Right in the middle of the north sidewalk of San José's central park there is a Sweeper. That wouldn't be something unusual, but this sweeper is made out of cooper and he is there to be a constant homage to municipal workers, not to sweep the park.
Sculptor Edgar Zuņiga
This piece of public art is one of the 18 sculptures that Edgar Zuņiga, a native sculptor from Alajuela, has distributed all around Costa Rica.
Zuņigas was first inspired by the famous and classic sculptors, specially Michaelangelo and Rodin, but his teacher and mentor was his father, Manuel Maria Zuņiga Rodriguez. Zuņiga's father had a religious imagery workshop in Alajuela. He came from a family of sculptors, painters and artisans.
My father came to revive sculpting in Costa Rica," Zuņiga said. "His workshop attracted many young apprentices and became the seedbed for all the sculptors, teachers and workshops in Costa Rica.
Zuņiga was one of his father's last apprentices. He remembers how one day he was scolded by his father when fixing the perspective on some images.
My father had lost his vision in his left eye, so the perspective of his figures was wrong, he recalls.
After I fixed the images he would look at them and it would look wrong for him, so he would change it back. One day he got really mad at me for changing his work and he told me '1 am the artist'.
But Zuņiga also became an artist.
The first sculpture I sold was a reproduction of Rodin's The Thinking Man, he recalls.
However, for 15 years Zuņiga made sculpting religious imagery his trade, working from his own workshop in Alajuela.
"Some artists from Alajuela got together and formed a cultural group called Andamio, Zuņiga says.
Looking at other people's art and discussing it catalyzed my desire for creating my own art. Then I assumed my personal sculpting with great determination. I started studying, investigating, asking, reading, and producing a lot.
Zuņiga is mostly self-taught, learning from books, exhibits, museums and trips. He attended art school in University of Costa Rica only for three months, but he had to leave because it was too slow of a learning process for him. Over the years he has developed his own language and now he is known for his particular style.
I think that turning 50 years old is more than just a number, he says.
Something happens at this age that allows you to integrate your maturity and then to begin a new stage. Now I feel more solid as an artist, more capable of synthesizing my experiences.
Art and Culture 
