About the Artwork:

This original letterpress print is a part of my Lungs of the Earth Collection about my time spent deep in the Peruvian rainforest for an artist residency with the ACEER Foundation. My goal with this artist residency was to create colorful artwork that shares the story of the vulnerable biodiverse rainforest and the Indigenous Maijuna community in their fight against the proposed road construction threatening their land and livelihood.

This print is inspired by the Maijuna and their deeply intuitive connection with the dense forest around them. I found it amazing how we’d be out on a trek, bushwhacking for hours, without a single trail marker and still somehow end up back where we started by the end of the day with the Maijuna as our guides. 

The imagery of this print is directly inspired by boat rides we took up the Sucusari River Basin with the Maijuna expertly navigating the narrow route. The forms of the print are specifically inspired by a photo I took of Deibis, a young Maijuna hunter, from my seat in the middle of the boat as he expertly maneuvered our boat. 

When the river drops from a spout of drought, the water becomes still and the fallen trees emerge from the river floor. Travel becomes difficult, but we were thankful for our Maijuna guides, as they were prepared for clearing the path—and they did so with such grace and ease, as if they were dancing on the river. They’d jump from log to log, with bare toes skimming the water’s surface, carefully calculating exactly where to cut a log so it would drop to the water below and slowly drift down river, clear of the boat. The river in this region would be completely impossible to navigate without the Maijuna. 

It became clear to me that the Maijuna were the key to any access of the dense rainforest in the region and they deserve to be respected as so on a national and international level with respected protections in place for their land and livelihood as Indigenous peoples safeguarding the precious biodiverse rainforest.

The arched emerald shape in the center of this piece represents the Maijuna guides on the ends of the boats and the shape fits like a key into the outer moss green arch shape that represents the rainforest. I collected a fallen palm leaf sheath from the Huacrapona palm (Iriartea deltoidea) while in the rainforest and experimented with tile mounting it to a MDF block to give the outer moss arch shape an added texture unique to the rainforest.

$15 of every print sold will be donated to the ACEER Foundation and designated for the fight against the proposed highway corridor threatening the survival of the Maijuna Indigenous Community. If you would like to help the Maijuna, the rainforest and help fight climate change, please also consider signing the petition at change.org — thank you kindly!