Original Artwork & Design

TOMAS ARAYA (ARATTI)

I am a multimedia visual artist whose work centers around storytelling, decolonization narrative, nature & environmental awareness. Making artwork that praises mother nature and my indigenous traditions in a powerful, mystical way has always been my artistic dream.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Since graduated from architecture school in 2015, I’ve done many visual art exhibitions showing paintings & illustrations both in Chile (where my family is from) and the US, where a bunch of the novel’s concept art is shown as part of the narrative. These exhibitions were housed in the Atacama Cultural Center on February 2017 (Chile), Intermedia Arts (Mpls) for the “Day of the Dead” season 2017, Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center (St. Paul) on 2017 and 2018. This exposure led me to be included in the St. Paul Art-crawl publication of 2018 and 2019. In between these exhibits I also worked with Good Space Murals on two enormous murals. One of them being massive (Over 2,500 square ft), on Wright’s Lake Park, Bloomington. The other mural is on the side wall of the Phoenix Market (800 square ft), East Side St. Paul. Both painted and installed in 2018. After that I joined the team that applied for Northern Lights’s “Creative City Challenge” grant on December 2018, which led us to win and exhibit our project “Radical Playground” the summer of 2019 at The Commons, downtown Minneapolis. This is my biggest art project/exhibit to date. It was a team of four artist and included nine 5 ft. tall “Alebrije” sculptures fully painted on top of pyramid bases. Four large paintings for people to take photos with, three full days of art events such as dance performances and visual art stations. This entire operation was done in collaboration with Indigenous Roots CAC Also in 2019 hired to teach after school art classes at Academia César Chavez from 1st to 5th graders. Allowing me to further cultivate the message I am trying to pass along with my artwork. Respect for nature and each living thing that enables us to live on this good earth.

ARATTI RESUME 2020

Latest freelance work & commissions

2022-2023 M Health Fairview Reception Mural. Acrylic Indoor mural located by the front desk of their clinic building located at 45 West 10th Street, Downtown St. Paul. This commission was about welcoming patients into a warm space that promotes health and wellness.

2022 Abogados Cafe Reception Mural. An indoor mural for the new South American inspired Coffee shop located at 1053 Dale street N. St. Paul 55117

2022 Mississippi Dreamers Mural Workshop. Outdoor acrylic mural & 6 workshop sessions on how to design and paint a large scale mural. This project was an award by Forecast Public Arts. Located at 2090 Conway st, St. Paul 55119 2022 Abogados Cafe Reception Mural. An indoor mural for the new South American inspired Coffee shop located at 1053 Dale street N. St. Paul 55117

2022 Science Museum of Minnesota’s Kaysc Entrance mural. Located at 120 W Kellogg Blvd, St Paul, MN. The process of this design was a result of several design meetings with the youth at the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center. The mural is inspired in STEM culture and its meant to empower the youth to pursue any dream they have using science, culture and social awareness as foundations.

2021 Larry Cohen Recognition Project. Dove lights/bench design and prototype building. This project is in representation and in admiration of the countless immigrants who have made St. Paul the flourishingly diverse city it is today. A collaboration between St. Paul and Ramsey County to honor the man who served as St. Paul mayor, Ramsey County chief judge and chairman of the Ramsey County Board. The four doves benches at the city hall were designed by 4 local artists.

2021 Go with the Flow” Watercolor experience designed for the Minnesota Museum of American Art. This commission entailed a video production of a watercolor tutorial and the creation of graphics for an art kit instruction manual. This art kit was then exhibited at the Pollinator event of 2021 in the St. Paul Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary area.

2021 A change of Seasons” Four piece outdoor mural grant winner through Forecast Public Arts. Design and installation of an exterior mural project in May of 2021 with colleague Olivia Novotny. This wall was inspired by the beauty of the four seasons in Minnesota.

2021 Mini Muralists” Muralism workshop for BIPOC youth at Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center. Design and lead the execution of a free, 4 part muralism class with all materials included. This workshop funds were awarded by MRAC as part of their community grants programs.

2020 La Patrona Food truck” Outdoor mural for a foodtruck business on the East Side of St. Paul in October 2020. This exterior piece was created with Enamel paint and Spray paint.

2020 Litzenberg residence mural, March: On the outside of the garage door, Marc Litzenberg requested a rural landscape where his favorite bicycle could be shown. This exterior piece was created with Acrylic and Spray paint.

2020 Segue Coffee Mural - On February I created a piece for Trey Sharpe and his coffee shop, located in Downtown Mpls, next to Elliot Park. This interior piece was made with acrylic paint.

2019-2020 St. Paul Almanac community editor - Along with 24 other community members, we have read over 300 text submissions for the 2020 edition of St. Paul Almanac. Our task was to read, rate and send feedback on how to improve on the narrative for the final book release.

2019 Día de los Muertos” Public art installation with Pangea World Theater - Design, production and installation of a offering Altar at Plaza Centenario, Lake st.

2019 Arvaard at the Park” Public art installation Event - Hand made Junglescape scenery design, production and installation at a public event.

2019 Make it Fancy!” Public art events: In collaboration with Chicanx artist Pacha Galaviz, we made over 150 framed portraits for three community events through out the summer of 2019 in the Twin cities. This project was funded by a grant award given to us by Cultivate Bottineau. The portraits were hand drawn on site by Pacha while I was helping the public (mostly chil- dren) on how to customize their portrait frames with multiple art supplies.

2019 Radical Playground” Public art installation - Design, production and installation of 9 public art sculptures. Each sculpture has layers of metal wire, aluminum foil, masilla, white primer and multiple coats of acrylic paint. Installed on wood posts in a wood pyramidal structure filled with gravel. Along with 3 other team members, we were given $50,000 to lead this project. Radi- cal Playground was funded by the Creative City Challenge 2019 awarded by Northern Lights (http://northern.lights.mn/). The playground was displayed at The Commons, a park in front of the US Bank stadium for the summer of 2019 and it was visited by over 5,000 people.

2018 Goodspace Murals Assistant: Cutting, priming, projecting and painting process of two giant scale outdoor murals. It took the team five months to produce the pieces.

2018 Earth & Water” Saint Paul Artcrawl 2018: Visual Arts Exhibition at Indigenous Roots cultural Arts Center. Saint Paul. MN. 20 pieces of artwork inspired in the blessings of our birth mother Earth. The tecniques used to create the series were watercolors, inks, spray paint, amongst others.

2018 Grant winner “Raíces Indígenas en fantasía” : Visual Arts exhibition at Atacama Cultural Center. Copiapo, Chile. 24 pieces of artwork inspired by the diversity of native people around the globe. The tecniques used to create the series were watercolors, inks, spray paint, amongst others.

2017 Day of the Dead / Festival de las Calaveras 2017: design and execution of two 12x6 ft murals for the art exhibition at Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis.

2017 Natural Mystic” Visual Art exhibition: Exhibition at Indigenous Roots cultural Arts Center. Saint Paul. MN. 24 pieces of artwork inspired in fantasy and legends of south american lore. The tecniques used to create the series were watercolors, inks, spray paint, amongst others.

2017 Bountiful Davis Summerfest 2017: Visual arts exhibition and collaboration with the Inter- national dance company Kirqui Wayra at Bountiful, Utah. www.kirquiwayra.wix.com https://www.bdac.org/summerfest

2017 World Folkfest 2017: Visual arts exhibition in collaboration with the International dance company Kirqui Wayra at Springville, Utah. www.worldfolkfest.dreamhosters.com

2015-2016 El Regalo, Travesías por América”: Analogue photography workshop coordinator and final exhibition designer at PUCV University, Chile.

2016 Mural Design and Execution: Oil on wall mural for private collector at their beach home on the coast of Quintero. Valparaíso,

2016 Home Iibrary design & Construction: Architectural library space for a private costumer. 6 wood shelves designed to match the diverse setup the owners use to engage their children with literature.

2015 Collaboration design & Construction “Pájaras Salvajes”: Wood sculpture “pájaras sal- vajes” or “Wild birds” for the exhibition “Ciudad Abierta de Amereida” at Brussel, Belgium.