Local artist captures the spirit of Yuma for Yuma Lettuce Days

One Yuma woman's imagination is ready to color Yuma Lettuce Days with her artistic interpretations of local relationships between people and their surrounding agricultural environment.

Gina Georgina Barrantes-Arzuaga is a member of the North End Artists Co-op and has been painting what she calls “positive messages to lift up the soul” since July 2010.

“I'm a romantic at heart. Anything that is a relationship between beauty, human beings and nature is what I like to capture in my paintings,” Barrantes-Arzuaga said.

Barrantes-Arzuaga said the Yuma Visitors Bureau asked her to create two art pieces to be on display and auctioned off during a live auction at the Yuma Lettuce Days Harvest Dinner Thursday.

“They looked for me through the North End Co-op. They liked my artwork and then they wanted to do an auction on the art pieces that I'm going to donate,” Barrantes-Arzuaga said.

According to Ann Walker of the Yuma Visitors Bureau, all of the proceeds raised at the Harvest Dinner and live auction will go to the Yuma Agricultural Producer's Scholarship Fund.

Barrantes-Arzuaga, originally from Costa Rica, has been living in Yuma for about seven years.

She hopes that her realistic interpretations of nature combined with the spirit of the people will touch the hearts of people who see her pieces on display.

“It's going to be a view of what surrounds us, and also fields of lettuce and alfalfa, that are the main crops around here,” Barrantes-Arzuaga said.

Barrantes-Arzuaga said her display will consist of two pieces displayed at Yuma Lettuce Days as digital images on constructed billboard-like “walls” provided by Bobby Lemmon of Big A Building Materials.

Barrantes-Arzuaga said YVB's decision to feature her art is an honor and she sees it as a great way for her to give back to the community she loves.

“Now that I can do this, it's wonderful because I'm doing what I love to do, in the place that I love to be in,” Barrantes-Arzuaga said.

“This is something that I always wanted to do. It was the dream of my life.”

Barrantes-Arzuaga said that the opportunities the city of Yuma has provided her have helped her progress as an artist, and she feels that events this past year in general have helped her grow “so much in such a short amount of time.”

Barrantes-Arzuaga's work can be seen on display at The United Building, 254 S. Main St., or at her web site http://www.ginabarrantes.com.

Tickets to the Harvest Dinner are $50 per person and open to all participants who purchase a ticket in advance.

It will be held at 6 p.m. March 10 at the Yuma Quartermaster Depot.

For more information, contact the Yuma Visitor's Bureau at (928) 376-0100.