperse information to the public in a bright and colorful way, and are especially crucial to those who could not read other posted health bulletins and announcements.  ART MATTERS.  

So. Happy. I think of this is as the pilot project.  I envision doing many more of these, about other relevant health topics, all over Madagascar.  No, all over Africa.  Attention International health NGO's: call me ;)