By Glorimarie Matías
In 2016, while I was in the eleventh grade, I had the opportunity to join the Ciudad Museo organization. As part of my first experience creating murals, the first one I started working with was one aimed at raising awareness about deforestation. This is called “La Ceiba Speaks for the Others”, which includes as the main image the native ceiba tree, our native trees. The Ceiba was a design created by Bryant López. Then, a female figure was integrated next to the Ceiba with a sunset background and several cut trees.
Starting our project, the first step was to prepare our large white canvas on one of the walls of the building near the Alcides Figueroa bilingual school in Añasco. At that time, all members of the organization were attending high school. So most work days consisted of weekends and hours after we got out of class. Without letting this limit us, we cleaned the area of trash, creating the shape of the Ceiba, mixing colors and creating strokes. For me, being my first experience with such a large mural, it was filled with a lot of personal and art learning. Bryant, as a leader, helped us learn various concepts of visual arts, such as correctly mixing colors.
Within this, it took us several weeks to have a complete result due to changes that had to be made while working, as well as at the same time its inauguration was being planned. We had everything from unexpected rains and changes in the design of the female face on the tree. But, although they were a little limiting at first, we managed to finish it just in time for the opening. This activity took place on March 3, 2017 on the grounds of the mural. But with the bad weather situation, we found that during that day the rain did not stop, which began to cause us a lot of nerves and fear that the activity could not take place.
Despite the rain situation, we decided to continue with it, hoping that it could happen successfully. Which it was, we were able to officially inaugurate the mural with great joy and excitement. It was a night that I definitely carry very close to me, since it was that first experience of being in the process of a mural. Where all the work really paid off. Where it was reflected in that celebration that I was able to enjoy with my friends, teachers, schoolmates and the Ciudad Museo organization.