Caleb Coppock an art student at Minnesota College of Art and Design (MCAD), came to Romania last summer to do an art intership, and make art among the poor and reflect on his expereinces. Of the many projects he worked on, he left this mural in the bathroom in the home for youth coming off the streets. The mural is based on drawings of marginalized kids doing homework, and from a series of 'jump photos' he did of kid in the air.

A study for 'the dive' painting which hangs at the Valley House center.


I just listened to a great ‘This American Life Show’ entitled ‘Unconditional Love’. You can listen to it at…This American Life . It has a segment on attachment disorder through the story of a kid adopted from Romania who was in an orphanage till 7 years old, He didn’t know what parents were. Many of these kids who grew up in these same orphanages are now over 18 and on the streets coping with glue bags. I appreciated that the show started with a segment on the psychological and pediatric trends in the US, which were saying that too much affection would harm children, give them infections and other problems, this meant kissing your child more than once a year was harmful! Lets not accuse Romanians or other peoples of being backwards and inhuman too quickly...they may be just applying our own theories. God help us.

This painting was done by Silas West who works among the poor in Katmandu Nepal. Here are his reflections...

"This is the first oil painting i ever did. I am kind of fond of it. With all the art i have done in my life, this is my first work with oil as a medium. It is not as easy as i thought it would be.

Although i still am not choosing what i get to work on, i really do enjoy the process of painting in the art campus studio. i find myself reflecting on the lives of those the instructor hires to come in and model for us and praying for them as i paint. They are simple people, very poor. They get paid next to nothing and the other students, usually from affluent backgrounds, don't treat them with any respect--often speaking down to them and making fun of them to other students.
this man is a porter. He gets hired by shops to carry goods people buy to their homes or places of business. its common to see an old man like this carrying a sofa or a refrigerator on his back across town. what i loved about him was his quiet dignity. the way he held his head up and kept his gaze confidently in front of him.

I hope to share more of my work along with thoughts and reflections in the future."

detail of Nina's art room painting

Oil on Canvas

3.5ft X 8ft

This little slice of Nina's painting in the art room at the day center shows ones of our good friends whio has been on the streets for over ten years. She had each person model as she painted them in different poses.

Nina graduated from the art high school in town a few years ago and put of university to work among the poor. She has done art and art therapy with street kids and marginalized kids in our school program for 6+ years. She is now entering at the top of her class into a BA fine arts program in ceramics this semester. We are all proud of her and can't wait to see what she does in the future.

Circles

series of still shots animated, thematic circles, spinning, and dials. Moise left today. He had been living with us for a year and a half, the longest of any of the street boys. Around five in the morning he snuck out of the house with his toothbrush and toothpaste, epilepsy medicine, folic acid, Vitamin B12, and a little framed painting of an empty cafe painted by Kari Segal-Allgire that I had given to him a week ago. This video has always seemed apocalyptic to me. Moise was big on the end of the work, the destruction of all the wicked, the last judgment, and fear of his parents and grandparents ending up in hell. I think this was part of his motivation for jetting. Please pray for us. We have been in shock. Moise has been to some extent the center of our community, offering life, hospitality, and hope. Please pray we can see beyond the cycles of suffering, of uprooting, and alienation, to the now creation beyond the end of the world. God have mercy on Moise, on his family, and on us all

I am always reading visual images. For a time Coke was using the naked back and butt of a woman next to a huge coke bottle to sell more in Romania. It is greatly contrasted by the images of the Theotokos (Mother of God) found on the inside and outside of many of the Romanian Orthodox churches. The Theotokos is the model of not only womanhood, but of the pinnacle of human spirituality, theosis, and refers to the great dignity of people in general and to all women specifically, to be God bearers.

These trees root in the Danube just below. While my wife was pregnant with our first son, she would run along the river and I would sit and draw in the mornings. Without a studio a lot more of my energy went into these little sketches.

"Mihaiita"

An eight year old boy was run over by a mini van taxi while being watched by his cousin who lives on the streets. I was asked to take photos of the funeral. This painting and poem were part of my grieving process. I was constantly asked to get closer and take pictures of the little boys bloated corpse. Usually I avoid death and suffering. Somehow I was pushed to face it in its creullty in the face of Mihaiita. We lived for a time in a one room apartment with a balcony with a view of a slice of the Danube.

"from the balcony window
I exhaled a funeral
over the Danube

willow trees bow to the river below
the water moves but never changes
a boat with three men and two oars
are a water spider flying slow
across the massive water

a strip of pines frame the distant shore
where the now dead boy played soccer
with a deflated leather ball

above the pines float yellow fields
marked with horizontal and diagonal
farm roads growing in those golden rows
the mountains fade into the foggy
evening blue gray

the water seems to be made
of the same stuff as the sky
with moon caught in current

the scene is dark and rich
the breeze off the water flows
around my face, God’s mercy
for me a sinner
being afloat in Beauty

when she touches you,
in the wind
and water

in the night sky
in the shiny river
or the face of a little boy
you feel her breath
being an icon kissed

This is a drawing made by a survivor of Hiroshima. The Hiroshima Virtual Museum has a small gallery of drawings done by other survivors. The drawings take us beyond politics and philosophy. God have mercy on us.


"The most terrible of crimes is to collaborate in the uprooting of others in an already alienated world; but the greatest of virtues is to uproot oneself for the sake of one's neighbor and of God, 'it is necessary to uproot oneself. Cut down the tree and make a cross and carry it forever after" pX from Waiting for God by Simone Weil