Artist Maria Arroyo has been selected to paint this year’s Earth Day Mural. Her selection, made from artist submissions across Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties, was announced by the Community Environmental Council (CEC), Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), and Paseo Nuevo.
The 2022 Call For Entries prompted artists to submit their creative concepts online alongside a proposal for a mural that expresses what Earth Day and Climate Leadership mean to them. Arroyo’s concept was selected to appear on the Paseo Nuevo Arts Terrace Parking Deck adjacent to MCASB.
Arroyo and her supporting artist group will begin painting the mural this week, with the help of community volunteers. Tune in to Paseo Nuevo’s Instagram Live to see the finished mural Saturday, April 23, during the Earth Day Celebration at the Arlington Theater.
Arroyo, who was born in 1962, began drawing and painting in the 1980s as a participant in the Alpha Art Studio program. Since 2013, she has been an artist at Slingshot/Alpha Art Studio. Her eccentric landscapes and iconic figures, often encompassed in ornate patterns, pull the viewer into a mythic world, suspended from the everyday without leaving it behind.
Slingshot/Alpha Art Studio is a nonprofit progressive arts center in Santa Barbara that supports artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The center promotes the creative practice, professional visibility, and inclusion of artists with IDD living in Santa Barbara County. Slingshot is a program of the Alpha Resource Center of Santa Barbara.
For more about the Earth Day Mural, click here.