Echo Park Boathouse Mural: "The Tree of the Middle Place" 

Commissioned by S.P.A.R.C. (Social and Public Art Resources Center), Los Angeles, California

 

"Her mural, the way it’s planned now, will have a pre-Columbian motif, featuring native cultures, like the Aztecs, that came before the Europeans. Native plants like frijoles, or beans, are incorporated into the design as well as the sacrificial figure of the bird that pulls blood from its own chest to feed its’ young. Benish admits it’s a "schizophrenic project" built around a theme she’s working with called 'encuentro', which signifies the 'meeting or clashing of cultures.'"

 

Bonnie Sinnock, L.A. Independent, January, 1992