The Offer of Calm Amidst the Onslaught

Painted in a single room occupancy (SRO) hotel for people living with AIDS, this project was created by a group of HIV positive adults with histories of incarceration, drug use, and prostitution. Participants generated symbols of stress and calm to illustrate the precarious situation of living with AIDS, on two adjacent walls. One wall depicts one of the participants as an earthen angel with butterfly wings. He is surrounded by palm trees and the sea. Like a nurse, he offers a tray of healing options, instead of medicines and pills, we see a young girl amidst flowers and butterflies. To the left, an anxious woman is holding a curtain on which are threatening mosquitoes and a large snake consuming a mouse. The mosquitoes represent the plague (AIDS) and the snake illustrates death and survival. Is the woman covering the offer of calm or revealing it with this curtain of stress? One of the participants said, "I am leaving my own memorial here."