The Accompong Riverstone Project - Part 1

Many of you have contributed to the Riverstone Project and some have asked what was happening with it so I am posting this for you. You can read more about the project at http://www.jamaicanmaroons.com/river-stone/ . The second week of classes starts this evening. I hope you enjoy this little series of posts.

Peace and Guidance

Working in collaboration with Tayshan Wright, an artist in Accompong Town, the Riverstone Project started on November 20th. As with a lot of plans in Jamaica, some minor modifications like the dates, times and venue needed to be fine-tuned to accommodate the school schedules of the students but a major roadblock faced the project. The river where the riverstones were to come from received major damage from Hurricane Sandy but, the resourceful Maroons came up with an alternative plan. The Blue Mahoe was quickly substituted for the stones. The Blue Mahoe is the national tree of Jamaica and a perfect choice for the students to paint upon.
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The residents chipped right in with offers of donated labor such as Marshall who donated the use of his chainsaw after walking over a mile out into the Cockpits to bring in some suitable branches to cut.
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Another resident, Neville Rowe a woodworker by trade, offered to sand the pieces to make them suitable for painting and finishing.
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In a couple of days, the pieces were carried up to the Accompong Primary and Junior High School where the Principal, Garfield Rowe, donated the use of a classroom.
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The school’s daily classes end at 4:00pm so the classroom needed to be readied for the 15 children who had signed up for the first session of classes in painting techniques. The door was opened at 5:00pm and now the question was, “Would the children actually show up for the classes?”
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To learn more, stay tuned for Part 2 which will “soon come”.

As usual, your posts are truly enlightening!! Anxious to hear more. Much respect for taking time out to share your experiences in the authentic life in Accompong. :)

Thank you Bill, Penney, Tayshan, Marshall, Neville and everyone else involved in the Riverstone Project for being such great role models for the children and providing them with such an amazing opportunity to create art. I know this took a lot of coordination on everyone's part, especially when you had to change the medium to be used. I can hardly wait to hear more.

Excited for the next update!

Blessings and Respect!

Very interesting indeed. Can't wait to see what the next installment brings :)

Sometimes the children in Accompong Town seem more like young adults than children and that is mainly due to a sense of discipline and purpose you don’t find in other areas of Jamaica. A good deal of time in their curriculum is spent on social preparation to be responsible adults as many will not pass the test to go on with advanced education after graduation.
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When the doors opened at 5:00pm, an amazing 15 students showed up for the project. Regular school ends at 4:00pm and the children had to go home, eat and change out of school uniforms. We were soon to learn that many students went to school in Maggotty and Elderslie and could not make it to the school until 6:00 or later. One boy had to walk over 6 miles to make the class one day after missing a taxi.
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The object of the classes was to teach painting techniques and to inspire creativity but also just to have fun doing it.

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Tayshan Wright, a Maroon artisan, directed the classroom and helped keep order and provided assistance when needed.

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The older children also assisted the younger students in preparing their drawings to be transferred to the slab of Blue Mahoe after preparing the surface for painting.

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The children helped to prepare the surface to be painted by applying a coating of primer.

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With all the pieces primed and drying, Tayshan helped the students finish their drawings to be painted on the wood.

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Saturday was the final day of classes for the first group of students. Eleven students out of the original 15 students completed the project on that day. The pieces were left out to dry before preparing the reverse side for adding the information about the student who painted the piece and coating the finished product to bring out the grain and color of the wood.

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One proud artist displays her creation at the end of the class.

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The first of 3 classes was complete. The pieces would now go on display at the school before sending them to the contributors and placing the remained on sale during the Celebration on the 6th of January 2013. All proceeds from that sale will be used to pay for school taxi fares to Maggotty and Elderslie for the remainder of the school year. Any donations will be put to good use.
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Peace and Guidance

Really nice work!! The smiles of pride shows in every face of that last picture. Nice post!

Week two of the Riverstone Project took up where week one left off just with a whole new set of students. First the slabs of Blue Mahoe had to be selected and a primer coat applied to provide a surface to paint.
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Once the sketch was complete (on her left) then each child added his or her artistic ability to create their masterpiece.
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One child seemed to be a leader of sorts so her organizational talents were put to good use to keep each child amply supplied with paint and other supplies.
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One child didn’t need to do a sketch of what he intended to paint as he had it mentally imprinted in his mind. You could tell he had painted before just by the way he held the brush.
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The children were very well behaved and took instructions quite seriously. They were eager to learn how to paint.
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The color mixing techniques were especially useful and they were quite astonished at the many shades of colors that mixing could create.
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A common product was used to show the children how different colors were chosen to make a product more appealing for sale.
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You could see the love in this child’s eyes as she proudly painted her vision of her home in Accompong Town.
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On the final day of class, the school room was open but there were projects from the school classes on the desks so the class went outside to finish their work.
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Every available space had one or more budding artists sharing a flat surface.
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Just before sunset, the group had finished this week’s classes and proudly displayed their finished work.
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The sun set on another week of classes with one more week to go. It was becoming more apparent as each day’s class concluded that the children were gaining confidence in their ability and wanting the classes to go on forever. Perhaps some day in the future the classes will be a part of the normal school curriculum. More to come.
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Peace and Guidance

The smiles say it all!! What a wonderful story you shared. Thank you again!

Thank you Accompong, this does my heart good.

I have not smiled so much in awhile...

Happy travels...

Skb

Nice to see a project come full circle, the kids participating in a program, and seeing the final result with a sale on January 6

Bless Up to all those who made this program happen

Man, Thanks for posting.

The sight of the wooden desk just makes me think of how timeless some things are.

Those pictures and the pure joy and love of life in the eyes of the kids is so precious.

Thanks for caring.

Soon the success of the Riverstone Project became widely known by the residents of Accompong Town and the young and older adults would ask to paint. This was an unexpected event and one that the Project welcomed with open arms. Again, a small roadblock to using the school for painting because they were adults threatened to delay the project but in true Maroon spirit, a shop owner offered to set up a place to paint inside and in front of her store.

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Her father-in-law (whom we call “Uncle”) stepped up first and painted the lizard (shown above) and then roared with laughter when someone pointed out that the lizard had 5 legs!

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Marshall joined in the fun and painted his masterpiece. Soon, everyone was picking up a piece of Blue Mahoe and joining the fun. To our surprise, we were soon hosting 10 adults in the group.

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Scean (pronounced See Ann), our neighbor and fresh egg supplier, pulled up a chair and showed her talent to the delight of her son who attended our first class. It was starting to look like the generational connection from child to parent was taking hold. Hopefully, for a long time to come.

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Another mother in my neighborhood sat down and sketched a picture to paint on her wood slab.

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Shane, a 23 year old man whom I have known since he was 7 had been anxiously awaiting this day as he sketched and paints with colored pencils all the time. When he was shown a picture of a lion he knew that is what he wanted to paint.

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In all my many years of traveling around and living in Jamaica, I can honestly say that I have never seen so many adults relaxing and thoroughly enjoying art for the sake of art.

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A couple of adults painted an extra wood slab to bring us to a total of 18 pieces of art that they readily offered to be sold at the January 6th Celebration with all the proceeds going to help school children pay their way back and forth to school. Tonight, the second week of classes for the younger children (8 - 15 yo) will be finished and the adults were voicing overwhelming support for another evening of painting and, the next time, bringing some smaller children to a class to learn the fundamentals.

This experience has been quite humbling for me personally. With a small amount of paint, brushes and thinner the artistic talents of these former Maroon Warrior descendants are being reawakened and blooming from a struggling bud into a beautiful flower. As always, Jamaica and especially the Maroons in my hometown have risen to the occasion and reaffirmed my long held belief that anything is possible here.

I hope you have enjoyed this thread so far. Perhaps next year you can join us.

Peace and Guidance

Thanks for sharing Bill sure brought a smile to my face today !