Mark Krug (MK): ‘The road to this project started with an earlier painting project in Friday's music school. They are in the same building as Pura Vida's day care, and through the daily contact the idea of painting the music room was born. That was a great opportunity for the people here, because so far we had only made small works.’
Raymond Wolff (RW): ‘Before this, I painted smaller works in the studio, on wallpaper. That has become bigger and bigger.’
Linda Tigchelaar (LT): ‘Painting is relatively new at the day care centre and is playing an increasing role. It started with painting leftover chairs that were about to be thrown away. Instead, we repainted them and turned them into works of art. Then we started painting on wallpaper, and we hang these works on a huge door on the side of the building. Painting is a nice activity because you see immediate results. The murals in particular have a positive effect because they encourage working together and not staying in your own bubble. Some used to work only in their little sketchbooks, but now also join in when a big project is going on.’
MK: ‘People already started working together when we painted on wallpaper, but the mural at Friday's was where everyone really learned to work together. It took a while to figure out who was doing what. After that project, it was difficult to go back to small, individual works. But unexpectedly, SPOT and NNO contacted us with the offer of an exhibition as part of the Masterpiece Festival. They had heard about our project in Friday's music space and offered us the space for a new project.’
LT: ‘We went De Oosterpoort with a ruler to look at the possibilities, and soon the idea emerged for eight large paintings to hang on the balcony. This all went in consultation with the technical department. So we bought a big roll of canvas, which we painted in the studio. We cut the canvases to size and then stapled them to panels.’
MK: ‘First, we made a list of keywords that were relevant to the project. Then we started working with acrylic paint, wall paint, markers and oil paint. You can really see in the work that we were inspired by Basquiat, for example. In terms of collaboration, you notice that people now work together much more smoothly and use each other's talents.’
RW: ‘For example, I'm good at thinking in words, but other people are more visual thinkers. Some people paint figures, and we also have a blind participant who paints shapes. I then fill in those shapes. I often see immediately what I can do with them.’
LT: ‘We invested a lot in this project. From the beginning, we wanted to do it professionally. That's why we chose professional canvas to work on, instead of the wallpaper we normally use in the studio. The canvases were later stretched by Van Beek and we treated the works with varnish. People should also realise that these works were made by real artists. Everyone here is as much a part of the art scene as anyone else. It is denigrating when people want to haggle over the price of an artwork because the artist is mentally challenged. We hope that this project will also bring us more commissions, for instance for murals in other buildings. This does not have to be only in Groningen, but can also be done outside.’
MK: ‘This project is a good time for us to go public and show what we do at Pura Vida. We don't treat people as clients, but everyone is fellow artists. We think in terms of possibilities and not impossibilities. Projects like this generate a lot of attention and also create a lot of self-confidence among the participants. It gives momentum, which also makes it easier to take steps in other facets of life. In a broader sense, that has a lot of impact for everyone who participates in this.’