The Seed of Benevolence is a community based art project created to inspire community involvement with those less fortunate by educating through art pieces. This project has been given the chance to be brought to life through starter funding by members of the El Paso community through The Caldo Collective. The project entailed working with our cities’ various homeless shelters to meet and gather stories from homeless individuals in our community. I interviewed people who wanted to share their stories, the story and circumstance of how they ended up with out a home. This work aims to discover what leaves a person homeless in a family-oriented community as well as address what is to come of individuals that are displaced with the changes occurring in our city’s growth. As a token of appreciation for sharing a part of the life and their time I gave the interviewees a care package of toiletries, a set of new clothes, and a food gift card created by members of our area. Concluding the interview I exchanged new clothing for an item of the individual’s clothing. I then transcribed their words on to the clothing item they shared with me to create a visual representation of who they are. Their printed clothing, along with their photographs, has been exhibited through our our city, giving these individuals a platform for their voice.This project hopes to impact our community by creating an awareness of one another and their journeys, taking a walk in the shoes of someone less fortunate, and most importantly to spark a sense of the goodness humanity is capable of... Hope.
To see this project more in depth as well as the stories check out:
This project is made possible by members of the community through The Caldo Collective “The Caldo Collective gives selected artists the opportunity to present their proposals to the community during “Frijol Feasts!” Caldo provides a warm bowl of soup for dinner guests to slurp up, while artists provide ideas to feast upon. At the end of the meal, dinner guests vote on their favorite artist’s idea to receive the funds collected from the night’s dinner donations.”