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Brave
Hearts
Painters and Muralists |
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The
Corazones Valientes Painters Association is a group
of peasant women from the village of La Unión
de Monterrey, San Carlos, in northern Costa Rica,
about 12 miles from Arenal Volcano. This rural community
was created 20 years ago as a result of a land conflict
in which all the families participated actively. Since
then, the community has engaged in various agricultural
projects. Nevertheless, Corazones Valientes has a
very different kind of activity. Its members have
been painting for the past thirteen years, starting
with the encouragement of a Peace Corps volunteer,
Rebecca Hart, who helped them find alternatives to
low income-producing agriculture.a Hart, del Cuerpo
de Paz, comienzan a buscar alternativas a la producción
agrícola. |
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At
first, Rebecca shared what she had learned from artists
Ana Barrientos and Fernando Páramo. Later, the group
studied with these artists personally for several years.
This first stage was very difficult for the group because
of their low income and the lack of comprehension on the
part of some of their families who did not support them.
Consequently the initial group of fifteen ended up as six:
Marina Méndez, Toribia Mairena, Viria Salas, Esmeralda
Rivera, Luz Ríos and Ivannia Zambrana. More recently
Lanny Zambrana and Patricia Quesada also joined the group.
Once trained, Corazones Valientes started an intensely productive
period with much experimentation involving landscapes of
the exuberant tropical humid forest and their message about
the need to protect these natural resources. They also painted
subjects such as the relationship between man and woman
and other every day subjects of the rural life. It was a
search, as a group and as individual artists, for their
own esthetic language with acrylics on paper and canvas. |
With
this identity, Corazones Valientes has been exhibiting and
selling its paintings since 1991 in North American Galleries
in New York, Atlanta, Minneapolis, St. Paul y Northfield,
Minnesota, and in New Haven, Connecticut. All this with
Rebecca Hart’s constant support. |
They
also had an exhibit in Nicaragua in 1996, and in San José,
Costa Rica in 1997 and 1998 at the José Figueres
Casa de la Cultura and at the Electoral Supreme Court. During
these last years they have also had exhibits in several
Costa Rican hotels, bookstores and arts and crafts festivals.
Their art has also served for book illustrations and covers,
posters and postcards. Their art won a US contest and was
published in a book for children. |
Since
2001, Corazones Valientes opened up to a new experience:
under the direction of Costa Rican artist Loida Pretiz,
and the financial support of FUNDECOOPERACION para el Desarrollo
Sostenible, a Costa Rican foundation that administrates
funds from the Netherlands, they began creating tile murals.
The first one, done in 2001 called Dreams and Realities
of Rural Women on Technology is a 30 square meters work
on a wall of the most important university-level campus
in northern Costa Rica, the Instituto Tecnológico
de Costa Rica. This project was fundamental for the group,
not just to learn a new technique but also because it was
the first art project on the walls of this institution,
as well being a group project and located in a public area,
only 12 miles from their home village. The second mural
was done on the Pacific coast in the Puntarenas Marine Park
in 2002. |
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the experience of these two projects Corazones Valientes
opened up a new market at the national level. Corazones
Valientes has its own workshop with its own mural, in their
home village, La Unión. This is where they meet to
paint and share new ideas. They may be visited by calling
in Costa Rica at (506) 357-5948 or (506) 374-0763. For English
call (506) 307-0003 or e-mail them at their website: www.corazonesvalientes.com.
In the United States, call (404) 378-5021 for more information.
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