Maxx Moses “Spray Paints” ZIMBABWE

November 2011, the United States Embassy and Albus Cavus, a Washington DC non-profit organization, commissioned Maxx Moses to fly to Zimbabwe and create murals for World AIDS Day.

It was a beautiful challenge from the moment I arrived in Bulawayo. My mission, 6 days to collaborate on 2 large-scale murals with 10 talented artists who had no prior mural or spray paint experience. Instinctively I constructed an intensive workshop to prepare the group for the task. To no surprise these beautiful Africans were Infatuated with this new tool (spray paint) and the opportunity to paint big. Their enthusiasm and creativity was so explosive they couldn’t stop painting!

Two murals were painted simultaneously, one on the outside of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, the other at the beer garden within historical Makokoba Township. I painted both locations! The wall at the beer garden was long and horizontal, perfect for Wild-Style lettering. However I didn’t want to embellish my name, I wanted to say something relative to the people of Zimbabwe. While in Bulawayo I was learning about the Ndebele tribes. One evening during dinner Gary Owen, from the responsibilityallaince.com spoke the word Zenzele. It sounded so beautiful I asked what does it mean? He replied, in Ndebele it means “To Do For Self” I thought wow that’s the perfect phrase to begin the mural with, “Zenzele.”