While the debate about graffiti and vandalism explodes around the Art in the Streets exhibition at MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, a few miles away, a new mural that taps the talent of local street artists hopes to send a different message.
"Cuidela" (or "care for it" in Spanish) is the name of a 25-foot by 100-foot mural recently completed in Boyle Heights, one of ten public art projects launched by the Estria Foundation worldwide as part of a campaign called "Water Writes" to empower young people in the preservation of water.
With vibrant colors and incredible detail, the mural depicts various stories—real and fictional—about California's water. Figures from Aztec culture like the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, whose jade skirts represented her protection of lakes and streams, and river god Tlaloc, or "He Who Makes Things Sprout," are intertwined with the visualization of contemporary issues like the privatization and corporate control of our most precious resource. A map studded with X's represents the few remaining free sources of local water.