New AWC mural depicts endangered species
Arizona Western College is getting a little bit more colorful this month as a new mural is slowly coming together at its main campus.
The mural is sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity and made possible through a collaborative effort between artists Roger Peet and Lucinda Hinojos, who also goes by the name “La Morena.” Located on the east-facing wall of Arizona Western’s theater building, it features two endangered species that are native to the Yuma area facing each other among a surreal landscape of colors and patterns. Between them is a vibrant pink and orange sunset.
“We just kind of split it up,” said Peet. “She designed the right-hand side and I designed the left-hand side. And we collaborated on the center and just figured out the colors and the layout. We just sort of sent drawings back and forth over the internet until we settled on something that we both liked.”
On his side, Peet, a Portland-based artist that has completed 19 other murals featuring endangered species, has a depiction of the Sonoran pronghorn, an elusive, antelope-like mammal with sandy colored fur accented by distinctive white patches.
This pronghorn calls the Sonoran desert, and much of southwest Arizona, its home, and is still returning from the brink it reached in the early 2000s when drought and human encroachment very nearly wiped the species out.
Still, the Sonoran pronghorn is dogged by threats from both humans and nature, and their population numbers only in the hundreds.
One such threat, according to the Center’s Endangered Species Director Noah Greenwald, is President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. Greenwald says the barrier would cut through the species’ habitat, disrupting migration.
Hinojos, who has been slowly piecing together a portrait of the Yuma clapper rail, is from Phoenix, and for the past year and a half has been painting murals around the country, though the topic of conservation is a new one to her.
“This is my first time and it’s working well,” she said. “I mean the collaboration’s like we’re meeting right in the middle with everything so it’s great, I’m having fun.”
Hinojos’s subject, the Yuma clapper rail, is a bird usually found camouflaged among cattails in marshes and wetlands. It sports a long and slightly curved beak, and feeds on insects, fish and clams, among other creatures. Widening and deepening certain parts of rivers to alter their flow, known as channelization, dams and a host of other factors have contributed to the endangerment of the species, which had a population in 2008 of just over 640 according to Greenwald.
The mural was funded by local art supporters Maria and Michael McKivergan, who have in the past financed murals and art around Yuma.
It and others like it, Greenwald said, can help to ward off extinction by raising awareness and promoting knowledge of these species.
“We’re a group that works to protect endangered species and their habitats,” Greenwald said. “And the murals help in that mission because they encourage people to appreciate endangered species from their local area and realize that these species are part of what makes their place, their home, unique and special.”
A ceremony open to the public on Feb. 11 will take place from 3-4 p.m. to celebrate the finished product. Afterward, at 8 p.m., there will be a free event and conversation with Peet and Hinojos at the Littlewood Fine Art & Community CoOp at 1480 S. 2nd Ave.