Art © A K Segan

SWD 18

Chico Mendes, Brazilian rubber-tapper

…a husband, father, rubber tapper, Amazonian rainforest defender. He was slain by a rancher, 1988.  

Art: Begun June 18, 2013; finished Nov. 2014
Media: Ink, colored pencil, gouache, thread, twine
Framed, 23.5 inches H x 31.5 W

Born in 1944, Mendes was 44 years old when he was murdered by a rancher in Brazil in 1988.

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The artwork includes 6 collaged-on drawing fragments/pieces from a drawing the artist made on a mountainside in the southern Polish town of Rytro, summer 1984. That mixed media artwork, titled Homage to Pawiak Prison, Warsaw, 1984, was disassembled in summer 2010.

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Source material acknowledgements: Interpretative drawings seen in SWD 18 were inspired by photos in these 2 contemporary books and one very old book.

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Postman butterfly (Brazilian), drawn from an illustration seen in the children's book Butterfly and Moth, by Paul Whalley; pub. by DK Publishers, N.Y., 2012.

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A greenish colored insect on a green leaf (untitled photo) seen in the book

Asuní Green Gold - The Amazon Fight to Keep Oil Underground by Ginés Haro Pastor and Georgina Donati, with Troth Wells and photos by Mauro Burzio.

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The 2 small insects depicted at upper right were inspired by engravings or lithographs in Hill's Practical Reference Library of General Knowledge, pub. by DIxon, Hanson & Co., Chicago, 1905. 

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The plant drawn at upper left is from a "Wandering Jew" plant in Segan's studio. It grew from a nearly-dead plant that had been owned by late Seattle anti-war artist & social justice activist Selma Waldman.

Ms. Waldman's powerful anti-war, genocide and Holocaust series artworks are now maintained and cataloged by her son, Rainer Waldman Adkins, for exhibits and loan installations. On Facebook please visit the Selma Waldman Legacy Project. 

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Exhibits

  • (January 2015) Group show on human rights, Cascadia Community College, Mobius Art Gallery, Bothell, Washington. The exhibit was organized by Cascadia College Art dept. instructor Chris Gildow.

  • (Jan – March 2016) For the Love of the Earth, group photography, art show: Mt. Baker Neighborhood Center for the Arts, Seattle.