San Juan, Puerto Rico November 2013- Vero Rivera is an emerging artist who covers the concrete walls of San Juan with delicate imagery of foliage native to Puerto Rico. When I met Vero, she had just come back from a trip to Japan and when she told me, in my mind it made perfect sense that she would travel to a country with a strong artistic culture of calligraphy and delicateness. Her work is full of such influence.

Over the course of my stay, she invited me to document her artistic process of painting murals and making paper cutouts to put up around the city. One sunny afternoon I met Vero at her home studio in the hills of Carolina, right on the edge of the rainforest (Ah ha, no wonder she has a thing for leaves ). She was preparing a paper cutout to wheat paste up between an overpass of a local highway. It would be the first one she'd ever done one in her own neighborhood. And was definitely uncommissioned.

I also hung with Vero while she painted a mural in participation with a local art festival in the Barrio Obrero neighborhood of San Juan. It was interesting to observe how she translates the same representation of nature from her cutouts, to murals using only paint and brush. Both approaches maintain a methodical application and brilliantly capture nature's own reflection through each space where she chooses to work.

Here we speak about her work, her inspirations and why she chooses the street to show off her art. Also, if you listen closely to the interview, you'll hear Kiki, the neighbor's parrot, contributing to the conversation. Oh the island of enchantment! Me encanta!

This is the fifth vignette in a documentary series dedicated to women street artists creating in North and South America.

Directed, filmed and edited by Alexandra Henry.

For more on Vero Rivera, visit her page:

facebook.com/veroriverastudio

Special thanks to:

Sarika Angulo

Juan Carlos Ovies

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