The Cradle Project

This historic and unprecedented art installation –two years in the making– will feature over five hundred cradles and cribs made by artists from around the world using solely scrap and recycled materials. Using the symbolism of empty cradles to represent the lost potential of an estimated 48 million children orphaned by disease and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, The Cradle Project is designed to provoke art into action. The ultimate mission is to promote awareness about this crisis and to raise financial support to help feed, shelter, and educate these forgotten children. Set against a towering backdrop of falling sand, these empty cradles will speak volumes about the permanence of loss, as children’s lives and potential - these cradles - become buried.

View Cradle

Kenya

More than most places, in Africa there is a certain power that emanates from the land itself. The people, in their resilience, add to this energy to make it one of the most striking places on this planet.

The people, however, have great need for international awareness and support. The main reason I donate paintings to Unicef auctions is for their work in Africa.

Home to only 10% of the population, 70% of adults and 80% of children alive in the world today who suffer from HIV/AIDS live in Africa. In 2003 I worked with Katy Tartakoff and the Children's Legacy in Denver. They had published a book bearing witness to those living in Kenya who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. As an awareness raising tool, the book was distributed to classrooms across the US. We held an exhibition, book signing and poetry reading where 100% of sales went back to educating the children portrayed in Katy's moving black and white photographs.

view work from Kenya

right: provider, oil on canvas

Botswana

scavenge

On safari by dugout canoe through the Okvango Delta, our guides found a water buffalo carcass. They informed us that a lion had just been feasting on it, and proceeded to cut a large chunk out of the ripened meat. Frightening to think of a lioness laying in wait nearby, watching as we scavenged a bit of her meal - fortunately we left the scene unscathed.

right: float - Okavango Delta, oil on paper

West Africa

portraits

right: femme d'Afrique Ouest, mixed media on burnt paper