“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before,” Neil Gaiman, famed novelist and comic book writer, once said.

Starting this new academic year, the world of education and scholarship that resides in the Frank Stockdale Building, the main headquarters of UWI St Augustine’s Faculty of Food and Agriculture, has a new and distinct source of illumination. A massive, exquisitely painted mural adorns one of the foyer walls.

The painting of the 22ft x 9ft mural was the inspiration of FFA Dean Professor Wayne Ganpat. Its execution was carried out by 19-year-old Keera-Marie Mohammed, a first year visual arts student in the Faculty of Humanities and Education.

“The foyer is officially the entry to the Dean’s office. It is the centre of everything,” says Professor Ganpat, explaining his motivation behind the painting. “You come into the FFA you need to see visible expressions of food, agriculture and nutrition. I decided that we needed to reflect this in some visible way that will last for a long time.”

He was introduced to Keera’s work by agricultural economist Omardath Maharaj, who was impressed by an environment- themed mural she completed for a school project at Holy Faith Convent in Couva. “I saw something she did which was along the lines of environmental awareness and I thought this is a young person who has talent. So I engaged her,” says Ganpat.

Keera, who is from California in Central Trinidad, was more than happy to do the mural. “I thought it was a great opportunity to have my work displayed at UWI. I was honoured.”

And Ganpat, in turn, along with many students, staff and visitors to the Frank Stockdale Building, are more than happy with the result.

“It was beyond my imagination, the skill of this young lady,” the Dean of FFA says. He points to the incredible “detail in the cocoa” and “colours of the Chaconia”.

Detail and immersion are the two strongest feelings when looking at the mural. There are several rich hues of green, layers of blue in the sky and wispy white and intricate lines of the clouds. Ganpat wanted the mural to reflect “a wide array of food and agriculture in as many forms as possible”. Depicted are fishermen, hydroponic farms, cocoa and breadfruit trees, beekeepers at an apiary, people enjoying an outdoor cook-up, aquaculture and on and on. It’s a world of food and agriculture.

The mural is obviously the product of painstaking work. Keera worked on it through the month of August, receiving some technical guidance from Ganpat as well as support from her father Kerryn Mohammed, who is also an artist.

“He is used to doing large-scale work so after I conceptualised it he helped me to expand,” she says of his assistance in creating a piece of art that massive.

Keera is proud of her accomplishment and glad to be able to “make her mark” on campus. She is a prolific and hardworking young artist. At the time of this writing she has an exhibition of her work at Nichossa Restaurant, Bakery and Desserts in San Fernando.

The FFA is satisfied as well with the mural and wants people to see it and recognise the power and potential in food and agriculture.

“I hope that it will awe all of the people that come to the Faculty of Agriculture, lovers of traditional or new agriculture, the students in particular,” Ganpat says. “I want it to show them what is possible.”