By Eric Brotman
What: The Edsel Hermoso Moscoso Mural
Where: 300 Admiral Way, at ground level on the backside of the building that contains Arnie’s Restaurant, opposite the entrance to Dock T
The 5-foot wide and 6-and-a-half-foot tall artwork is displayed in one of the most unobtrusive spots among commercial structures along the Edmonds waterfront.
Just several steps away are two large dumpsters that lean against a storage shed fronted by a hedgerow and tall stalks of pampas grass. Depending on the length of a passerby’s stride, he or she can take twelve or fifteen steps along the wooden walkway skirting Dock T and see Moscoso’s mural with a clear line of sight, before it becomes obscured and, perhaps, quickly forgotten— especially for those who keep walking.
Walkers who stand close to the mural learn it was created by “a Filipino artist and leukemia survivor.”
And a survivor he was, for two years, before dying in 2009 at the age of 55 as an acclaimed artist in his native country, his art having been shown in solo art exhibits around the world, his talent of a caliber sufficient to have gained him entrance to a scholarship program offered by the United Nations that enabled him to study fine arts and archeology in Italy.
The mural he gave to The Max Foundation in Edmonds (which The Max Foundation then gave to The Port of Edmonds for public display) is unlike other public artworks around our city.
Edmonds does not lack for murals. A half-dozen or more can be seen within a five-block radius of the fountain at the heart of downtown. They reflect the city’s settlement by people of European ancestry, its industry, its association with the arts, its weather, and the natural beauty surrounding it.
Moscoso entitled his work “Biyaya Ng Lupa,” or “Blessings of the People.”
“The painting,” he wrote, “revolves around the rural provincial folks intent in living their simple life, with their daily concern of having to eke out a living to feed their families.”
In giving the artwork to The Max Foundation, he was acknowledging and giving thanks to the cancer community. That community includes not only people who, like Moscoso, have a cancer of the blood, or some other form of the disease, but also people like those working at The Max Foundation or for one of its worldwide associates, who are helping people with cancer find treatment and hope.
The scope and impact of The Max Foundation deserve a long, detailed story of its own and cannot be done justice in the space remaining here. The modest staff members in its Harbor Square offices might not describe themselves as part of one of the most admirable humanitarian organizations anywhere on earth, but that claim is supported by even an extremely abbreviated list of the foundation’s accomplishments:
– According to the 2011 Annual Report for The Max Foundation, the organization “served over 30,000 patients through multiple partnerships.”
– The foundation annually helps patients in over 100 countries, including Ethiopia, India, Mexico, and Uzbekistan.
– It works with more than 1,000 physicians worldwide, most of them either hematologists or oncologists.
– According to Pat Garcia-Gonzalez, Executive Director of The Max Foundation, “Since 2001, The Max Foundation has partnered with Novartis [a major, multinational pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland] to increase access to Glivec, an innovative therapy for certain forms of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML)… Through this public-private partnership, Novartis has sponsored the medication for thousands of patients otherwise unable to access treatment.”
Here is what one caregiver in the U.S.A. wrote to The Max Foundation:
“I am so thankful that there are compassionate people such as you in the world. It is comforting to know that somebody really does care. I hope you realize how much you are truly appreciated and that you do make a difference.”
After receiving an unsolicited work of art from a grateful leukemia patient in 2005, The Max Foundation in 2007 began a “Patient Art Project with the goal of honoring the talent of people living with cancer around the world and creating awareness of their needs.”
That project, by inspiring Edsel Hermoso Moscoso to donate “Blessings of the Land’ to The Max Foundation, is how the mural made its way to Edmonds.
More can be learned about The Max Foundation at www.themaxfoundation.org
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