Community Project
Los Cuatro Elementos/Atardecer – Profesores de telesecundaria/Staff Casa Wabi/Padres de familia de Escuela Primaria “Lázaro Cárdenas” las Negras
I arrived at Casa Wabi without preconceived ideas or any project in mind. My intention was to feel the space and surroundings, meet people from the local communities, and find possibilities to explore and share what was worth it. Shortly after my arrival, I was influenced by the architecture and the overwhelming presence of nature, the powerful sea and it’s sound, the wind, the earth, the sunrises, and igneous sunsets, which inspired me to work around the idea of the Four Elements.
So I started my first project, created to bring together several members of different communities in Casa Wabi, to experience a sensory activity based on mindfulness: a two-hour activity, guided by the awareness of the present moment to concentrate, one by one in the perception of air, water, earth, and fire to increase the creative abilities of each individual, maintaining moment by moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surroundings. We conducted several sessions and the response was more optimistic than I had anticipated, and I felt great happiness at the end of each session.
Then, in the middle of my residence, I heard that the Las Negras community’s primary school was looking for intervention on its facade. For me, it was fascinating, and it was the perfect complementary project, something I had wanted to do for a long time, improve the visual aspect of a place, in this case, a mural on which you could execute ideas of color and shape. The process was quick once I visited the school: I drew the idea in a few minutes, almost instinctively, as if I already knew what I had to do, even if the facade was not easy. We presented the idea to the school principal and parents, who became involved with the idea, and immediately began preparing and organizing. It was very exciting when the parents showed up with great enthusiasm on the last day of painting with trays, buckets, rollers, and brushes.
We worked together for a few hours and finished earlier than I had thought, a joyful afternoon, a project made for the school carried out by them. I was so happy with the final result, and especially for them.
Working at Casa Wabi, and with the communities, was an extraordinary experience. In the end, I had the opportunity to work on two different projects with local communities, and I met many remarkable people. I was pleased to see that the projects had something in common; they were inspired by the four elements and the natural forces of the surroundings, where the sunsets played an essential role in the aesthetic decisions. Both projects were aligned with the idea of minimalism and Zen principles dictated by the architecture and philosophy of the Wabi House.
I arrived at Casa Wabi without preconceived ideas or any project in mind. My intention was to feel the space and surroundings, meet people from the local communities, and find possibilities to explore and share what was worth it. Shortly after my arrival, I was influenced by the architecture and the overwhelming presence of nature, the powerful sea and it’s sound, the wind, the earth, the sunrises, and igneous sunsets, which inspired me to work around the idea of the Four Elements.
So I started my first project, created to bring together several members of different communities in Casa Wabi, to experience a sensory activity based on mindfulness: a two-hour activity, guided by the awareness of the present moment to concentrate, one by one in the perception of air, water, earth, and fire to increase the creative abilities of each individual, maintaining moment by moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surroundings. We conducted several sessions and the response was more optimistic than I had anticipated, and I felt great happiness at the end of each session.
Then, in the middle of my residence, I heard that the Las Negras community’s primary school was looking for intervention on its facade. For me, it was fascinating, and it was the perfect complementary project, something I had wanted to do for a long time, improve the visual aspect of a place, in this case, a mural on which you could execute ideas of color and shape. The process was quick once I visited the school: I drew the idea in a few minutes, almost instinctively, as if I already knew what I had to do, even if the facade was not easy. We presented the idea to the school principal and parents, who became involved with the idea, and immediately began preparing and organizing. It was very exciting when the parents showed up with great enthusiasm on the last day of painting with trays, buckets, rollers, and brushes.
We worked together for a few hours and finished earlier than I had thought, a joyful afternoon, a project made for the school carried out by them. I was so happy with the final result, and especially for them.
Working at Casa Wabi, and with the communities, was an extraordinary experience. In the end, I had the opportunity to work on two different projects with local communities, and I met many remarkable people. I was pleased to see that the projects had something in common; they were inspired by the four elements and the natural forces of the surroundings, where the sunsets played an essential role in the aesthetic decisions. Both projects were aligned with the idea of minimalism and Zen principles dictated by the architecture and philosophy of the Wabi House.
