Artist: Mario Molina Soto
Mural Title: Act of Metamorphosis
The mural represents the butterfly’s habitat, metamorphosis and its relationship with humanity. It symbolizes a marionette theatre against the wall with the curtains coming out of the wall where you can observe an act that is being played out where the lead actor is the butterfly. The butterfly is very colorful and its specific species is not defined, which represents all butterflies, she is not subject to manipulation so she is therefore free to fly.
There are human representations which are attributed to the hands that manipúlate the butterfly. They are controlling and take care of the metamorphosis process. In the background, dark blue is used to represent the night sky where you can observe two eyes. These eyes have a mystical or spiritual interpretation. They have a greater perspective than the human element; they observe the human process. Also, in a plane previous to the sky, there are green and yellow leaves which represent the natural habitat of the butterflies.
The stage is wooden, which reflects the normal deterioration of time. It is painted orange with four yellow spots where the theatre lights are illuminating and where actors like the caterpillar, pupa and needle are acting for the spectator. The needle that is pinned to the stage is the symbol that reminds us of the importance humans feel it is to trap beauty, forgetting how unfortunate nature is as we do this and forgetting the importance to leave nature to fulfill its role in the environment by a natural and free process.
At the side, are the curtains of the theatre; the curtains are red and harmonize the mural. The wall that is encompassing the theatre is yellow and has cracks. This happened because people broke it as they wanted to watch what was happening. The wall functions in its purpose, just barely, like so many of our human endeavors like providing education, administering justice or maintaining our roads.
In a more general sense, the mural is a representation of what man is presently doing with nature. Humans try to manipulate it, with the intention of understanding it, in order to protect it from the destruction that we have done to it. We should not forget that nature is beautiful in its natural habitat: free, without constraints or manipulation. We should leave it up to Her to be seen and understood.
