#ProtectElYunque By Wilfredo Menendez
Exhibition Text: Through this piece I wanted to show the beauty of the only national rain forest in the United States. Recently due to irresponsible legislature many acres of it could be sold to private corporations. Using Jorge Zeno's "El Yunque" piece I found how to portray El Yunque's beauty.
Completed: September 2016
Medium: Digital Manipulation |
Meaning: For this piece I wanted to show the beauty of Puerto Rican wildlife to prompt awareness of the reckless actions our representatives are taking. I didn't simply want to focus on the wildlife, I also wanted to focus on the plants that are not only beautiful, but also so significant to our environment. El Yunque is the only rain forest in the United States National Park Service, and the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge protects many species of endangered Caribbean wildlife. For example, this Refuge has the highest amount of Green Sea Turtle nest in the area, this animal is critically endangered and depriving them of their nesting area would have hugely detrimental effects.
Inspiration: For this piece I found inspiration in both a situation and a painter. Recently my country of Puerto Rico has been going through some economic hardships, however the U.S. congress passed a bill to help relieve the debt. A few days after it was passed the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell visited Puerto Rico and she stated "We need to be very, very careful. Giving up public land... is not synonymous with economic growth and development" according to Yahoo News. She said this in reference to El Yunque, the only Rainforest in U.S. soil, and in reference to the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge, because some members of congress added a provision opening up these land for private development. Later the Department of the Interior made a comment that is what pushed me to make this piece, they said "This is a tranfer that Puerto Rico has not requested, and the prospect that a future secretary may transfer out land out of Fish and Wildlife Service refuge for the benefit of private economic development efforts is troubling".
When thinking of how to do this piece I came across a piece in the Art Museum of Puerto Rico, the piece is named "El Yunque" and was painted by Mexican painter Jorge Zeno. His piece inspired me to show the beauty of the animals in the nature reserve and of the plants in the national forest. The reason I decided to make the bird out of leaves is because, in Zeno's piece he uses a style that almost looks like dots make up the forest. So I decided that using leaves would have a similar effect and would help me portray the beauty of the land. |
Process/Reflection: To do this I used pictures of the Puerto Rican wildlife I saw on my trip to Puerto Rico this summer. One of the most common animals in El Yunque and in the animal refuge in Vieques are different types of parrots and similar birds. So, I decided to make one of these birds out of the plants you find in El Yunque and all over the island. The pictures that I took from Puerto Rico that I used in this piece were from the cities of Barceloneta, Manati and Mayaguez. I started out by making an outline of the bird with leaves then began to fill it in with other types of vegetation. To show the different color patterns the birds have I simply digitally manipulated the hue and saturation of the vegetation. For the claws and beak of the bird I used the trunk of palm trees.
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ACT Questions:
- I demonstrated the effect that my inspiration had on my piece with the subject of the piece. Zeno's piece focus on the beauty of the nature in El Yunque and so does mine.
- Jorge, who is not a local from Puerto Rico, was mystified by the beauty of El Yunque. He applied the methods and skills he had with him already to paint this new landscape.
- I have identified that many people, including Zeno see El Yunque as just another beautiful landscape. But fail to see the aspect of it that houses endangered animals and the aspects of the culture that it holds.
- The main theme around my research was environmental activism. This theme shaped the meaning of my piece to a large extent.
- While reading my research about Zeno's style and pieces. I inferred that he likes to focus on aspects of Latin American culture.
Citation:
Zeno, Jorge. El Yunque. 2009. Museo De Arte De Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Museo De Arte De Puerto Rico. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Zeno, Jorge. El Yunque. 2009. Museo De Arte De Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Museo De Arte De Puerto Rico. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.