Berkeley muralist draws from the personal and political for her art
BERKELEY — Spanning the side of a liquor store across from the Ashby BART station, Juana Alicia Araiza’s arresting mural is impossible to miss and even harder to ignore.
A screaming skull floats against a backdrop of turbulent ocean and burning sky. Skeletal animals bob lifelessly in polluted, oil-slicked waters. Painted in response to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the ongoing Dakota Access Pipeline confrontation at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, Araiza’s mural is a nightmarish vision of environmental degradation.
“That image came to me in 2010 when (the spill) happened, and then I was sick in 2013 and after that, I just felt really motivated to do the image,” Araiza said about her latest project begun during the recent Bay Area Mural Festival, which brought together master muralists, muralist groups and at-risk youths…
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