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Chris Soto showed his newest collection of “Leaves: A Resilient Island” in Paris on March 13-15 in Bastille Design Center. Mr. Harry Bettancourt was the host and organizer of this event in which multiple important personalities from Paris showed up to appreciate art of over 30 emerging artists. As part of the festivities, Parisian Designer, Minerva, introduced her latest fashion designs at Minerva’s Spring Collection 2022.
Leaves, the protagonist of this collection, often serve as a barometer indicating the health of the tree. They serve as a mechanism to diagnose whether a tree may or may not bear fruit and if the soil is providing nutrients for growth or traumas for stagnation. After Hurricane María ravaged his homeland of Puerto Rico in 2017, a once lush green landscape turned brown and barren; there were no leaves.
For over a year, thousands of people were left without a home, without food, power and water. The losses were devastating, but the aftermath was worse; a gross mismanagement of federal relief funds deprived the island and its people of a desperately needed lifeline. One might say the hurricane stripped the trees, but corruption poisoned the soil.
Now Puerto Rico recovers as new leaves grow and slowly paint its mountains green. Soto’s newest work is a tribute to that renewal; he seeks to highlight the divinity he sees in trees and leaves as they bring new life and hope to his homeland still in the process of recovery.
