More buildings, less trees Print

MY STATEMENT Aware that trees absorb carbon dioxide and act as an air purifiers, one of the main fighters against global warming, the artist has created a collection of paintings whose main protagonist is the tree. Absorbed in the themes of global warming and ecological system, she has painted in a conceptual way the massive destruction of forests, through an apocalypse where we may have to live below ground, rather than the ideal of living with nature, respecting it and loving it as we love ourselves. Mayra Rivera-Pinto was born in El Salvador, where much of her childhood was spent on her grandmother's coffee farm, and enjoyed playing in the woods and living in nature. The idea of losing that memory became desperate in her heart when she returned to her homeland in 2015 and saw with heartbreak the devastation at the capital city and the mountains where the coffee farm was located; she began painting her first collection titled "Ongoing Battle" where she shows the struggle between those who want to remove forests and built houses, and those who try to preserve as many trees as possible. Trees refresh the city up to 10 degrees F, shading our homes and streets, disrupting "heat islands" and releasing water vapor into the air through its leaves, which in turn help to precipitate rains. With this precept, the artist promotes the salvation of the trees in a comic way by painting green figures in action. In her quest to present a bleak panorama where there are no trees, Mayra has created a series of eleven paintings titled "And then there were none", in which a tree is removed from view in each painting. Studies had demonstrated that neighborhoods in large, crowded, saturated cities that don't have trees have been shown to have a higher incidence of violence inside and outside the home than greener neighborhoods thus, Mayra chooses to use big cities in order to make a point. Trees act as a sponge that naturally filters water and uses it to feed groundwater supply. The opposite of this concept is demonstrated in two of her paintings where the soil is cracked by the lack of vegetation and consequently the underground springs are diminished to disappear. This bleak panorama is exposed in her collection entitled "Do not forget nature". Studies have shown that patients in hospitals who can see trees from their windows heal faster and with fewer complications. Being among trees and nature improves concentration by reducing mental fatigue.