Photos by Lloyd Wolf (c)
Painted by volunteers organized by Lloyd Wolf, with assistance of Behrend Builders, DCJCC Mitzvah Makers, overall design by Judybeth Greene (2003)
My friend Lloyd Wolf decided that he wanted to do a service project for his 60th birthday. He chose to work with the DCJCC to do a mural at the CCNV shelter (a very large homeless shelter in DC associate with activist Mitch Snyder). I designed and sketched the 80’ mural. Over 100 people came in to help by the time it was done. Other professional painters came in to complete the portraits I had sketched. They brought those individuals to life. Many volunteers added their own designs, color choices, hope and flair for design.
I chose a crazy quilt as a way to weave people together and specifically leave room for creativity of the prople participating in painting. It was also important to integrate portraits from photographs of people the shelter serves. It was also important to me to leave room for residents and painters to add inspiring words into the mural. I had hoped that this could be an outlet for the residents.
Right before we left, one resident approached me and said she thought of a word she wanted on the mural: "worthiness." And so we put it on a block just outside the door to her room. This was my favorite part of the experience. It let me know that this mural and open design worked.
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Lloyd Wolf documented this very well in his blog:
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You can find other links on Lloyd’s site as other people worked on it over many weeks.
