My current body of work reflects my recent trip to Ghana, Africa. I met people who are feverishly searching for ways to improve life for the Ghanaian people, and especially for the children. I traveled from village to village, meeting chiefs, children, and adults who greeted me with smiling faces, despite their poverty. I walked the hot dirt streets, drove miles and miles watching the daily routines of the people, and taught art to the children at the Cape Coast Deaf School. The brightly patterned fabrics wrapped around the well-dressed women, the babies carried on the backs of their mothers, and the children eager to learn although provided with little inspiration -- these are snapshots that are fixed in my mind. This series of prints capture the textures, patterns, and colors of my experience with the people of Ghana and their surroundings.

Lea Basile Lazarus received her BA in Art Education from The College of New Jersey and her MFA, with a concentration in printmaking, from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been teaching for fourteen years, the last ten at The Skokie School in Winnetka, Illinois. Do Your P’Art, a non-for-profit organization that enables city students and suburban students to establish relationships through the arts, has been an important part of her teaching experience while in Winnetka. She is also on the board and writes curriculum for Do Your P’Art. Through DYP, Lea was sent to Ghana, Africa in the summer of 2009 to establish relations with Ghanaian schools. Recipient of a Teacher Fulbright to Japan in October 2003, Lea spent three weeks abroad learning about Japan’s culture, art, and education system.