Planes of Perception

at Wynwood Walls in Miami, Florida

Goldman Global Arts invited Ernesto to return to Wynwood Walls and paint during Miami Art Week 2021. He was excited to redesign the wall where he painted his 2019 mural, Sentries.

The mural, named Planes of Perception, shows several animals that call Florida home. Its focus is a Florida panther along with a key deer, roseate spoonbill, great blue heron, black skimmer, and Florida scrub jay. All of these animals’ populations are endangered or threatened. Lurking overhead is a large Burmese python.

Burmese pythons are native to Asia. They were introduced to Florida in the ‘90s as an exotic pet and have devastated the delicate ecosystem of the Everglades as an apex predator. They’ve made headlines swallowing entire alligators and have diminished many native bird populations by over 60%. Burmese pythons have has also severely reduced rodent and small-to-medium mammal populations, which in turn has greatly threatened the Florida panther by diminishing its food source.

The Burmese python is now hated in Florida. It’s received international negative attention and is the textbook example for an invasive species run amok. But through the eyes of the Burmese python, it is just living. It was released into the wild by humans, and it has survived in a new environment where it has no predators, through no fault of its own.

While humans may want and need to curb the snake population to protect other native species, it is worth taking a look at the situation through the Burmese python’s eyes. To change your perception is to change the situation itself.

Photography courtesy of Martha Cooper and Nika Kramer.

Watch Chop ‘em Down Film’s video documenting the wall.

Ernesto reimagined the mural Planes of Perception for his 2022 canvas Planes of Perception 2, which is now at Goldman Global Arts.

Visit Planes of Perception in Wynwood, FL (retired)