Saturday, February 9, 2008

Joe Slovo Boy

In response to the first comment on my last post - I always hope that this little boy will grow up to a a famous photographer despite his start becuase we gave him a taste of it! I have to say that he was a highly curious and happy little chap - all the children were. The day after this was taken we went to a different place and saw some very bad accommodation indeed and visited the project that was refurbishing them to decent homes. It was raining, we were cold, wet and muddy and Dennis said he was feeling a bit cranky and wondering why I was making him do all this miserable stuff on his holiday. Then a little boy skipped up with a big smile, stuck his hand in Dennis and walked around with him. Dennis said he couldn't help but be cheered up by the child's attitude - even before he looked down to see that he had no shoes to wear!

I should also add that we had gone to Joe Slovo with a local man and had an address for him so we sent copies of all the photos this little boy took and asked for them to be passed on to him. I'd love to go back and see if we can find him again and see how he is getting on. In fact despite the fact that he lives in a shack he is close to some really good art work. If you walk down his street, past the communal standpipe you move into an area of proper houses. Some are decorated like this one.


Then around the corner, past the Shebeen, you get to this community centre which has drama and art groups and allows local crafts person sto sell art to tourists. Look at the quilt inspiration on the walls!

Today I am thinking about faces in windows.....is it just me or are you all finding that working on all these challenges gives you ideas for really big quilts more easily than little ones?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Helen, thanks so much for this follow up post. I wasn't feeling sad for the boy's situation so much as sad for the unlikelihood of him being able to survive as an artist. But now that I see the richness of his surroundings -well, there is hope indeed! I suppose an artist's heart will find expression regardless of the availability of equipment/resources. A good lesson for me!

Deborah Boschert said...

I always find architecture so inspiring!

Yes, 12" is very small.