Artists Adriana Arriaga and Claudia Borfiga were selected to paint Earth Day Festival mural. (Courtesy photo)
Santa Barbara-based artists Adriana Arriaga and Claudia Borfiga named to paint community mural inspired by climate leadership. The two were selected from an online Call For Entries to paint the 2021 Earth Day Mural.
The call for entries prompted Santa Barbara County artists to respond to this year’s Earth Day Festival theme: Climate Leadership, said The Community Environmental Council (CEC), The Arts Fund, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Paseo Nuevo, and Santa Barbara BCycle.
The mural by Arriaga and Borfiga, titled Nurture our Mother, is a celebration of the power of the Earth and the magical things within it that play vital roles in the ecosystem.
A committee, comprised of members from each program partner, plus community representatives Maria Rendón and Arturo Heredia Soto, selected Nurture our Mother to appear on the Paseo Nuevo Arts Terrace parking deck, on the exterior wall of the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.
Chosen from 27 submissions, the artist duo will began painting their mural Monday, April 19, with the help of community volunteers. The final mural will be revealed on April 24, the last day of the virtual Earth Day Festival.
For more information visit www.mcasantabarbara.org/earth-day-mural.
Arriaga, who goes by the alias adriana la artista, is a Xicana designer from the 805 that creates bold, provocative and impactful illustrations. Her work reflects her culture, community, and personal experiences.
She describes herself as a contemporary Xicana designer, where she combines practices from the Chicano Movement of the ’60s with present day applications to create and share her work.
Her work consists of large scale illustrations made up of copy paper and wheat paste. She received a B.A. in art/design studies and a minor in Chicano Studies from San Jose State University in 2017. She earned her master of fine arts in design at UC Davis in 2019.
Arriaga has been featured in more than 20 exhibitions, has hosted workshops and art pop-ups, and was on the cover of the Santa Barbara Independent in September. Her website is adrianaarriaga.com.
Borfiga is a British visual artist based in California, primarily working with screen printing. She said she is compelled to communicate and amplify the sensations she feels when exploring the wonders of the natural world.
As a teaching artist, Borfiga uses her screen print workshops as a wide-ranging platform to foster community, and for the simple joy of getting other people’s hands messy.
In spring 2018, she initiated a group called Print Power to host grant-funded workshops as a means to explore trauma. Often inspired by plants and natural structures that make up unique environments, she simplifies their complexities to shape, pattern and color.
In celebrating the treasures found in natural environments, Borfiga hopes people are able to foster a deeper appreciation for them. Most recently, her work was exhibited at Sullivan Goss, in a three-women show called Pattern Recognition.
Visit claudiaborfiga.com.
For real-time information on CEC’s #CelebrateClimateLeadership Virtual Earth Day Festival, find Earth Day on the web at SBEarthDay.org.