Biography
Mona Caron [CH]
Born in the wild, lush Centovalli region of Ticino, Switzerland, Mona Caron developed her love of botany through the natural environment in which she grew up, as well as through the influence of her mother and grandmother. Her love of plants runs in the family: her grandfather was a botanical illustrator. Mona developed the same pictorial style as her grandfather by chance, rather than through any artistic lineage, as she had never been close to him. Although their brushwork is similar, Mona has magnificently expanded it onto walls spanning several hundred square metres.
Mona Caron briefly studied English literature at the University of Zurich before moving to San Francisco, where she attended the Academy of Art University and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with honours, in illustration. San Francisco remains her home base.
Mona’s first decade as a muralist was defined by highly site-specific, detailed, immersive narrative murals created with and for local communities. These works reflected the past, present, and future imaginaries of their neighbourhoods through a particularly open and participatory process—one considered an integral part of the artwork itself. Documented in the Emmy Award-winning film A Brush With the Tenderloin, this process became the underlying practice behind much of Mona’s work in San Francisco.
Over the past decade, through her WEEDS project and her “artivism,” she has focused on creating murals that respond to the distinctive characteristics of each community and public site. Viewing walls as “geopoetic” spaces, she has created murals—including some of monumental scale—in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. By combining painting and photography, she also creates stop-motion animations and short videos as part of her WEEDS project.
At times, Mona returns to incorporating narrative elements into her poetic botanical metaphors, creating emotional, dreamlike, and surreal visions, as seen in recent works such as Outgrowing in Taiwan and in her collaborations EMER(GENTES) and Mujeres Custodias. As a co-creator of visual materials for street actions and awareness campaigns, she supports a range of social and environmental movements.
Reaching skyward, Mona Caron’s giant plants sometimes appear incongruously within urban spaces—symbols not only of resistance, but also of hope.
Born in the wild, lush Centovalli region of Ticino, Switzerland, Mona Caron developed her love of botany through the natural environment in which she grew up, as well as through the influence of her mother and grandmother. Her love of plants runs in the family: her grandfather was a botanical illustrator. Mona developed the same pictorial style as her grandfather by chance, rather than through any artistic lineage, as she had never been close to him. Although their brushwork is similar, Mona has magnificently expanded it onto walls spanning several hundred square metres.
Mona Caron briefly studied English literature at the University of Zurich before moving to San Francisco, where she attended the Academy of Art University and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with honours, in illustration. San Francisco remains her home base.
Mona’s first decade as a muralist was defined by highly site-specific, detailed, immersive narrative murals created with and for local communities. These works reflected the past, present, and future imaginaries of their neighbourhoods through a particularly open and participatory process—one considered an integral part of the artwork itself. Documented in the Emmy Award-winning film A Brush With the Tenderloin, this process became the underlying practice behind much of Mona’s work in San Francisco.
Over the past decade, through her WEEDS project and her “artivism,” she has focused on creating murals that respond to the distinctive characteristics of each community and public site. Viewing walls as “geopoetic” spaces, she has created murals—including some of monumental scale—in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. By combining painting and photography, she also creates stop-motion animations and short videos as part of her WEEDS project.
At times, Mona returns to incorporating narrative elements into her poetic botanical metaphors, creating emotional, dreamlike, and surreal visions, as seen in recent works such as Outgrowing in Taiwan and in her collaborations EMER(GENTES) and Mujeres Custodias. As a co-creator of visual materials for street actions and awareness campaigns, she supports a range of social and environmental movements.
Reaching skyward, Mona Caron’s giant plants sometimes appear incongruously within urban spaces—symbols not only of resistance, but also of hope.
The site contains a total of 5 artworks by Mona Caron in 2 countries.
Artworks (5)
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