As Eleatta makes others' dreams come true, her own dreams unfold.

On the third Friday of each month, Eleatta Diver can be found at Goldenbelt Art Studios in Durham, North Carolina on "open studio" night. You might witness the unveiling of her newest painting and if you want to chat with the artist, you can count on her asking,"What is your dream?"

Eleatta and her husband of twenty-nine years, Brian,  have five children. The older ones are  making their  mark in society while the youngest is in middle school. A home-schooling  mom,she made her family's needs the priority for twenty-three years.

Shift

Six years ago,  Eleatta's  art moved from the back burner of her life to the front. She began to create  from a new medium, trash. Soon after,  a series of events occurred that would make it clear  that her artwork was a catalyst for change .  King's Park International , the Diver's local church set a goal to purchase a home for the African Children's Choir , a troupe of  singing orphans  who perform concerts throughout the world.It was the desire of the church to provide them a home base  while they are in America, where they can rest, play and focus on their studies. Hence, the fund-raising began.

Eleatta saw the correlation between her medium of trash and these children,orphaned by AIDS and viewed by their countries' as disposable.  Discarded items  and the orphans could all be considered without value,but her creative eye saw what the founders of the choir saw.  Just like her trash was transformed into art she realized what  the children needed for transformation was for someone to look at them with a different eye. Eleatta chose to look beyond the obvious and into the potential. From that experience, the Redemption series was birthed.

"Redemption is a word that is pregnant with hope...it carries with it the idea of re-purposing or redefining...the assurance that something that is wrong can be made right.

Sales from the Redemption series were applied to the purchase of the Mirembe House, where the African Children's Choir enjoys rest on six acres when they are touring in the area. Eleatta's life as a working artist began when she availed her giftings to better the lives of others.

Look for Part 2  of Eleatta's journey on Thursday, Sept. 30th.

To learn more about the Mirembe Capital Campaign, go to: http://www.kpic.org/ministries/missions/acc.html

Images may not be copied or printed without permission from the artist.