On the wall of the new Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas in Uvalde hangs a 48-by-48-inch painting of three children. The children, painted in bright colors, hold hands as they walk away from the viewer and toward the rolling, green landscape of Uvalde. The artwork was a gift to Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were fatally shot on May 24, 2022, and it was created by an artist in Atlanta.
Credit: Courtesy of Sandra Martin/Sunrise Images Photography
Credit: Courtesy of Sandra Martin/Sunrise Images Photography
Lisa Moore, an Atlanta-based oil painter, donated the piece to the Children’s Bereavement Center after hearing about it during an art show in Round Top, Texas. Linda Fugit, a long-time volunteer and designer at the center, came upon Moore’s booth while looking to purchase pieces for a client. After they got to talking, Fugit mentioned the work she did for the Bereavement Center, and Moore immediately volunteered to donate a painting to the new center.
“It’s lovely to participate and actually have your art mean something,” Moore said. “To actually have it do something and impact other people in that way, you know, instead of just being about beauty, it’s really very worth it.”
Credit: Courtesy Lisa Moore
Credit: Courtesy Lisa Moore
The Children’s Bereavement Center was established to “help children and families grieving the death of a loved one,” according to its website. It provides grief support groups, counseling, crisis services and more, all for free.
The center opened its first location in San Antonio, Texas, but after the Robb Elementary School shooting in May 2022, Fugit said people from the center set up a temporary service center in Uvalde the next morning. On June 29, the Children’s Bereavement Center opened an additional permanent location there.
Fugit said she wanted the new center to feel optimistic and happy and decided Moore’s work would be a perfect addition.
Looking around Moore’s studio, it’s clear where her artistic interests lie. Moore describes her work on her website as “painting the Southern soul,” like an ode to growing up in Calhoun and Carrollton, Georgia. In many of her paintings, the serene colors and gentle shapes seem to celebrate the beauty of the female figure and the quiet strength of a horse, two of the most common subjects decorating her workspace.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
One noticeable element is the lack of facial features on Moore’s subjects, something that Fugit said she appreciated because it would let more people see themselves in the artwork.
When Moore volunteered to donate a painting to the new center, Fugit said there were no rules on what the Atlanta artist could paint.
“I said ‘you’re the artist. I’ll tell you the story, but I want it to be from your heart, and I want you to paint what you’re inspired to paint,’” Fugit said.
Moore said she was especially moved after reading letters Fugit shared with her from parents in Texas who were pouring “out their own pain,” Fugit said. In the letters, the parents described how the tragedy had affected their children.
Not all of the letters came from people directly involved in the shooting. Some were about children who knew people who had died, Fugit said, or had been in the same room, or some weren’t involved at all, but the fear had impacted them deeply even so.
“It’s where they’re coming to heal,” Moore said. “The idea is they’ve used art not only as therapy, but to create an environment of healing and positivity and ‘how can we move forward?’”
Moving forward was a large part of her inspiration behind the painting. Her goal was for the piece to communicate joy and happiness, to show children that they can look toward the future, which is why she chose to paint them facing away from the viewer, “going forward together,” she said.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
When Moore visited the center on its opening day, she said it was amazing “just how this whole community came together to try to move forward from something that is unimaginable.”
The Bereavement Center is meant to look more like a home than an institution, Fugit said. Moore described some of the artistic elements of the building, like butterflies and a mural on the outside, a meditation labyrinth and a large painting on one wall of a park scene.
Another artist from Florida, Kendall Boggs, donated a painting of 21 hearts to represent the victims of the tragedy, which hangs in the same room as Moore’s piece. And the building is protected by ballistic glass so the children feel safe, Moore said.
Credit: Courtesy of Sandra Martin/Sunrise Images Photography
Credit: Courtesy of Sandra Martin/Sunrise Images Photography
Perhaps it’s surprising to have a Georgia artist contribute to a Texas center, but for Moore, this is about “all of us,” she said, not just Uvalde. What happened there happens all over the country, and grief is not unique to Uvalde, she said.
This fear didn’t exist when Moore was in school, but she said she knows what it’s like to be terrified as a mother to a now 21-year-old son. She recalled how it felt during school lockdowns to have to sit helplessly and wait to hear back from her child.
“You can’t go, you can’t do anything,” she said.
Fugit said she wasn’t particularly looking for someone from out of state to provide the art. Moore and Boggs just happened to attract her attention.
“I didn’t ask them to donate, they just did it because they have such good hearts,” Fugit said.
Beneath most of Moore’s paintings she writes the words “let go,” as a reminder that the best work comes from letting go and seeing where her creativity takes her. In her studio, the words are written on one of her unfinished paintings in black, sprawling paint. But for the Uvalde painting, she said she wrote the word “hope” and the phrase “move forward together.”
