Through her colours, Silvia Lopez Chavez is trying to make people think. Not only do these bring joy to her but she spreads it through her murals. Expanding a mural she had painted on the walls of Boston Campus of Northeastern University in 2018 to a larger painting with more possibilities, she is trying to question our daily lives and how as we grow old, we leave out the joy of enjoying simpler things in life.
The illustration has things that brought great happiness in our life as children like blowing bubbles, paper airplanes, bicycle and train. What she is hoping to achieve through these is to make the passer-by to stop a moment and think about what happened to doing things just for the happiness of it. Blowing bubbles, she says, is one activity that is hardly productive except for the fact that it brings us joy. As we grow older, we tend to stop doing things for the enjoyment of it. Painted as a part of President Joseph E. Aoun’s Public Art Initiative which helps artists express their thoughts on public spaces in the University, this mural can be found on the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority Wall outside Ruggles Station.
The painting is supported by other local women artists who help Lopez Chavez in creating the piece. Her husband Dominic Chavez is also a part of the project. The painting is visible to not just students of Northeastern University but thousands of commuters who pass by Ruggles Station every day.
N Malavika Mohan