Four creative Kiwis have just returned from a trip to rural India, where they were on a mission taking art to school children.
But it turned out to be just the beginning of what's turning into an inspiring journey.
"The local community just had no idea what we were doing. We were on a busy main road," says jewellery designer Cathy Pope. "They thought we were just crazy. But they loved it, they absolutely loved it."
Pope, illustrator Ema Frost, photographer Sacha Stejko and stencil artist Flox are the artists behind the Painted Peacock Project. It's an effort to inspire a small Indian town where their breed of art is as foreign as them.
"They weren't quite sure what these crazy white ladies were doing. We just rocked up with our art supplies," Pope says.
The four spent a fortnight in a primary school teaching children to make jewellery, use stencils and paint.
"They've never seen these materials before and they don't know what to do with them, so for them it was a whole new world, it was really amazing," Stejko says.
In doing so they weren't just teaching skills, but opening a door to a new way of life.
"We just wanted to let them see girls doing cool stuff and making a job out of it," Pope says.
Even if the locals didn't always understand it, their work caught the Indian media's eye, proving art bridges barriers of language and culture.
"Art is a universal language, so if you've got something visual you're working with, you can connect on that level," Flox says.
Now the four have opened an exhibition selling art inspired by their time away, which is on display at Auckland's Allpress Studio. A part of the proceeds goes straight back to India to buy new supplies for the kids they taught, and another portion goes to Kidscan NZ.
Newshub.
