40-meter-high Miami mural painted to inspire essential workers
Miami, US, May 13 (efe-epa).- A mural more than 40 meters high now covers one of the walls of Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital to honor and inspire health workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Italian street artist Claudia La Bianca completed the mural after 10 days and about 100 hours of work, and she hopes it will serve as “inspiration” for all those essential workers who put themselves at risk to help the population.
“Everyone is affected by this pandemic, but we artists have something special. Art has a very strong message – with art you can bring change and with art you can inspire,” she told EFE.
Psychiatric nurse Lily Acosta, who is now portrayed every day along with Jackson’s doctors, janitors, assistants and workers, said she was “grateful that someone has dedicated their time to doing something so beautiful for us.”
“Sometimes you leave so stressed with everything that is happening, with the seriousness of the patients that you have every day. When you leave and see such a beautiful piece, you are inspired,” she said.
La Bianca grew up in Sicily, where she started out in street art and studied fashion design, and then she moved to the United States.
She studied at New York Film Academy and has directed and produced films, but if she is recognized by the community for anything it is for her large murals that flood the corners of the Wynwood neighborhood, the cradle of street art in Miami.
Women have always been the focus of Bianca’s work and although this is the first time that she has painted men, her style and the search to empower women has also been maintained in the mural.
“The subject of my work are women, the Wonder Woman, the strong and confident woman, but this is the first mural in which I have painted some men because it is fair to pay attention to them. In this pandemic we are all in this together,” she said.
Her new work, which is the largest she has created to date, started with a simple illustration of a nurse drawn as a superhero that she published on her social media networks during quarantine. The image went viral.
After receiving hundreds of positive responses, many from nurses and doctors, she decided to create a large-format mural for one of the area’s hospitals, and after many emails and phone calls, Jackson Memorial was the first to respond.
La Bianca is positive about the future and believes that the fact that humanity has “lived through such an ugly situation” means that “the world is becoming more unified and there is more love.”
It is a feeling shared by nurse Acosta, who said that although “they are working with a high level of stress” they are also realizing that “the population is appreciating the work they are doing.”
“We like being able to help and offer this service to patients. So in the midst of all this pain and all this trauma we feel grateful and happy to be able to help,” she added. EFE-EPA
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