“P22 El Virgen de Hollywood” - JUST THE PRINT
Archival Matte Fine Art Paper Print
Inspired by the local natural and cultural ecology of Los Angeles, the “Virgin of Hollywood” presents the famous mountain lion, P22, as an iconic image representing his cultural impact on the urban-wild ecosystem all around the world and particularly for Angelenos. Native wild cucumber vines and clarkia flowers frame the image. The original work is hand-painted acrylic on 30x40 stretched canvas. 15% of profits are donated to local art and environmental organizations.
Archival Matte Fine Art Paper Print
Inspired by the local natural and cultural ecology of Los Angeles, the “Virgin of Hollywood” presents the famous mountain lion, P22, as an iconic image representing his cultural impact on the urban-wild ecosystem all around the world and particularly for Angelenos. Native wild cucumber vines and clarkia flowers frame the image. The original work is hand-painted acrylic on 30x40 stretched canvas. 15% of profits are donated to local art and environmental organizations.
Archival Matte Fine Art Paper Print
Inspired by the local natural and cultural ecology of Los Angeles, the “Virgin of Hollywood” presents the famous mountain lion, P22, as an iconic image representing his cultural impact on the urban-wild ecosystem all around the world and particularly for Angelenos. Native wild cucumber vines and clarkia flowers frame the image. The original work is hand-painted acrylic on 30x40 stretched canvas. 15% of profits are donated to local art and environmental organizations.
The mountain lion, P22, was discovered to be living in Griffith Park in megalopolis Los Angeles in 2012. For 10 years he lived out his life in the City of Angels inspiring millions of Angelenos and humans around the world to reconsider their own roles in the relationship between the urban and natural worlds. He never left to mate.
Several factors contributed to P22’s celebrity, not the least of which is that he lived in Hollywood and was called “the Brad Pitt of Mountain Lions” after this camera trap image was captured of him in front of the Hollywood Sign for National Geographic by photographer Steve Winter.
But P22 was also famous because he had to cross two freeways to get to Griffith Park from the western Santa Monica Mountains – no easy feat. And then what was amazing is that he stayed in Griffith Park – an area of 6.7 square miles when the typical adult male mountain lion range is 200 square miles. As a result, Angelenos felt like he chose them and promptly fell in love.
Murals can be found throughout the city and most extraordinarily of all, P22 inspired the building of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway in Liberty Canyon, Agoura Hills which is now under construction.
“This visionary structure will preserve biodiversity across the region by connecting an integral wildlife corridor, and most immediately critical, help save a threatened local population of mountain lions from extinction. When complete, the crossing will be the largest in the world, the first of its kind in California, and it will serve as a global model for urban wildlife conservation.”
As I developed Earth City Wonder to make ecology and being a naturalist and steward of our natural wonder accessible to locals and tourists alike, I began to search my imagination for an iconic image that would appropriately convey the hope that P22 brought to Angelenos. While taking classes at Pasadena City College in painting and Chicano and Mexican art history it suddenly occurred to me that the iconic image I was looking for was an actual “icon” in the religious art sense.
I knew I wanted to incorporate local flora and fauna in the image and as I learned more about the “Virgin of Guadalupe” I was struck by how perfect it was as an inspiration.
According to tradition, the painting of the “Virgen de Guadalupe” tells the story of Juan Diego, a man of Aztec descent, who was visited by the Virgin Mary on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico on December 9th (coincidentally, my birthday!) in 1531 (not my birth year!). Speaking his native language of Nahuatl she asked Diego to build a shrine for her. Juan Diego told the bishop who said he needed proof and so the Virgin once again appeared to Juan Diego and told him to go pick flowers that normally don’t grow in that area in the winter and bring them to the bishop.
Juan Diego collected the flowers in his cloak and when he dropped them to the floor in front of the bishop, the famous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on the cloak where the flowers had been.
The Virgin of Guadalupe remains a cherished figure in Mexican and Chicano culture today and many murals of her can be found throughout Los Angeles and beyond. Nydya Mora does a fantastic job collecting them on her Instagram as a “love letter to La Virgen in LA.”
In recognition of the cultural and religious significance of the image a small percentage of the profits of the sale of my painting will be donated to a local arts organization that targets Latinos in LA. More on this to come!
In place of Tepeyac’s roses I wanted to use some of my favorite local native plants: I chose wild cucumber with their spikey fruit and clarkia flowers.
By choosing local plants and an iconic image seen throughout Los Angeles, I feel I was able to successfully develop an iconic image that comes organically out of the ecological and cultural milieu we are all immersed in as Angelenos. In a sense, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is a shrine to P22 – or the hope that he awakened in all of us.
It’s this same hope that inspires Earth City Wonder to share the wonder of the natural world all around us right in the heart of Super City of the Future, Los Angeles. It’s an extraordinary time to be alive and spread the message of Climate Optimism as a Revolutionary Act. Take a tour and join the Brush Canyon Naturalist Workshop.