Vidawa is a very small village in Taveuni, Fiji. i was commissioned to paint this mural in the tourist office -- depicting their very popular rainforest hike. It was my biggest project then.
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| Vidawa mural, painted 2008? or 2009 -- au sa qase! This photo was e-mailed to me a couple months after it was painted... |
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| A couple years after -- tropical weather (much rain and high humidity) created its own spontaneous "art" with mold underneath the varnish... |
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| i was given bird pictures to copy, since i'm quite inept at painting animals and such... |
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| Truth... |
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| Mercy... |
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| Joy... |
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| Patience... |
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| Trust... |
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| This 3-inch parrot took me two hours to paint! i am NOT into painting wildlife, though i appreciate and enjoy them very much. |
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| The varnish ran into the hidden "Good Shepherd"... |
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| Since i didn't know how to paint rooster feet (or just didn't want to bother), i just painted leaves to camouflage them... |
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| Faith...True Vine... |
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| i was also given pictures of the palm trees which grow in the rainforest near Vidawa, which i enjoyed copying more than the birds... |
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| truth, life, WAY (to point to JESUS)... |
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| Grace...hope... |
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| bread...light (again, pointing to JESUS -- the True Bread and the True Light) |
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| The damage done by the wet and humid tropic weather was extensive... |
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| The mural, after two years absence... |
When i was painting the mural (it took about two weeks), the children would come by after school to see the progress. As i painted, we would hold a Q&A -- school stuff -- and sometimes, i would give out candies or loose change to the one who answered first correctly. Then the kidZ would search the mural for the newest GOD-word hidden in the "bush." It was odd that all the kidZ would always find them (no matter how "cleverly" i tried to blend them in the leaves), but the adults seemed blind to them and just couldn't figure out where those words were!
i had a wonderFUL time staying in Vidawa, eating fresh fish from the sea, which was literally their backyard! Thank you for the bu (fresh green coconut) juice and tasty pawpaw.
