Award: Research & Development Grant

Discipline: Multidisciplinary Arts

Project Collaborator(s):

City/Town: Bisbee

Year: 2019

Artist Website: https://www.gretchenbaer.com/

I believe my book can show kids that they can create the world they want to live in. I think it will also show them a different story about what life is like on the other side of the border wall.

Gretchen Baer, a visual artist based in Bisbee, spent six years working alongside children from Naco, Sonora painting a mile long section of the U.S./Mexico border. In “Mariposa’s Wall,” a children’s picture book illustrated by Baer, the artist will tell the story of a girl who decides to paint the border wall, gets the community involved, and transforms her town through art. Baer hopes to show kids that they can create the world they want to live in while also showing them a different story about what life is like on the other side of the border wall.

Each page of “Mariposa’s Wall” will be a hand-painted work of art. Baer will use grant funds to create colorful paintings on un-stretched canvas to make uncluttered, impactful images kids can understand in the small scale of a children’s book. Grant funds will also help pay a graphic designer for layout and print, as well as an editor to help refine the story.

Image: Mariposa first paints the border wall in colorful splashes of paint.
Acrylic on unstretched canvas, 30″ by 48″.

Gretchen Baer is a painter, art car artist, and activist. She spent six years painting the world’s longest kids mural on the Mexican side of the border wall with the children of Naco, Mexico. She is the creator and director of Studio Mariposa, a free kids art and music center also located in Naco, Sonora. Gretchen is from Martha’s Vineyard Island, graduated from Massachusetts College of Art, and now makes her home in Bisbee, Arizona.

Photo by Kendall Blust.