What place does human kindness have in today’s world? When politicians bicker over the smallest details, global warming creeps its way around the planet, and towns like ours suffer from police and civilian brutality. Is there room for hope in a dark world?
What place does human kindness have in today’s world? When politicians bicker over the smallest details, global warming creeps its way around the planet, and towns like ours suffer from police and civilian brutality. Is there room for hope in a dark world?
Patience Salgado thinks so. “everyone has a dark story… everyone holds a light… everyone needs kindness… the light is coming…” Salgado says on her Kindness Girl website to describe the Light of Human Kindness Project. She’s been making it her mission to show this town, and the world, that there are still things to be happy and excited about.
“The Light of Human Kindness is an interactive mural in RVA that explores what happens when art, technology and kindness come together to illuminate the power of human connection.”
Salgado asked for light and dark personal stories, and before long they started to poor in. Then, in connection with the RVA Street Art Festival, people were invited to write their stories, and stories submitted, directly onto the walls of the old GRTC bus depot. Shortly after the stories were finished, local artist and muralist Hamilton Glass was invited to paint along side and around the painted words.
And this weekend, Glass will pass the torch of the Light of Human Kindness Project on to the Martin Agency, who is providing the lighting that will highlight and meta-represent the wall and its contents, respectively. It was handed to handed to him by the Richmonders who had a chance starting 10 days ago to have their encounters with human kindness
Transcribed onto an eighty-foot wall along W. Cary St. For the past two weeks, the project, which can be described as both a mural and light project of fairly epic proportions, has been in the hands of Hamilton Glass. Glass has a unique style, but that’s because he is an artist, and saying that doesn’t necessarily paint you a picture. But it’s a very unique style.
The wall as it stands now is a conglomeration of stories in a bold but dripping font that will give you the goosebumps – stories that help restore people’s faith in one another. It’s a beautiful thing to behold. Atop the words is a long network of Glass’ signature geometric sprawling, in full Technicolor.
“The painting provides a track for the lights” Glass told me while standing beneath the colossal snake of color. At that moment, his particular vision was illuminated by the traffic on Cary Street speeding from the west end of the wall past us. The wall, thus far, combines (or collides) the very static concept of written words with the idea of movement.
Along with the passing cars came a slew of occasional honking, signifying that Richmonders either know the aim of the project and approve of all that human kindness, or just like what they see, or both. Glass told me he has been getting plenty of questions for passerby, and I even got one. But my own lack of knowledge on the wall, except for his purpose, to show human kindness, seemed to brought us closer, and the inquiring passer-by slowed her walk and gazed stoically upon the words of strangers.
“We had to put up a sign” Glass told me, pointing to a large sign with information about the project hanging from the crane along the wall. However he still gets questions. It seems like the concept of the project was the first impact-making aspect of the project. He described how when his good friend Patience Salgado, the “Kindness Girl” and local staple in the Richmond pos(itive)-vibe scene, came to him with the project, he wasn’t sure he or anyone could do it justice.
The idea had already brightened lives, and weeks later, after roughly 40 hours of painting, Glass seemed to think the incomplete piece still functions to benefit others. His work, and the words of strangers pasted beneath it, has been doing the idea justice by perpetuating buzz and helping people look deeper into the unknown.
“It’s not a mural” he told me. “It’s (Patience’s) kindness and my art”. I’d say it’s hard to call it a mural, too, simply because it’s a lot of the things murals are not, and because murals are a work of art, while this project could be described as more a mechanism of art.
The next step is to hang lights along the wall, representing the brightness of the simple concept of kindness. The name sums it up better than I just did – The Light of Human Kindness. Starting this weekend, and coming to a climax during the RVA Street Art Festival, the Martin Agency will be handling the finishing touches, with Patience running point per usual.
When I asked if he felt guilty about painting over certain words on the wall, he told me “no, because I was told (by Salgado) not to!”. Fair enough. Everyone I’ve talked to about her and her brainchild is void of doubts – this project will only get better. I feel that Richmond is already better off for having The Light of Human Kindness.
Check it out for yourself – 2501 W. Cary St now or under the lights during the Street Art Festival 9/11-15, and, seriously, don’t expect your heartstrings to remain un-tugged.
