PAINTINGS THAT CLEAN THE AIR
Lucía Morales has worked as a painter for twenty years, but she almost never paints in a studio. Instead, the whole city of Valparaíso, in Chile, is her workplace. So far she has covered more than forty walls and roofs there with huge, colorful pictures. However, most people walk past her best work without noticing it. To see it, you need to climb one of the steep hills around the city and look down at the rooftops.(lines 1–6)
Lucía's pictures are not only beautiful – they also help to clean the air. Like many large cities, Valparaíso suffers from serious air pollution. Every day, thousands of cars, trucks and buses drive through its narrow streets, and the smoke from their engines fills the air with harmful gases. Yet many people do not realize how bad the problem is. Most of these gases have no color and no smell, so it is easy to forget about them. "People only worry about the things they can see," Lucía says.(lines 7–13)
Each new project takes Lucía several weeks of preparation. Her paint contains a special powder which breaks down harmful gases, but the powder only works in strong sunlight. That is why she always checks that the wall or roof gets sun for most of the day. Next, she washes the surface carefully and draws her idea on paper. She often invites the people who live in the building to suggest a subject for the picture. Only then does she pick up her brushes.(lines 14–19)
Last year, Lucía completed her largest project so far, on the roof of the city's children's hospital. The picture shows twelve smiling faces. Each face belongs to a nurse who works at the hospital. For example, the face in the center is Rosa Díaz, who has looked after sick children there for thirty years. Many young patients can see the picture from their windows, and they say that it makes them feel better.(lines 20–25)
Lucía believes that the walls of a city are like the pages of a book that everyone can read. Through her pictures, she hopes to teach people that clean air is a gift which is worth fighting for.(lines 26–28)