GRATITUDE is the topic of the latest project by community members who are trying to bring a little 'magic' into the area.
According to Beverley Burne, the opportunity by Judd Campbell to do the group's Erase Your Fears wall surpassed their wildest expectations by far, and the latest project, the The Wall of Gratitude materialised sooner than she anticipated.
“Suzy Bell from Red Eye asked if she could put her graffiti ad back up on Judd's wall to advertise her gig for 12 December. A few of us regularly meet on a Friday morning to brainstorm and socialise over coffee. Last Friday, Shannon Moffatt, one of our magical members, confirmed that Angela Shaw from the KZNSA art Gallery had given us the go-ahead to get stuck in on the outside wall of the gallery, facing the car park,” said Beverley.
The group decided to strike while the iron was hot, and in no time had settled on the topic Today I am grateful for …
“We loved the idea of people being able to write their gratitude down every day and we also decided to exclude the word Glenwood, simply because we wanted visitors to our suburb from out of town to feel welcome to chalk up their gratitude too!” she said.
The group gathered at the plain KZNSA Art gallery wall on Sunday afternoon and set about plotting and planning their way through.
“We have had so much fun creating our walls and we have taken great pride in choosing high traffic areas where everybody has access to the space and the chalk,” she said.
Beverley said the group had learnt that they all have a little touch of OCD and this project was so much more about getting stuck in and less about leaving the borders 'super-crisp.'
“In retrospect, I do believe the drips at the bottom of the this wall symbolises our sometimes imperfect world, and also a reminder that this initiative of ours is all about community involvement and less about being uptight about whose wall it is, or who 'smudged that corner or dripped at the bottom over there'. I also believe that over this holiday period, there are many people who suffer with sadness for lots of different reasons. To those souls we are saying, please don't give up. Please come and write your gratitude on this wall, even if you are from out of town, and read all the magical words for inspiration,” she said.
Beverley said the team would love to get together to perform further magic elsewhere.
To do this they will need the gratitude wall kit, including one high traffic/visible area, two 1l black blackboard paint, and one medium galvanised bucket (for the chalk).
Contact beverley@gurugirl.co.za with the space you would like the group to transform. It will be put before the committee, and if it meets the criteria, the group will get stuck in.
