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WEEDS series

FireweedMendrisioPlantago Lanceolata
SwinecressDandelion 1
Minhocão
EquatorRapunzel
Sonchus AsperAster in Asheville
Stinging Nettle
AhmedabadAthens

Narrative Murals

Outgrowing
OverviewPedal Revolution
TenderloinTaking Root
Correo
Overview
Market St.
OverviewOverview
DimitriBrisbane
Water War muralRainforest and City MuralBotanical
Duboce

Collaborations

EMER-GENTES : a collaboration by Mona Caron + LiqenMission ConditionMona+Apex at Trail HeadFMB4-zateliteSofT

Artivism

Mujeres Custodias QuitoArt at COP21 Climate Summit in Paris 2015mona at peoples climate march NYSalvando el Rio Mailanku
Bike Flower in Curitiba
POA bike-dandelionBurma
Art for CIW 2011CIW Mistica 2013
10th Anniversary of the Water War in Cochabamba, Bolivia
El Camino mural by Mona Caron

El Camino

This 120 foot long mural uses the mustard color and the mustard plant (an invasive species in California) as a metaphor to describe the path of El Camino Real, the commissioned subject of the artwork. The mural features a red-colored map of indigenous people’s language groups, with the mission trail crossing over them with a gold-colored physically scored line.

west end of "El Camino" mural by Mona Caron

Mural description from left to right

The mustard flower is a common weed that has become ubiquitous in agricultural California, and is believed to have been introduced by the first Europeans traveling along El Camino Real, the mission trail. 

Legend has it that the missionaries purposely spread mustard seeds along the way to mark the path in "royal gold". So in this mural, gold nugget-like mustard seeds drop from the mission bell, scatter, and land on the 50 foot long map to its right, starting the invasion.

The first seed lands in Loreto, the starting point of El Camino Real in the South of Baja California. The mission trail starts there and is marked as a golden mustard -colored line, etched into the painting with a knife. 

This etched line meanders along a giant map of the Californias oriented sideways, with North to the right, across the fading names, in red, of the many indigenous peoples groups along the way. It stops at the northernmost mission, in Solano, California.

Mural center:

About 80 feet from the left edge, the painting reveals the geographic position of the mural itself (At Pen Station, in Hillsdale California, with Mount Diablo in the background), as well as its relative position along the mission trail, which is between the San Jose and the Dolores missions, pictured on either side.

detail from "El Camino" by Mona Caron

The full-colored contemporary landscape breaks from the red and gold duotone of the mural, representing contemporary California.

A castilleja, a native red wildflower commonly known as “indian paintbrush”, bridges the past and the present.

Detail of El Camino by Mona Caron

Further along, a falling red-tailed hawk feather floating over the San Jose mission is the mural's ending symbol of that El Camino Real history that didn't leave many physical landmarks to depict.

Detail of El Camino by Mona Caron

 


 

Video of Mona painting this mural:

Location

Peninsula Station
2901 El Camino Real
Hillsdale , CA
United States
See map: Google Maps
California US
Size: ~120' long
Between 10' - 25' high
Commissioned by MidPen
Completed 2011

(c) Mona Caron All Rights Reserved

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