One Saturday a few months back, while roaming the streets of Wynwood, Little Haiti and Little River in Miami with my deaf dog Edison, I stumbled across a mural that Miami-based artist Ernesto Maranje had painted outside Inhale Miami, a holistic healthcare canter. It was a bird, strikingly painted with vivid colors and intricate patterns, that compelled me to throw my car in park and jump out with my deaf dog Edison and my camera.
Soon after, I kept finding his work unexpectedly. First there was the mural in Wynwood, Miami that he painted for the PangeaSeed Foundation’s Sea Walls project, a building I knew he had participated in painting but hadn’t seen his contribution. Then, I happened upon an older wall he had done in the industrial, warehouse-heavy Leah Arts District in Hialeah.
The photos above were shot outside Inhale Miami, a holitistic healthcare center smack dab in the middle of Little Haiti, Miami.
Ernesto’s street art work often focuses on aspects of nature, such as blending animals with plant life. Ernesto’s bright street art celebrations of nature and of life are electrifying when set against the urban backgrounds in which his public works are created. I haven’t connected with or met Ernesto…yet…but since we’re both Miami residents, I hope that changes soon so I can pick his brain about his work, his views of street art, both local and global, and his colorful odes to nature dropped in unexpected places.
These are some photos of my deaf dog Edison with his mural at Inhale Miami along with a few shots of his other work.
Leah Arts District
The Leah Arts District is a small but growing art neighborhood in Hialeah, FL. Adorning the blocks of warehouses is the work of many Miami-based street artists. Among these murals, the work of Ernesto Maranje remains among my favorite.
PangeaSeed in Wynwood
The PangeaSeed Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to empower individuals and communities to create meaningful environmental change for oceans through ARTivism, education, and science. They work to create a synthesis between creative expression, nature, and society to (re)connect individuals and communities with our planet’s most important ecosystem by following our core values of sustainability, education, ecology, and design. In Miami, they have recently parrtnered with Ernesto Maranje along with other renowned artists such as Nicole Salgar and Evoca1 among others.
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