The Inside Out Project & the Haitian Banksy

As many of you already know, one of the main projects we're working on in Haiti is bringing art to the streets and using it to gather & strengthen communities.  While most of the installations are aimed at physical communities, one of the pieces targets a transient community -- the people flying in and out of the Port-au-Prince airport.

The portrait is 40 feet by 16 feet and is currently going on top of giant container ships at the GRU compound.  GRU is located right next to the airport so planes constantly fly over the base making it the perfect place for the picture to be seen!  Instead of the harsh conditions around the airport, the first & last thing people will see when entering or leaving Port-au-Prince will be a magnificent portrait.  It's so fitting for a country filled with so much creativity, culture and art!

The portrait is of the famous Haitian street artist Jerry.  His art is beautiful, inspiring, and can be seen all over Port-au-Prince.  Here are a few of my favorites that we captured during out last trip.  Good news for all you Jerry fans out there, word is he's getting ready to hit the streets with some new images.  I can't wait!

We were fortunate enough to meet him during our last trip to Haiti and asked him to participate in the project.  Jerry is known as the "Haitian Banksy," so he agreed to let us take a picture as long as it was just of his eyes.

Today we started wheat pasting the portrait and Jerry came over to help.  Not only was it fun to watch him work on a new type of art, (he's been wanting to experiment with wheat paste since our last trip) but we definitely needed another set of hands.  The portrait is huge!  It's separated into 14 pieces and had it not been for Jerry, we would have put the first strip on backwards.  Luckily he recognized the side of his ear before we pasted the entire strip down.

Jerry & I getting ready to wheat paste.

We still have more than half the portrait to paste, but today was an experience I will never forget.  It was a true collaboration of art, between two famous street artists that have never met.  A community we were able to bring together through art.