New Mural in Kent
In early December, St. Vincent de Paul unveiled our new mural by artist Blanca Santander in collaboration with students from Kent schools, community partners, and volunteers with funding from the
Catholic Campaign for Human Development at Centro Rendu Hispanic Outreach Center in our Kent Thrift Store.
We are very grateful for Blanca’s participation in the development of this mural. It is wonderful piece of art that will forever grace our St. Vincent de Paul Kent Thrift Store and our entire organization. This is Blanca’s overview of her work in her words:
After seeing my exhibit at the Kent City Hall Centennial Gallery, Mirya Roach, Director of Centro Rendu and Hispanic Outreach Services for St. Vincent de Paul, called me with an idea and a bit of a dream. In the early summer of 2014, I met at Centro Rendu with Kent school teenagers and some members of the Centro Rendu Hispanic Advisory Team, to assist me with the St. Vincent de Paul Mural. Our first meeting was to brainstorm the concept and develop a mural idea. It was not at first easy, but bombarding each other with ideas and sketches helped begin the process. With much enthusiasm and energy we proceeded to work toward the goal of having a mural honoring the life of St. Vincent de Paul.
It was a period of discovery to figure out first how our lives today are affected by the life of a man who lived in France over 500 years ago. From our research and discussions together our sketches ended up depicting him in many different ways. One sketch showed him sleeping and dreaming with piles of books since he was a learned man. Another student focused on the period clothing and type of life people led during that era. There were also beautiful and innocent pastoral drawings.
St Vincent de Paul was born on a farm, excelled at reading and writing as he grew up, and went to study Theology at a University. We were surprised to learn how he had become enslaved in by Barbary Pirates and during captivity learned about medicine from a more advanced Muslim country. He actually had an exciting life coming from a humble background. When he escaped slavery he returned to work within the church. He founded charities that bridged the wealthy Ladies of Charity in Paris with projects that funded hospitals, helped victims of war, and help pay ransoms of French galley slaves in North Africa. He was a pioneer in bridging the connection between the needs of the wealthy to give and the needs of the poorest people in the countryside.
The concept I developed finally for the mural was to depict in a spiritual and imaginative way how the legacy of St Vincent de Paul bridges the connection between the “haves” and the “have nots” even to this day. Civilization is all connected from farm to city and there are no boundaries for charity. We are all human beings sharing the same Earth.
We would like to offer Special Thanks to Michael Torgueson who opened his studio for us to do our work and to Mayor Cooke for her constant support of our work.
Visit our Kent St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store today and check out the new mural.
