Filed under: Baltimore Agriculture, News | Tags: Baltimore Permaculture, Flores McGarrell, Haiti Earthquake, Maryland Institute College of Art
Flores McGarrell Dies in Haiti Earthquake
The Maryland Institute College of Art held a memorial service January 20th for Flores McGarrell, a MICA graduate, who was leading a Haitian arts center and permaculture workshop when he was killed in last week’s earthquake.
According to the Baltimore Sun:
The former Baltimorean, who was leading a Haitian arts center, died Tuesday when he dashed into a collapsing hotel during the earthquake to retrieve a computer that stored his records and artistic concepts. Friends sifted through the rubble for nearly a week to find his body in the coastal town of Jacmel, southwest of Port-au-Prince. He was 35.
For the full article, CLICK HERE.
From an McGarrell’s story in his own words, compiled from an interview with Art21 (“Inside the Artist’s Studio: Flo McGarrell” by Georgia Kotresos, Aug. 28, 2009):
“I am leading a permaculture workshop [in Haiti], and we are slowly, but surely, working on a rain barrel shower sculpture for the center, a bicycle-powered washing machine, and a parabolic solar oven. … ‘Agrisculpture’ was a term I coined to describe my work, I could have more accurately called what I do ‘permasculpture,’ but … since my work’s end goal is mostly about producing food I went with agrisculpture, so that makes me an agrisculptor. I hope it’s a fast-growing genre with an agrisculpture department opening up in every art school by 2012 (every art student gets a little community garden plot instead of a studio?) because then I will be asked to come lecture everywhere … and I love to travel so that would be nice.”
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Baltidome Blog | Baltimore Green News 
A tragic loss. I am without words.
Comment by Pamela alemaP January 20, 2010 @ 10:18 pm