Mona Caron has made a name for herself painting massive, building-sized murals of local plants (and sometimes people) with hidden messages. As the daughter of a Swiss theatre and opera set designer, Caron grew up surrounded by art and nature in Canton Ticino, an Italian-speaking section of Switzerland. The artist attended the San Francisco Academy of Art and Illustration, and eventually settled permanently in California.
Caron focuses mostly on painting weeds in urban areas because she is inspired by the plants’ indomitable spirit. No matter how often you pull them out and build over them and cover them up, weeds always find a way to reclaim at least some of their territory. So the artist decided to paint “heroic” portraits of the humble plants.
“Several of these murals contain intricate miniature details, invisible from afar. These typically narrate the local history, chronicle the social life of the mural’s immediate surroundings, and visualize future possibility, and are created in a process that incorporates ideas emerging through spontaneous conversations with the artwork’s hosting communities while painting.”
One of my favorite among her works is the 160-foot-high two-part mural she did in Quito, Ecuador, in 2018 in support of the Andean women whose families have been growing native corn and beans for many generations. The video below explains their plight.
You can see all of Mona Caron’s remarkable work on her website and on Facebook, Instagram, and her YouTube channel.
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My OBT 
March 23, 2019 at 6:24 am
Beautiful. This goes with the sidewalk art. hal
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March 23, 2019 at 9:01 am
Those are the best looking weeds ever!
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March 23, 2019 at 8:17 am
She is good…goodness good. andYes to the corn people. Monsanto needs to be thrown under the bus. they are killing us all.
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March 23, 2019 at 9:02 am
They are scary. I was very glad to see her doing her part to help.
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March 23, 2019 at 9:49 am
This is beyond words. Wow! I think I saw her work somewhere but forgot about it, I must say. I am so happy you share this here and I now won’t forget it anymore as I follow her on Insta. What an inspirational and beautiful soul. Muchas gracias Donna!
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March 23, 2019 at 8:39 pm
I remembered seeing her work years ago, too. I was so glad to find it again!
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March 23, 2019 at 10:10 am
How can she think that big?? Imagine driving along the road and coming across one of these buildings?! Beautiful!!
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March 23, 2019 at 8:40 pm
I would love to see them in person!
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March 23, 2019 at 2:36 pm
These are wonderful. I am a big fan of urban murals anyway (Philly has a lot of fabulous ones) but I really like the “weed” theme this artist uses. Just as we have discussed not being able to imagine working in teeny-tiny miniature, I cannot conceive of how I would work on something so massive and be able to step back and see something so coherent.
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March 23, 2019 at 9:13 pm
I assumed she uses a grid, but watching her work, I didn’t see one. Amazing
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March 23, 2019 at 10:20 pm
Even with a grid, that has to be incredibly challenging.
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