That was Harvey. This is Houston.

That was Harvey. This is Houston. (website).jpg

Creator

Sarah Fisher

Title

That was Harvey. This is Houston.

Description

That was Harvey. This is Houston.
2017 - 2018
120" x 192” (eight panels)
Oil on canvas

To commemorate the magnanimity of Houstonians’ resilient and altruistic response to Hurricane Harvey, I painted this monumental, human-scale, eight-panel, oil-on-canvas portrait of my fellow volunteers. This group worked together seamlessly accepting donations outside NRG Center the day after Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and Baker Ripley CEO Angela Blanchard opened a shelter there to care for people impacted by the storm. These volunteers exemplify the whole-hearted spirit that emerged all over the city and carried Houston through those dark, anxious days last September.

At a time when Houston is being recognized as “the most diverse place in America,”* it is important to honor the manner in which our city showed the country and the world what it means to love each other by stepping up without hesitation when it matters most. As Houston continues to recover, I hope this painting can serve as a source of civic pride and a spark for authentic, ongoing conversations on resilience, flood control, diversity, community and altruism.

*Mejia, Brittany, 'How Houston has become the most diverse place in America,' May 9, 2017, LA Times.

Type

works of art

Rights

This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.

Source

This item was contributed via the Harvey Memories Project "Contribute an Item" form.

Date Created

2018-00-00

Date Submitted

2018-09-21

Date Available

2018-09-22