I’m grateful  @calebcasberry @homegrownboi and devastated to discover Flo McGarrell a talented visual artist who perished along with 75,000 Haitians (can this number really be true?) in the quake. NPR mentioned Flo in this piece.

Here some excerpts of an interview Flo gave,

The work I do in the States is conscious of the struggles of my friends living in Haiti, of how hard it is to get food, and to get one’s basic needs met. So, as an exercise I try not to buy anything in order to make the work, everything is found in the trash or stolen. It works really well for me over here in the States, but that process is nearly impossible in Haiti, where it is very rare to find something useful in the trash (because everyone is already ingeniously reusing things), and it goes without saying that I wouldn’t steal anything in Haiti.

His parents remember him for his passion, dedication, confidence and generosity — and for boldly living his own unique life.

After receiving the tragic news, Ann McGarrell said she was watching an unending film of Flo’s life in her mind throughout the day. One of her favorite scenes from that movie starred a 12-year-old Flo McGarrell at school in St. Louis.A tornado was approaching, Ann McGarrell said, and the skies were darkened and ominous. She had gone to school to pick her child up and take her home. “Everyone was huddled inside,” Ann McGarrell said. “Flo was outside, dancing in the rain.”

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100115/THISJUSTIN/1150333