W hen I do art in collaboration with groups of people, that have the same values that I share, everything makes more sense. Working with the comunity is very rewarding.

After finishing the mural at the park the next idea was to create an sculpture. The first thing that came to mind was to create one of the snails that were painted on the mural.

The snail has the world in its shell, Home, Nature, the place that is also our home. The plant pot represents the need for reforestation in the world, the human intervention that needs to happen in our world.

This sculpture is dedicated to everyone that helps Nature, locally everyone that helps the park recover and specially the the altruistic group of Los Locos del Parque.

My idea was to do a 4 meter long snail but after knowing how difficult was going to be to deal with such weight I decided to make it half that size. I started with the skeleton. Manuel, being a professional sculptor, gave me a few hints to avoid some major issues. Once I had some sort of skeleton, Santos, a retired welder from the refinery, helped me to get the joints welded together maintaining a good consistency. Alfonso, the president of the organisation, and Salvador helped me getting the sand and cement that I needed for the cement mixure.

T he sculpture also had to be a recycling project too. We filled the inside with tons of plastic, lots of empty plastic bottles and coffee plastic capsules.

Just like the mural was, the sculpture was also a test to my patience and control. There were always lots of flies flying around and there were times wich were impossibe to concentrate. Luckily there were days that it was bearable, so I managed to get the rest of the snail done. I used different types of ice cubes to recreate the skin of the snail and the outcome was great.

The final cover patina was bronce look. It was too shinny at first but I managed to make it look aged a bit.

To finish up, I painted the map of the world on one side of the snail representing the need to plant in the world. Humans need to change if we want to live in this world. The time for healing needs to be now, we need to wake up to this realisation.

Thanks to the local workers of the government we managed to move the snail to its new and final position. I was great to see it flying but it was also a tense moment. We forgot to add the cape to him :)

The snail finally settled down and was nicely decorated.

The Mayor of La Linea, Juan Franco, the councilor of Parks and Environment, Raquel Ñeco and the president of the Locos del Parque organisation, Alfonso Llorente, came to inaugurate the first sculpture of the Princesa Sofia Park.

I am very grateful to be able to contribute to my hometown, with the help of the Government, the Locos group and some cultural initiatives we will change the Park, not oly as a great place to spend time around nature but also as a cultural magnet.

Dedicated to Los Locos del Parque, for their effort and love for Nature

& to all of those who help the world to recover.

Special Thanks

Alfonso Llorente, Salvador, Manolo, Santos Reyes, y el Ayuntamiento de La Linea de la Concepción