Waiting for Day

48”x48” Acrylic on canvas

This little boy lives in Ggaba; a village where we stayed for 10 days. We walked around the village almost everyday. There were three Canadian children traveling with us and we all really stood out amongst the crowds - mainly because of the obvious difference in our skin colour, but also by our clothing and the cameras we carried. We became quite familiar to the children of Ggaba because these differences, but became fast friends because of the similarities of all the children.

My son Whitney (11 yrs) took the photo I used in this painting. He took hundreds of photos during our visit. This was the opening he used to interact with each child he met. He would take their picture and show them the instant digital image. They absolutely loved to see the pictures of themselves - just as our children do! Although, many of these children hadn't ever seen a photo of themselves before.

We came across this little boy on our first day in Uganda. Something about the softness of his gaze pulls me into the picture. I could be wrapped up in the warmth and peacefulness, like a day that never ends.

Invisibility

48”x48” Mixed media on canvas

This little girl is an orphan living at the Bethany Village Orphanage and School. The children who live here and go to school here are sponsored by the African Renewal Ministries.

Her eyes look straight into your soul. Many of the children wore this same look in there eyes. They seem to have a wisdom about them - like old souls. Perhaps it's from their family history, their surroundings, losses they have suffered, or maybe it's a knowingness about our journey here and living so closely with the earth. Bare feet on soil.

The Boy with the Red Bucket

48”x40” Mixed media on canvas

This little boy holding the red bucket was one of a group of boys, and a separate group of girls, carrying water buckets on their heads. They were traveling down the dusty dirt road on a warm, sunny day. It was a beautiful scene - the children in their crisp, clean uniforms, bare feet and bright coloured buckets on their heads.

We travelled by boat to Bethany Village and an orphanage/school on the banks of Lake Victoria. This was our first day visiting and netting a village. We were given a tour of the orphanage and school before we made our way to the traditional fishing village that was close by.

The group homes were clean and well kept. Each bed was adorned with a bed net donated a year earlier by Buy-A-Net. The school had chalk boards and benches. The children lined up for food. These children were sponsored and happily, the program seems to be working.

They also have a nurse who works at the orphanage. She wasn't there the day we visited because ironically and sadly, she was home, sick with malaria.

We came across a mother who had walked from one of the villages close by to see the nurse. She was carrying a lifeless baby in her arms. Her baby was very sick, lathargic and most likely suffering from malaria. We were walking with a minister and he performed a blessing on the sick child. Emma Langlois, one of the children we were traveling with, gave the mother her water bottle. The baby started gulping the water down and showed some signs of life.

Title

Info

This was one of the orphan boys walking in that same group in Bethany Village. The type of container he is holding is so familiar to me now. Everywhere you looked you see these containers lined up in rows outside of people homes. This is what they used to retrieve and store their daily water supply.

Most children's chores included carrying water up from the lake in plastic jerry cans.

Truth and Colour

48”x72” Acrylic on canvas

This painting was inspired by a day spent in the village of Kireka - Kamuli Naalya. We had been invited to visit the women of the Women Caring and Counseling Centre (WCCC). This is a charity that supports women with HIV and AIDS.

The women treated us to some of the most beautiful spiritual music I have ever heard. They performed a skit and gave testimonials about how the bed nets provided by Buy-A-Net one year ago, had changed their lives.

We later went on a tour of this village to check up on the homes of the women who had been given the nets. Just making sure they were using them correctly...

There was something magical about this place. The colours were like no other. The walls of the homes were painted with many layers and the wear and weather had softened them to a beautiful patina.

The blues were like tropical oceans. Truly the most beautiful abstract paintings I have ever seen. The windows and doors were decorated with bits of bright fabric and lace. The laundry hung out on clotheslines was witnessed around every corner. They were full of scrubbed clean clothes - bright florals of every colour imaginable.

I could spend a lifetime taking photos, painting and drawing inspiration from this one village.

Although the people were very poor and had very little, they had beauty and such soul, which just oozed out of them and found it's way to every narrow path I walked through that day.

Lined with Pride

20”x60” Mixed media on board

Bright colours in a landscape that can be brown and sombre - mainly earth and earth brick, dust in the heat, mud when wet, the laundry is hung with pride like fine jewelry around a women’s neck. It brings confidence and colour to the surroundings. Truly a statement of self. Where objects are scarce, these jewels fill the air on puffs of wind, dancing to their inner song.

Madonna and Child

36”x36” Mixed media on canvas

There were many women and children at the Women Caring and Counseling Centre - Kireka. Being amongst the song, the skits and testimonials that day lifted my spirit. All of this joy distracted me from the knowledge that most of these women were infected with HIV or AIDS, and possibly their children were as well.

When I returned home from the trip, these photos brought me right back to that day. It made me wonder once again what life must be like for these women. My spirit told me they are doing what they can to move forward and live a life ... a life worth surviving.

This Mother holds the same gaze that many of the children held. It enters into my soul and quickens my breath. It tempts me to look away...but I can't.

Who the WCCC are:
"Women Caring and Counseling Center (WCCC) is a non government organization founded by a compassionate woman, Mrs. Maureen Serwanga in 1996, who mobilized more members to join her and it was fully registered as an NGO in 1998 under registration number S5914/2448"

WCCC Aim:
"Our aim is to support women, children and youth suffering with HIV/AIDS gain body strength, become socially, emotionally, and economically balanced because we believe stable homes rests on stable mothers and this gives mothers hope because they are the guardians, providers and caretakers of children."

wccc.synthasite.com

Big Cheese

24”x48” Mixed media on canvas

This little girl has "Big Cheese" written on her sweater. She was hovering very close to her mother at the time of the photo. She was watching with astute interest as a bunch of us were touring through her village.

I can only image what her thoughts were.

Left Behind

30”x60” mixed media on canvas

Another haunting image of a child with the eyes of a old woman. The history she holds... The wisdom of a lifetime in a mere child.

This small girl and her little brother were sitting quietly alone on the stoop of a building. She is of school age, but she is not at school. It makes me wonder if she is left to look after her brother. Where are her parents? Are they sick or at work? What story is to be told?

Ggaba Days

36”x36”

Angel with the Green Cup

24”x48” Mixed media on canvas

Princess of Kampala

40”x48” Mixed media on canvas

Beauty beyond words. The kind of beauty that takes your breath away. The beauty that makes you stare and turn away.

Universal Language

40”x60” Mixed media on canvas

This painting is an interpritation of the energy we were met with when we visited The Great Challenge School in Kawempe. Kewempe is one of the poorest villages in Uganda. Buy-A-Net is currently working on netting the entire area.

Soccer was a true connection between the children of Uganda and our children from Canada. Four boys from the village of Ggaba, where we were staying, would visit us each night after school for a game of soccer.

We brought along many gifts from home to give to the children we met. But when we would give them the soccer balls we were given great screams and applause.

The Wise One

40”x40” Mixed media on canvas

This little girl looked right through me and into my soul. Her image is burned in my mind forever. She was telling me something with those deep dark eyes. My heart beats faster when I look at this painting.

This is one of the first paintings I created in this series. The photo I have of her is just as powerful as the painting.

I believe she has a story that needs to be told.

Reflective Sorrow

40”x48” Mixed media on canvas

This painting was inspired by a mother and her two children that I took a picture of in a village near Kibale. This village was one of the villages where we were distributing bed nets.

The mothers make my heart ache. I don't know which of them have lost children to malaria or other highly preventable diseases. I can't begin to understand what that would feel like. This painting is in honor of all the mothers who have lost children.

It's the colours of Uganda that speak to me. I have always been drawn to colour and have spent the last 20 years exploring it on canvas. The serendipitous way they come together are beyond thought.

I was lucky enough to film a large amount of this trip and I have been working on putting together some sort of a story through film. This process is long and drawn out which has given me the opportunity to re-live visually, day after day, this experience right here in my studio.

The paintings have been created right alongside the documentary. I believe this has kept my memory and the spirit of Uganda alive everyday I put paint to canvas.

It Takes A Village

40”x60” Mixed media on canvas

This group of women and children were from the village near Kibale. The people of this village were very colorfully dressed. Dresses of pink, blue, yellow and green and fanciful head scarfs were the norm for the ladies.

They sat on the ground snuggled close together like one great family.

The old saying "it takes a village to raise a child" may have come from a place like this one.

Pretty in Pink

20”x60” Mixed media on canvas

This women lived in the village near Kibale. She and many of the older women like her have such a calm and honorable presence about them. Wisdom seeps from their pores. Truth shines from their eyes. There is peace in every touch.

Many grandmothers of Africa are raising their grandchildren due to the death of their parents to AIDS.

Grandma Moses

48”x48” Mixed media on canvas

Many grandmothers in Africa are raising their grandchildren due to the death of the childrens’ parents to AIDS. These women carry the future on their shoulders.

I stumbled upon this woman in the village of the Women’s Caring and Counseling Centre (supporting women with HIV and AIDS). We toured the village with Buy-A-Net to check on the homes of the women who had received nets a year earlier. We made sure they were using them correctly and safely.

Draped in Glory

48”x48” Mixed media on canvas

Mother Earth

20”x60” Mixed media on canvas

I captured this image at the village near Kibale. I love her expression. The clothes she wears are typical of the women we met. I can relate to this woman. She looks to be about my age. The difference in our lives is vast.

She tells a story of strength. I call her Mother Earth because of the gaze she holds. Her colours are earthy tones and natural. The pink scarf on her hair reminds me of the bloom of a flower. She is telling us to watch ourselves. Be good to the land. You get what you give....

Crowned in Glory

40”x40” Mixed media on canvas

The most prevalent theme in my paintings is the children. I have always been drawn to children throughout my life. I find it quite easy to relate to them and be around them. Even more-so now than when I was a child. I love the innocence and trust they are free to feel and give. When I paint, this is the place I find in myself. I leave my head at the door and feel my way through the painting. I trust that destiny will take care of me. To feel this freedom from the world, you need to find the innocence that we were born with. This is Heaven on earth, enlightenment, truth in the silence... this is were I go when I paint.

How fortunate I am.

Country Breath

30”x30” Mixed media on canvas

Truth Beyond Social Bars

40”x30” Mixed media on canvas

Masi Mara

48”x60” Mixed media on canvas

Jewels

36”x36” Mixed media on canvas

Bright colours in a landscape that can be brown and sombre - mainly earth and earth brick, dust in the heat, mud when wet, the laundry is hung with pride like fine jewelry around a women’s neck. It brings confidence and colour to the surroundings. Truly a statement of self. Where objects are scarce, these jewels fill the air on puffs of wind, dancing to their inner song.

Contemplation

48”x48” Mixed media on canvas

This little boy was watching the demonstration about how the bed nets were to be used and how they can protect his family.