Internationally celebrated Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel created waves in the art scene a few years ago with his vibrantly painted mural at the Skate Church aka Laos Temple in the Spanish city of Llanera.
The artist has once again received a huge appreciation from creatives and art enthusiasts across the globe for his characteristic mural at the International Church of Cannabis transforming a 113-year-old structure in to a vibrant space fostering exchange of ideas and creative expression.
As the name suggests, the church is dedicated to people who ritually use cannabis (termed as “the sacred flower” by the church) to accelerate and deepen self-discovery. The church property was purchased in 2015 and was co-owned by church co-founder Steve Berke and his parents with the intention to turn it into apartments. After using the space as his residence, Berke and his colleagues and friends,
The co-founders spent ten months fixing up the inside of the church, which now houses a nonprofit geared to the religion of Okuda and his team had no concepts in mind until they stepped into the church and looked up at the blank ceiling. The artist who prefers to let himself be guided by the architecture and within a weeks time astonished the audiences with his creation.
The colorful surrealist interior paintings consists of multicoloured geometric structures & patterns, organic shapes and images of wild animals and faceless individuals. According to the artist’s statement, this is to, “Show equality among the different races, placing all skin types on the same level; multicolours symbolize multiculturalism.”
Okuda gathers inspirations from his travels and he often draws inspiration from places like South America, Asia and Africa. In Okuda’s own words, “What inspires me to wake up every day is traveling, discovering new places and their people, and transforming environments with my art by leaving some trace of me with it.” The artist emphasizes on the presence of art in public spaces as it binds communities together. Okuda enthusiastically says, “My mission is to transform these spaces in a way that passing through them is an enjoyable experience.”
Even though Okuda is a non-smoker, he agrees to the elevationists’ belief that the plant can be a positive influence, citing its illegal status as somewhat arbitrary. Church and religion has been a major topic of his conversation ever since he painted the Kaos Temple church interior. He doesn’t have a strong opinion, but firmly believes that “in the end it’s the transformation of a space that once had no life – and now it does.” For him, the driving force remains art. “It’s like art is the universal religion,” he explained, “And I am a disciple of art.”