Gallery hours:
Saturday: 11-4
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Artist's Statement:

Shouts and Whispers.  That's how I think of Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the western hemisphere.  A land of volcanoes, lakes and earthquakes.  Blood soaked soil from decades of foreign interference and revolution.  A banana republic whose ghosts of yesterday refuse to retire quietly to the jungles.  A smiling jaguar, licking its lips.  

It is impossible to ignore the hushed talk of politics in every place I venture.  The current government is shouting it's dominance in every public space, on trees, buildings and buses graffitied with Sandinista symbols.  I can feel the political atmosphere shifting slowly from year to year.  As tourism grows, so do the profits, and the hope of the people.  Bus full of tourists strain to see over the lip of a volcano, most unaware that people were recently thrown out of helicopters into its depth.  Sacrifices to the idea of a socialist Nicaragua.

I've been working on a longer documentary film, visiting the country numerous times prior to the uprisings of the Spring of 2018.  I was glued to the TV watching government forces and soldiers firing on college students seeking refuge inside their university. Tears streamed down my face. The shouts of gunfire overpowering the whispers for justice.  Months before I had been travelling through the country, talking to former soldiers from both sides of the revolution.  In hushed tones they answered my questions... 'Do you think revolution will return to Nicaragua?'   Some, sitting confidently in their nice houses and stylish coffee shops, replied a quick and forceful "No".  Others, in their cinder block houses and remote villages reply with a whispered "Yes", as they assess the economic disparity around them, "It is inevitable." 

I keep asking my contacts "Is it safe for me to come back and work yet?"  The answer is always "No, Journalists disappear."

Ahead of the elections this November, the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega has arrested or imprisoned all opposition leaders.  

"In the past two weeks, Ortega's government has arrested four opposition contenders seeking to deny him a fourth consecutive five-year term at the polls this year. The leading challenger, Cristiana Chamorro, was placed under house arrest on June 2 after she announced her intention to contest the vote. In recent days, several others have been rounded up - including dissidents from the Sandinista movement that first brought Ortega to power in the late 1970s - despite howls of diplomatic protest from the United States and Latin American countries." - Reuters, June 17, 2021