Sculpture of the Marine Vaquita
Depicts the Wealth of the Gulf of California

The desire to depict the wealth of the Gulf of California led Octavio Gonzalez to sculpt the Marine Vaquita, a bronze sculpture located in the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, to which over 5 million children will have access every year.
The sculpture was unveiled on February 28th by Victor Lichtinger, Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources and Jeronimo Ramos, National Commissioner for Fisheries and Aquaculture during the official launching of the "Let's Save the Marina Vaquita" campaign, initiative that was promoted by about one hundred NGO's, among them, the World Wildlife Fund.
Interview by telephone from Puerto Vallarta, Octavio Gonzalez stated that the Agrupacion Sierra Madre set out to look for a specialist in marine sculpture and that is how they contacted him at his workshop "Octavio: Bronze Art". "The sculpture of the Vaquita represents the spirit of an animal that is crying out for help, because it is leaving this world. The Vaquita is asking for help and we must provide it by stopping irrational practices whose consequence will be the disappearance of this species from the face of the Earth.
"We are committed to take care of this native species of the Gulf of California, because all of us assure we are cultured and have feelings and that we know what respect is".
In his work, Gonzalez wanted to depict the way in which Marine Vaquitas protect their young, since this is the most well-known image of the world's smallest cetacean.

The technique

Octavio Gonzalez took forty days in completing his project on the Marine Vaquita. First, he designed it on paper; then he sculpted his original model in wax. He surrounded this model with a gypsum-brick powder mixture. Once the mixture dried, the artist melted the wax and filled the empty space with a bronze, copper, 2% manganese and 5% silica alloy. La sculpture of the Marine Vaquita weights 120 kilos; it is 1.50 meters long from head to tail and was made in eight separate sections that were later welded, polished and tinted green and black with the help of acids.
The artist made two of the same sculptures which had a cost of US$ 25,000. The second sculpture was recently unveiled at the "El Papalote", Children's Museum in Mexico City.

Background

Octavio Gonzalez was born in Tepatitlan de Morelos, Jalisco and he began sculpting after his father was shot to death.
Gonzalez says his family used to be well-off, but that the funds dwindled away, until one day his mother informed the family that the good times were over. Therefore, little Octavio started building his own toys.
He was able to finish elementary school and then had to begin working as an ice cream vendor, a bricklayer and mechanic to support his mother and brothers and sisters, while during his free time, he enjoyed sculpting and teaching the trade to whomever wanted to learn it. But his calling became more and more important and suddenly Gonzalez was only doing that for which he had been born: sculpting.
Today, at age 49 and after having been married 6 times, because his wives "couldn't keep up with him", the artist has ample experience: he has participated in cultural exchanges with Santa Barbara and Berkley, in California; he has lived in Moscow, Vienna, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Amsterdam and Belgium.
After settling in Puerto Vallarta, Gonzalez has divided his time between his work projects and teaching sculpture to youngsters who were formerly drug addicts, whom he is trying to guide through the roads of art. He also teaches a group of disabled youngsters. The idea of sculpting his masterpiece, the "Vallarta Whale", which he gave as a gift to this city, stems from these groups, the artist explains.
The "Vallarta Whale" is a 13 meter high and 13 meter long bronze sculpture that weighs 14 tons and is suspended on just one of its fins. It took him 4 years to complete the sculpture. Its cost was over 3 million pesos. The sculpture was nominated for the 2000 Guinness Record.