Art + Community Gardening!

This adventure began with an invitation from Katie Gannon at Tucson Clean & Beautiful how was calling upon Urban Foresters to take part in motivating the neighborhood to plant/maintain trees and a community garden!

The group was made up of youth from the neighborhood and during my first day working with them I had a great time sharing a bit about myself with them and how important the environment has become to me! After getting to know each other, we headed out to the community garden to plant bell pepper and tomatoes. The more I talked to the youth the more they wanted to know about art. I kept wondering how I could keep them interested in the environment and share more about it with them. So, while out tending to our newly planted peppers and tomatoes, I noticed a big rusty electric box that was a major eyesore in the garden and I asked the youth if they would be interested in painting something for the community on it with me. They loved the idea and we went on to sketch some ideas, had them approved and permission was granted for us to get to painting!

Now, the box is painted brightly and looks great in the garden. My hopes in this activity was to give the youth I worked with a break from the everyday world in an exercise of the mind that is free and uplifting all while giving back and beautifying their community.

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