Project Information

Created by a team of all young women, Boatema (She Brings Strength) centers around a growth and transformation narrative. Both ends of the mural have a hand holding a cracked open seed that is growing blossoming vines representing potential, dedication, patience, and support. On the right side of the mural, the vines wrap around buildings that represent home and family images a physically supportive environment, or roots. There is a dad fixing his daughters hair, a young girl trying on clothes in a bedroom, and a dad walking with his daughter on his shoulder to help her pick a blossom from the vines. The left side of the cityscape represents creative/professional/ intellectual pursuits: the windows show a woman practicing piano, a woman hanging a framed picture of young graduates, a woman painting. The center of the mural is a park scene with young women playing and growing, watched over by a Mount Rushmore of foremothers in the background. The mountain range of women are painted like rock and grass to represent their stability. The park scene features young women of various ages some playing together, one reading and another writing sisters on the sidewalk in chalk. The young girl with the dog is leaving the family environment to enter the park of growth. The young businesswoman walks back from the creative/professional/intellectual side of the piece toward the girls in the park and the mountain range of past and possibility. There are bright colors scattered throughout to keep the composition light and playful, but also to connect all of the different phases or stages we, or the characters, may walk through. The mural, and the concept, is centered around the more naturalistic green centerpiece that represents where we can and will return to whenever were ready to grow. The pink blossom that the toddler picks from the vine.