“Shared Water” by Kevin Ledo for the One Blue Sky Project
“Shared Water” is my most recent mural for the One Blue Sky Project in Fall River, Massachusetts, in collaboration with Viva Fall River and Beyond Walls. The image is of Juliana, one of the youths who we photographed for this oversea cultural exchange mural with Tierra Bomba, Colombia.
The story: We met with some 4 & 5th grade students at the summer program at John J. Doran Elementary school, and we introduced them to another group of kids over the internet in Tierra Bomba, Colombia. In their exchanges both sides got to learn about each other’s culture and way of life.
In Fall River, we brainstormed about what they all have in common, and living by water came out on top, and so we found our theme for the artwork. Alongside aptART, I chose some of the kids to photograph and we met them and their parents at the local pool. I ultimately chose an image of Juliana to be in my design.
Each day the children would learn about Tierra Bomba, exchange videos and brainstorm about what they would like to add to the bottom of the mural which I began painting directly on their school. On one of the finals days the kids got to have a fun and messy practice run on a large canvas. The next day they painted their image or word on the bottom of the mural. They painted beautiful images of ocean life, and words of clean water and fun in the water.
The One Blue Sky Project team worked in Colombia with artist Jonathan Darby to paint a mural with the children there.
Kevin Ledo is a Montreal-based artist who grew up in a mix of urban and ethnic cultures. He was raised by Portuguese parents from the Azores Islands and began his […]
