Quechua Benefit

Story Summary

Quechua Benefit was created after attending Education with a Destination, where I learned about the community protecting the endangered Vicuna. Guests contributed heartfelt reflections to the canvas, later becoming the Subliminal layer. Months afterward, inspired by the organization’s colors, love, and unity, I painted around a large heart contributed by a guest using chrome orange, yellows, greens, and deep textures. The final work honors compassion, stewardship, and the powerful collective care at the heart of Quechua Benefit.

Story

Late in the afternoon of August 25th, I attended the kickoff of Education with a Destination. The point of Education with a Destination is to help the community with education, networking & support. After setting up the blank Collective Experience canvas, that guests would eventually share their experience about Quechua Benefit, I went to the main venue where the event was happening. I was able to see an early preview of the new documentary about the Peruvians and the Vicuna. The documentary covered how these coveted animals were on the verge of extinction due to groups in the land were coming in to kill this animal for this special fiber. When Quechua Benefit heard about the atrocities, they began working with the community to make an impact and partner with the community so the animals could remain safely in captivity and build the population back up. It was fascinating to learn in the documentary how the shearing material was stewarded and how the community comes together (quite literally) for the shearing process. I learned that over a number of days, the community surrounds the Vicuna so they can capture them (temporary) to shear them which is a harmless process (think haircut) and then they let them back into nature. It’s a beautiful experience. Other than a few experiences of being around Alpaca’s and no experience with Vicuna’s since they live in a remote region of the world at a very high elevation, I thoroughly enjoyed how the group of people I found myself gathered around during the evening were so focused on finding very sustainable solutions that can serve many different industries. After the documentary, dinner was served and after a paddle raise to support the cause, I spoke after dinner about what Subliminal Story art is and several people came up and shared their thoughts, phrases and what impacts them about Quechua Benefit. The canvas was left as other guests could share their thoughts over the next few days as they went through the conference. The following Saturday I picked up the canvas to see all who contributed to it and what they contributed to it. I had the canvas in storage and waited to paint until after the winter was over, because I was waiting for their next event to donate the painting to raise funds. Before I picked back up my paint brush, I went onto the Quechua Benefit website to read through some items and reorient myself with the organization and the experience of the evening I felt. On the site, I saw reds and browns on the site. I was reminded of the love I saw within the community I saw in the documentary. I wanted to capture more of the spirit of community, to complement the coming together, of the community, I chose a color that brought the reds and browns together and selected Chrome Orange. Since someone drew a big heart around the word Quechua Benefit, I decided to start off tracing the big heart with paint. The love they have for each other and these animals so part of the work needed to include their heart along with capturing a big heart that someone drew around the organization. I carried more of the colors through to a point with I brought the first treatment to a close and knew it needed more work as it was VERY pink. The subtlety that I loved about the first treatment was the heart that remained, the heart that remains in the organization and people that donate, time, talent, treasures to the organization. A couple days went by, and on June 6th I decided to add to the painting. I began with a yellow added in some white, greens, all the colors I had experienced on the website and with all of the tracking and community gathering, I added a lot of texture to make sure the true expression of the cause and love for the animals and the environment all came together. There are many different textures that make up this work. I LOVE how it came together and like any commissioned or collective work, I include the “J” in my signature on the left side of the painting.