The Santa Monica Red Cross is one of the oldest civic organizations in the city, founded in 1918 by the historic Santa Monica Bay Women's Club. A largely volunteer organization, the efforts of the Santa Monica Red Cross chapter have left a tremendous impact on the lives of thousands across generations. The chapter serves more than 90,000 people over 16 square miles. Nonetheless, many remain uninformed about the work they accomplish. Despite the organization's enduring commitment to its surrounding communities many overlook its heroic dimensions and take for granted the importance of its tasks. For every crisis, every fire, every earthquake within its district, the Red Cross shows up for those who are in need.

I am asking my extended community to help create a place of imagination and memory through a public art work. I invite you to join me in giving a sense of place and belonging to an organization that has responded to human need for close to a century.Through its staff and volunteers the Santa Monica Red Cross consistently acknowledges the power of cooperation and helps reveal the inherent strength of our communities.Together, lets create a public monument that celebrates that spirit for their upcoming centennial.

The Guardian Mural

I will create a mural along the south facade of the Santa Monica Red Cross chapter building as well as another public art work created with volunteers located on the retaining walls surrounding the front entrance parking lot. After conversations with Santa Monica Red Cross Director, Julie Thomas and Resident Historian, Anna Lisa Debois, I began the design phase of the project. Beautify Earth is committed to providing materials and scaffolding or lifts for the project. What we need now is direct financial support so that I can undertake the task of creating the mural.

I am seeking funding of $5,500.00 to keep me on the wall until the project is completed.

We estimate that the project will take 2 months to complete.

Your donation will go directly towards my expenses while I am at work. This will allow me to focus on the project without distractions.  By supporting this campaign, you help create a 'win' for all involved.  The Santa Monica Red Cross receives recognition through a mural, I receive the support required to give my art and efforts, Beautify Earth creates more murals, and you become a part of something that truly matters to many people.

 Donations are tax deductible through Beautify Earth, a 501(c)3 non profit organization.

All donations make a difference, 

I plan to complete this project whether I reach my goal or not.

Impact

Your contribution benefits everyone in the community and will continue to have an impact long into the future. This project draws attention to a small organization with a historical legacy that has helped shape the community of Santa Monica. Projects like this help maintain a sense of continuity within communities; an important social resource that can be lost or threatened when a place undergoes the growth and infrastructure change that is occurring in Santa Monica.

As part of the greater efforts of Beautify Earth, the mural will create increased momentum for the organization's ongoing goals of painting the world in color 'until no unkempt wall remains.' 

Your contribution fuels volunteers, mentorships, and partnerships between private and public sectors of the community. Murals have an extraordinary ability to sustain and help create community. Part of the project will call for the direct participation of community members and others creating opportunities for community education. When people have the opportunity to work together to improve and 'beautify' their physical environment, they often create long lasting relationships and understandings. To participate in the creation of a public artwork is a powerful experience. The relationships that are born in the process create new lines of communication as people discover a previously unfelt sense of ownership and pride that transforms 'the public' into protagonists and stewards of memory and imagination.

As you may know, I have facilitated this kind of art making many times, integrating diverse communities into dialogues through the arts. As we experience new sensibilities brought about through the internet, social media and cell phones it may be easy to presume that community art and collective participation has transformed, that maybe the experience itself has changed. We live in a world where change is constant but the truth remains that the experience of making public art with others, the act of working together to create something that affects public space is one of the most powerful experiences many participants will ever have. It remains undiminished. This kind of collective experience was powerful when Stonehenge was created as well as when barns were raised by neighbors working together in farming communities. The collective imagination is kindled when nimble hands come together together to create a quilt, and when giving hearts come together and volunteer to aid victims of fire and earthquakes.

The Guardian Mural project will harness this energy and create renewed lines of support and imagination for the Santa Monica Red Cross. Please consider joining us in this imaginative undertaking.

No public art project is without risks or challenges. This project creates new partnerships between organizations and individuals and requires a fair amount of teamwork and planning for its completion. We are also facing  a wet winter, we want the project established before El Nino settles in!

No matter what challenges encountered, with your help, I'll work with the staff of the Red Cross and the coordinators of Beautify Earth to create a work that years from now you'll want to say with pride and certainty, “I helped that happen.”

Other ways to Help

There are also other things you can do to help get the mural created. If you can't contribute economically please help us get the word out by forwarding and sharing this information, put it on your Facebook page and help me to keep painting both in my community and anywhere else I can for things that matter.  Anything you say to others about the campaign is highly appreciated. 

After our campaign ends  you can continue to support the Guardian Mural as we seek matching funds. We will offer the same rewards to contributors, please visit the link below:

Guardian Mural for Beautify Earth