MARI GARDNER
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Unbreakable
Swaziland, 2009

In 2009, I was blessed with the opportunity to be a visiting artist in Swaziland, Africa, through the United States Embassy.  I led mask workshops in an orphanage (consisting mostly of children orphaned due to their parents dying of AIDS) and photography/audio workshops with members of an HIV support group in the rural village of Timbutini. During my stay in the strikingly beautiful, yet poverty stricken, HIV rampant country, I was haunted by the thought that such a prolific beauty could be so demoralized. Despite my deliberations, I did not meet tearful victims; I met pure unbreakable spirits, reminding me that “the same hammer that shatters the glass forges the steel” (Russian Proverb).  I am forever humbled by the beauty, strength and hope that was shared with me.  

See here for more information.
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  • Home
  • About
    • About Mari
    • Contact
  • Community- Based Art
    • International >
      • Eswatini (Southern Africa) >
        • Tibi Tendlu
        • Unheard Voices
        • Orphanage
      • Botswana >
        • Viewfinder Project
      • Brazil
    • Community Based Public Art
    • Sculpture
    • Room Transformations
    • Installations >
      • African Refugee Youth: A Self Portrait
      • Unheard Voices (Timbutini)
    • Video >
      • Documentary
      • Public Service Announcements
  • Public Art
    • Clay Center for Art and Science, Charleston, West Virginia
    • Anne's Flats, Olympia, Washington
    • American Embassy, Eswatini, Southern Africa
    • American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland >
      • Aurora Borealis
      • Sunset and Daybreak Wing
      • Day to Fade
    • Baltimore Convention Center Hilton Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland
    • Glazer Children's Museum, Tampa, Florida
    • OHL Orthodontists, Dover, Delaware
  • Fine Art
    • Sculpture >
      • Redemptive Meditation
      • Portrait of a City Series
      • Nana I Ke Kumu Series
      • On Man and Nature Series
      • African Refugee Youth: A Self Portrait
    • Photography >
      • Dignified Faces
      • Tibi Tendlu
      • Unbreakable
    • Installation >
      • Samsara
      • Nana I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source)
      • Hut
      • Teen Dreams
    • Decorative Works
  • Video
    • Documentary
    • Small Jobs