ARTIST SERIES: Luna Lee x El Apruebo Mural
After that eye-opening studio visit in Lo Espejo, I was so excited when Marco invited me to join him again, but this time back in Macul. He had teamed up with Luna Lee to work on the Murales x El Apruebo campaign making murals about the new constitution throughout Chile. Luna Lee’s design for the mural focuses on the new constitution’s transparency and communication. Some of the key words in the mural include, “communicación.” “derechos,” “dignidad”, “expressión”, “igualdad”, and “libertad.”
Having never painted a mural before (aside from my clay mural attempt the other day), I was really excited to learn the process. It turns out that painting a mural is quite similar to painting on canvas. Just change the smooth canvas surface for a rough, sometimes crumbly, brick backdrop, add a paint scraper and more durable paints and you’ve got yourself a mural! We started the process chipping away at the five or more layers of previous murals. It was like peeling off dead skin. I wondered what these murals looked like, and how old they were. What messages were they trying to convey? Considering that the newest mural we were painting on top of was from 2021, it’s quite possible that most of the other murals were only a few years old.
While I felt a bit of sadness removing old murals (oh the history they contained!), chipping away at the paint was quite fun. If you enjoy those oddly satisfying asmr videos, then you would love using a paint scraper too. Although, I might have gotten a bit too carried away with it and nearly took a huge chunk of the wall out at one point (oops…luckily nothing that a little paint didn’t fix). While I was going to town with the paint scraper, Luna used the spray can to outline the people’s faces. Others mixed paint colors. I kept chipping away…
Do not paint your nails the day before. You will regret it.
If you (like me) tend to turn the paint scraper into a wall-demolisher, you can always just use your hands instead.
Eventually, it was time to start painting. With our team of ten volunteers, this process went quite quickly. We each took a color and painted “color by numbers” style. A quick break for pizza, and then more painting. Most places needed multiple coats, and Luna outlined everything with black. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for the end of the project because I had a meeting with the biomaterial/bioplastics artist Andrea Lira (more about her in my upcoming post), but here are some photos of the end result!
Photo credit: @lunalee.art
I’ve often seen art as a solo project, but it doesn’t have to be. It was amazing to see how quickly a huge mural could come together with many hands. The end result is a beautiful painting representing the goals of the new constitution. I’m really sad that the new consitution didn’t pass, but this mural still represents what the future could be. A world where human rights come first. Where there’s more dignity, equality, and liberty for all. It’s a world where people are able to communicate and express themselves freely. Now ask yourself, doesn’t that sound good?
Gracias Luna Lee, Murales x El Apruebo y Marco por dejarme unirme a su projecto!