Broadneck resident and illustrator Sally Wern Comport, and author Susan Hood, of Southport, Conn. recently won a Christopher Award for Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay.
The children’s book is a retelling of the true story of The Landfill Harmonic, which started in Cateura; a “noisy, stinking, sweltering slum” of Paraguay. There Ada Ríos lives with her family, recyclers (gancheros) who collect and sell trash from the nearby landfill.
When engineer Favio Chávez begins teaching music to at-risk children there, Ada learns the violin, and she and other students play instruments made from recycled trash. Comport employs a vibrant collage technique, using pictures of food labels, tires, and other detritus to form colorful, almost ethereal backdrops.
This is not the first book Comport has illustrated, however, for years she has garnered acclaim for her large-scale art, which is integrated into the very fabric of Annapolis. She has produced large-scale commissioned work for commercial, residential, and institutional clients such as the State Building and Severn Bank in Annapolis, Lighthouse Bistro, and Anne Arundel Medical Center.
In 2004, she cofounded a Public Art initiative and subsequent nonprofit called ArtWalk and is currently serving as curator, artist, and designer for that community organization. She continues in the capacity of designer/ consultant for several nonprofits, and her work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of American Illustration in New York.
She has illustrated several children’s books, among them Brave Margaret, by Robert Sans Souci, (1999), a traditional telling of the “Brave” fairy tale later popularized by Walt Disney. Her work often features multi-media techniques such as collage, integrated into a bold and vibrant style somewhat reminiscent of Thomas Hart Benton, and the Regionalist art movement.
Her themes often center around social justice; she created a large scale installation at the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cambridge, has illustrated a book about Martin Luther King Jr., and her current work-in-progress, Brightview Senior Living: Rockville Town Center, is a six-story piece of permanent artwork which features designs from the community representing diverse populations and their symbols for life, family, connection, spirituality, happiness and love. She attributes this to the fact her realistic work lends itself to historical and social themes.
When illustrating books, there is no collaboration between author and artist. Comport did not meet Hood, until after Ada’s Violin was published, and says this is the normal process. Publishers have a specific style in mind for each manuscript, and want the words to “speak through the universal language of illustration,” and not be influenced by the author’s vision. In this way, she continues, art directors, ” know they are getting your best work.”
Although she has received many accolades and rewards through her career, Comport is particularly honored to receive this award. The awards were created in 1949 to celebrate writers, producers, directors, authors and illustrators whose work “affirms the highest values of the human spirit.”
The Christophers are a nonprofit founded in 1945 by Maryknoll Father James Keller. Their philosophy is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity.
St. Margaret’s awards $90K in nonporfit grants
St. Margaret’s Church of Annapolis recently awarded 13 grants worth $90,000 to nonprofits making life-changing differences for residents locally, regionally and around the world. This is the 19th year the church has issued grants from endowment earnings since receiving an unrestricted bequest from the estate of the late Edwin and Zoe Hall.
To date, St. Margaret’s has given grants totaling over $2.2 million since the inception of the program in 1997.
This year’s recipients were selected from over 30 applicants. A committee of parishioners reviewed all applications and, with assistance of parishioner grant liaisons, reviewed, interviewed and evaluated all applications.
“We have been blessed richly and abundantly by God at St. Margaret’s Church,” said the Rev. Peter W. Mayer. “Through our grants program, we choose to share that blessing with others so that they may continue to heal a world in need of healing, and love a world that is worth loving.”
The 2017 Grant Awardees are:
* Siempre Unidos (Honduras) – To fund program salary and transportation assistance for home visitors screening for HIV.
* SPOUTS of Water (Uganda) To install locally manufactured larger water filters in public spaces of refugee camp and provide 300 household filters.
* Kenya Connect (Kenya) To purchase a BRCK Kio Kit containing 40 specially designed loaded tablets battery charged for distant village schools and bus support
* FoodBridge (Baltimore/Washington) – To fund software development for volunteer organization’s online “food rescue” program connecting foodservice organizations with nonprofit outreach programs.
* CRAB (MD/DC/VA) – To fund accessible boating program’s installation of new seating for two boats to support and safely secure persons with disabilities.
* Abu Kats Medical Clinic (Uganda) – To purchase two maternity delivery beds for nonprofit medical clinic run by all volunteer doctors.
* Center of Help Inc. (AA County) – For expansion of space and programs for Hispanic Latinos and other immigrants in the county.
* Box of Rain Foundation (Annapolis) – To support a six-week after school program for fifth graders at Hillsmere, Tyler Heights, Georgetown East, and Eastport Elementary schools.
* Dageno Girls Center (Tanzania) – To purchase two rainwater collection tanks and purification of a water, sanitation, and hygiene plan for the Center serving 150 girls
* Women LEAD (Kathmandu, Nepal) – Pilot funds for outreach, recruitment, institute workshops and evaluation of 40 students to encourage female leadership of high school girls in male-dominated Nepal
* El Ayudante Missions Inc. (Honduras) – To purchase equipment at tutoring center that supports 50 scholarship students for high school (without center, students would not go beyond sixth grade)
* Arundel Lodge Inc. – To provide dental care for 122 Behavioral Health Home clients who cannot afford dental insurance
* The Lighthouse – To implement Apricot database software facilitating and improving case management services for individuals and families affected by homelessness and poverty
