We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ernesto Rodriguez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ernesto, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
My sense of purpose has evolved from my life’s path. I grew up in Cuba amongst paint, brushes and art. My grandfather, a renowned muralist for the Cuban railroad, instilled in me a love of creating art. In October of 1962 we came to the United States on vacation to visit my uncle. The Cuban missile crisis erupted and relations and travel to Cuba were closed. When our visas expired we went to Canada. Months later we returned to the US as political refugees. My folks left everything behind and we started a new life in Chicago. I was eight years old. This uprooting buried my love of creating art. Learning a new language, making friends and learning a whole new way of being took center stage.
I was trained as a school psychologist and worked overseas with international schools in Colombia and Saudi Arabia. Working with children gives me a deep sense of fulfillment. While in Arabia I met a photographer from National Geographic who mentored my photographic skills. My suppressed love of creating art came gushing out and consumed me. I set up a dark room in our house and breathed and lived photography. In 1988 our daughter was born, I was 34, quit my profession and opened my photography business. I specialized in making art out of industry, maritime shipping, oil and gas.
In the early nineties I had the opportunity to work with Nelson Shanks. Nelson’s work fills the National Gallery at the Smithsonian. For over 50 years he painted portraits of kings, queens, presidents and the famous. He painted from photographs and needed landscape images of Catalina Island for a portrait he was working on. We spent two weeks combing Catalina from dawn to dusk. He described in minute detail the interaction of light and color that he wanted me to capture. “Nature’s light creates color, but in a painting color creates light”. Seeing light through a painter’s eyes changed how I view the world through a camera and inspired my personal work. Work is on exhibit in the Smithsonian and in the Curators Collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In 2000 I went to the Redwoods in northern California to photograph the trees. I was sitting in the forest waiting for the light and felt the serenity, calm and comfort of the forest. I began thinking about a friend that I had just visited in the hospital and thought, “why can’t hospitals feet this way”. When I returned home I stumbled across an article about how nature images calm hospital patients. My first thought was, why isn’t this knowledge being used in hospitals? In 2002 I founded Sereneview® hospital curtains placing nature vistas on the curtain that surrounds the patient bed. They are installed in over 3,500 hospitals throughout the US, Europe and Australia. I am proud to say the curtains have helped millions of patients experience a little tranquility during their hospital stay.
I became a certified interpretive naturalist and park ranger on Catalina Island in 2015. It subscribed me to the National Association of Environmental Educators where I began seeing the research on how viewing images of trees calms children, helps them focus and communicate. In 2018 I founded the nonprofit Nature In The Classroom to apply this science to the education setting. Ceiling murals of tree canopies are installed in classrooms so when you walk in feels like you are under a tree. Nature In The Classroom has fused my two careers as an artist and psychologist. Tree ceilings are installed in 10 school districts throughout California and Colorado serving 6,000 students. The trees have been a key factor in helping students manage anxiety, being the reason they like coming to school, boosting joy and creativity and creating a sense of community in the classroom.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Creating a tree ceiling begins with photographing a tree canopy. You have to spend a day outside, wander and hike in parks, be out in nature. The canopy should have the right blend of tree and sky and the sun bursting through. The branches should be visible not totally covered with leaves.. To print the images as large as we do requires a super high resolution image. Each canopy is a composite of 46 images assembled by software.
What is most exciting is installing a ceiling and kids seeing it for the first time. The sense of awe, wonder, joy and excitement they express: “Looking up in the classroom feels more calming to see nature”, “I like the branches. It’s like roads to a great journey”, “When I look up, it makes me feel calm”, and a kindergartner, “It calms me up”. It transforms a classroom and creates a greater sense of community.
As I mentioned there is 40+ years of science supporting this idea, We are not separate from nature. Viewing images of trees calms us. The pandemic has given rise to anxiety in 25% of the student population. The tree canopies have been essential in helping kids manage anxiety. I received a call from the vice principal at Cesar Chavez Academy the day after installing a tree ceiling in their wellness room. She relayed the story of a fifth grader who had a complete emotional meltdown. They brought her into the wellness room under the tree and it calmed her instantly. They observed this calming phenomena over the next few weeks and decided to put ceilings in six classrooms that did not have windows. It has significantly helped their students. The principal at Gage Middle School told me that the ceilings were key in getting through the pandemic. Science at work, what a concept.
Our goal in 2024 is to install 50 ceilings in eight schools. This will collectively bring the service of trees to 10,000 students. It will require us to fundraise $100K.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Focus: My mother said to me her whole life, ” Tu eres loco de idea fija”. You are crazy with fixed ideas. Maintaining focus is key to moving forward. To quote a sports metaphor, “Don’t take your eye off the ball”.
Mentorship: I have been fortunate that mentors have appeared when I needed them. If there are skills you need to hone, find a mentor.
Never Give Up:: This is the toughest one. There will be low points that you can’t imagine. Feelings of being stuck. Khalil Gibran summed it up best in “The Prophet”:
“Do not accept half a solution
Do not believe half truths
Do not dream half a dream
Do not fantasize about half hopes
Half the way will get you no where
You are a whole that exits to live a life not half a life”
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
The difficulty with introducing any new idea is there are no reference points. It doesn’t matter how my photos or videos I show people, they don’t fully grasp what we are doing until they actually stand under a tree ceiling. The principal at a middle school came into the room after we finished installing the tree ceiling, yaw dropped and says “so this is what you meant”. Then proceeded to lay on the floor and enjoy the ceiling.
It will help to get the word out to educators via education channels to establish familiarity. So it is not something out of the blue, or a novelty. I have started asking teachers that have tree ceilings to do a one minute video tour of their classrooms and narrate the changes they have observed. They will be posted on our website. I am also pursuing speaking engagements at school conferences and podcasts. Getting articles published in education blogs, social media and ramping up publicity via the major networks. CBS News “The Uplift” recently featured 5th graders seeing their ceiling for the first time at Taft Elementary in Santa Ana, CA. It will air early this year. It’s exciting and a challenge to be at the turning point where we are.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.natureintheclassroom.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natureintheclassroom/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NatureInTheClassroom
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernierodriguez/
Image Credits
All Images © Ernesto Rodriguez
