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The Looming Crocodile
2024 Street Wise Mural Festival
Location: Retaining wall along Goose Creek Path near 4847 Pearl St, Boulder, CO 80301
Photos by Dona and Niko Laurita, Cam Margera, and Dittlo Digital
For #SWMF2024, Victor Escobedo painted an ominous yet intriguing mural to initiate conversations around water conservation and climate change.
The Looming Crocodile overlooks bikers, runners, and walkers as they cross the Goose Creek Path, inviting them to take a closer look at the creature looking back at them. With his body in profile, his bright red eye intensely gazes at the environment that surrounds him. Long white teeth snarl around his snout as it rises slightly from the ground.
His body perfectly fits the long width of the wall. The croc sits above a floodplain in Boulder along the path, a conveyance zone where water naturally flows during normal rain storms or as run off. If the water level rises or floods enough, the crocodile will appear submerged in the water.
Victor renders his body with variations of blue to reveal the reptile’s scaly textures and coloration. His light blue belly appears smooth and soft while his dark blue back appears thick and rugged, providing armor-like protection. The creature’s fins rise from his back, mimicking the slope of the Flatirons. His blue scaly skin pops against an prophetic yellow sky tinged with red. The artist purposefully let red paint drip from the top to create these layers.
Victor’s interdisciplinary art practice often reinterprets ancient mythology and mysticism for a contemporary audience. The crocodile is one of the world’s oldest water dwellers, ancient creatures that still exist in our contemporary world. Crocodilia have played prominent roles in cultures and religions from Ancient Egypt to India to Mesoamerica. Maya creation myths tell that the earth rose from the sea like a crocodile, and rulers often took crocodile as part of their title.
For the artist, the crocodile represents a protector, a creature that serves as a warning to respect and protect our sacred water in the face of climate change. Water gives life. We must protect this gift from pollution so that all communities regardless of class or race have access to clean water.
About the Artist:
Victor Escobedo is an interdisciplinary artist. Victor has developed a compelling style expressed in various forms expanding from ceramic masks, marionettes, dynamically textured installations, murals, paintings, and performances rooted in reimagined ancient iconography. Escobedo explores a reinterpretation of ancient mythology, indigenous intuition, Shamanistic practices and mysticism for a contemporary audience, that integrates seemingly unrelated disciplines in search of something universal.