The Memory Project inspiring love through art

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The Memory Projectinspiring love through art

• The Memory Project is a unique initiative in
  which advanced high school art students create
  original portraits for children who have been
  abandoned, orphaned, abused, or neglected. To do
  this, the art students receive pictures of
  children who are waiting for portraits, and then
  work in their art classrooms to create the
  portraits. Once finished, the portraits are
  delivered to the children, and the children are
  then invited to create drawings or write letters
  to send back to the art students.

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Beginning to understand portraits

• Becky Ward-Morgan, portrait artist, began by
  helping us to understand how to draw facial
  features and give portraits a rounded, realistic
  look.

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• Becky taught us how to sketch the shape of a
  face, the eyes, the mouth, the noseteaching us
  techniques for each feature.

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• Practice
• Practice
• Practice
• We stayed after school to work on developing our
  portraiture skills.

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Finally, we began to work on the actual
portraits!.Sketching first and then painting
in the light and dark areas with only gray
values.
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Ms. Moody, our student teacher, shared her
experience in Guatemala to help us better
understand the children we were painting
portraits for.
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The backgrounds of our portraits were inspired by
our visual research of the art, crafts, and
textiles of South and Central America
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We painted!Becky taught us a glazing technique
which we used to gradually apply the skintones
to the portraits.
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We learned many new tricks and tips for
painting eyes, highlighting hair, shading
cheekbones
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Hours, days later.
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We are proud to send our paintings off to the
Memory Project
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Praise for our work!

• Hi Shelley,The portraits created by your art
  students couldn't be better.  When I first saw
  them, I thought, "This is the Memory Project at
  its very best."  The kids and teenagers in
  Nicaragua who will receive these gifts will be
  absolutely stunned.  I congratulate you all on
  such a perfect job!Sincerely,Ben--Ben
  SchumakerThe Memory Project4013 Hegg
  AvenueMadison, WI 53716Phone
  608-268-5721ben_at_thememoryproject.org

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The children, our inspiration, and their
portraits!!!
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The final letter from Ben

• Dear Mrs. Row and Artists,I'm happy to let you
  know that all of the portraits that you created
  for children and teens living in Nicaragua have
  now been delivered!  My friend Tony and I
  presented the portraits to the kids on your
  behalf during a five day trip in early February. 
  Most of the kids live in a home called Casa
  Santiago on the island of Ometepe, which be found
  on any online map of Lake Nicaragua.  Casa
  Santiago is a residence and school for youth who
  have been abandoned, abused, orphaned, and
  neglected.  Once they are old enough for further
  schooling, the older teens move in to a group
  home in Managua, the capital city.  We therefore
  spent three days on the island, and two days in
  Managua.  It was a short stay, but long enough
  time to witness various ways in which the
  portraits were deeply valued. First, of course,
  were the initial reactions.  The kids all live in
  different houses based on age and gender, and
  they came to receive their portraits
  house-by-house.  With all of their peers
  receiving portraits at the same time, there was a
  great deal of laughter and commotion.  From young
  children to older teens, they were as eager to
  see their friends portraits as they were their
  own.  Several groups went on to hang all of their
  portraits collectively on their homes front
  wall.  Some kids could still be found carrying
  around their portraits and showing them to others
  hours after receiving them.We delivered these
  portraits in person primarily to take pictures of
  the kids and teens receiving them, and also to
  invite them to make drawings and letters to send
  back to you.  Although I do my best to get a
  picture of every portrait being delivered, it is
  never possible to achieve 100 success. 
  Especially at homes this large, housing
  individuals with a wide variety of personal
  backgrounds, there are always some who are simply
  not there during the delivery.  For example,
  sometimes kids go to live with extended
  relatives, either on a temporary or permanent
  basis.  In fact, I had been looking forward to
  seeing two children in particular with whom I had
  spent time on a previous trip.  Nevertheless,
  neither was there, both having left the home
  sometime earlier. However, just because you do
  not see a picture of a particular portrait being
  delivered does not mean that the portrait won't
  reach its intended recipient.  On the contrary,
  the homes staff is committed to presenting the
  portraits to the absent individuals once they
  return to the home, or forwarding the portraits
  to their new locations.  Additionally, whenever
  possible, I gave portraits of absent youth to
  their siblings who were present.Regarding the
  drawings and letters sent back in response, in
  many cases I was able to get a picture of an
  individual receiving a portrait but ultimately
  came home without a letter or drawing from that
  individual.  Such inconsistencies are due
  primarily to the chaos at the delivery site. 
  Since life at Casa Santiago is so structured
  throughout the week (rise at 500am, do chores,
  eat breakfast, go to school, return from school,
  do chores, eat dinner, study, go to bed), we had
  to distribute the vast majority of portraits in
  certain blocks of time on the weekend (Feb
  9-10).  I literally had to photograph one
  individual receiving a portrait every 60 seconds
  in order to keep up with the flow.  Meanwhile,
  other adults tried to corral the kids into a
  space where they had approximately 15-20 minutes
  to make a drawing or write a letter before we had
  to start with the next group.  In this excitement
  and chaos, some papers were not finished, and
  some were carried away without being collected. 
  Similarly, in Managua, we had to move quickly
  from site to site in order to track down as many
  of the older teens as possible, which left some
  without enough time to make a drawing or write a
  letter.  Any finished papers that I was able to
  collect for your group are included in this
  envelope.Finally, I must make a note about the
  kids and teens expressions in the photos.  That
  is, if you see in any picture that the person
  holding the portrait is not smiling, that does
  not necessarily indicate a lack of satisfaction
  with the portrait.  For one, in Nicaraguan
  culture, males typically do not smile for
  photos.  And then there are some kids, especially
  the teens, who try to refrain from smiling
  basically to look cool.  They get that idea from
  the magazines and movies they see, and it
  certainly does not mean they are not glad to have
  received the portrait. With that, its time to
  share the photos!  Visit the following page, and
  you will find all of the pictures I was able to
  take of your portraits being delivered/Thank
  you again for being part of this.  Your efforts
  have made the world a little smaller, and
  kindness a little brighter. Gratefully,Ben
  SchumakerFounder DirectorThe Memory
  Project4013 Hegg AvenueMadison, WI 53716Phone
  608-268-5721ben_at_thememoryproject.org

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Thank you again for being part of this.  Your
efforts have made the world a little smaller,
and kindness a little brighter. 
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Be proud!