Israeli muralist Rami Meiri is tired. He spent the weekend applying his signature style to a war-damaged town in northern Israel and he's been on the phone all morning to Taipei, discussing details of an impending project. During the past few months he has travelled to Beijing, Buenos Aires and the US and he's completing a highway overpass project in Tel Aviv.
'I'm an urban artist,' he says. 'My language is visual.' Meiri's bright, acrylic murals mirror Israel's lighter side, portraying pub culture, nightlife and beach-goers lazing in the sand. Splashed across the country's beach fronts, building facades and cultural centres, his work is now beginning to turn up outside Israel.
In May, Meiri was commissioned by a joint Chinese-Israeli venture to paint a mural at the Xiao Liu Ge Zhuang village elementary school in Lixian Township, outside Beijing. He spent several weeks observing and painting, and says the experience was 'magical and special'.
'I don't speak Chinese and the schoolchildren didn't speak Hebrew or English,' he says. 'They would watch me work, but we couldn't communicate formally. So I resorted to telling them stories in Hebrew.'
The commission, part of the Join Hands Facing the New Countryside project, is an Israeli government initiative aimed at exchanging agricultural, cultural and technological know-how as China develops its rural regions. The mural and dedication were timed to coincide with Israel's Independence Day in May.
Israel's ambassador to China, Yehoyada Haim, says the embassy and 20 Israeli companies and individuals donated about 500,000 yuan to the project. Village head Wang Yongzhi was pleased with the exchange and says he hopes some of the trial farming techniques introduced will be widely adopted.
Meiri says his part in the project was to spread goodwill and cheer, which he achieved by creating a feeling of openness and nature on the red brick wall surrounding the Daxing District school. 'I wanted to give the wall a feeling of inviting and add elements of nature,' he says. 'Murals aren't common in China.'