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'Making Hope Happen’
An Exhibition of Original Oil Paintings
The Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia is to benefit from an exhibition of original oil paintings by Karin van de Plas at The Cotton Centre Atrium, Tooley Street, London SE1.
Passionate about painting and telling stories using the chosen subjects as a means of passing on knowledge with a good dose of humour, Van de Plas’ paintings are a mixture of two dimensional and three dimensional work featuring lots of colour, movement and symbolism, which has deservedly earned her the reputation as the artist that ‘makes you smile’.
The Addis Ababa Fistual Hospital was founded in 1974 by obstetrician-gynaecologists Drs. Catherine and Reginald Hamlin, where more than 32,000 women have had their lives restored following childbirth injuries, and specifically obstetric fistula. Today the Hospital provides free fistula repair surgery to approximately 1200 women a year and cares for 35 long-term patients.
Van der Plas explains: 'I have become more interested in bringing a message into my recent work. As I get older and have travelled and have lived in different places around the world, I find myself more and more disappointed in the way people treat each other and the world around them. I became inspired by the Hamlin Hospital after reading Catherine Hamlin’s book ‘The Hospital by the River’.
I had never heard of fistula or the stories of the often young girls, who suffer from this condition after giving birth at a very young age. With this exhibition, I hope to bring a bit of colour and hope to people.'
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