An Interview with Roberto Weil by Jenna Taylor, North Florida Trail Program Manager Roberto said he specifically tries to convey that energy in his work. By allowing the imperfect lines and saturated strokes, the piece takes on a storytelling element. Many will see photos of Big Cypress, but few actually have the chance to feel the energy as the water glides by you, the grasses touching your hands and the cypress brush by you silently. In Roberto’s work, I could feel those things again and I knew his work needed to be shared with our hiking community. I took some time to speak with Roberto and learn how he came to learn to capture landscapes, especially ones as alive as Big Cypress. Roberto Weil was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Caracas is known for an iconic mountain, El Avila which rises 9,072 ft and houses 316 miles of jungle, waterfalls and fauna. When Roberto heard about three of his friends hiking on this mountain, he took an interest in hiking. He was 13 years old when he and 14 other students, no adults, set off on a journey through the Loyola Excursion Center to Las Piedras “The Rocks,” where they explored the vines there. At their destination, they spent the next morning flying back and forth on vines above the abyss.
Bright & Bold Big Cypress
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Florida Trail Association
That, I realized, was the Big Cypress I was trying to show through my quickly snapped photos. One of motion, color and life everywhere you looked. When I asked him,
Roberto: First we got wet under a shady waterfall at the foot of the mountain. We needed to get cool just before entering the hot sun and the steep uphill. We started hiking at 4pm, dripping
Photo courtesy of Roberto Weil
I
had the opportunity to work with Roberto Weil at the Big Cypress front country work party in December 2020. He arrived, like most new volunteers, a little unsure what to expect but was instantly all in. Donning his orange hard hat, lopper in hand, he eagerly joined the team assigned to begin their work three miles out from the Oasis Visitor’s Center. After the work party, flipping through the photos on my phone, I realized how poorly I captured the beauty of Big Cypress. On my tiny screen, I simply failed to show the depth of the landscape features all around me. Reviewing my list of volunteers, I noticed a website linked to the bottom of an email for Roberto Weil, artist. Clicking on it, I found myself staring at a beautiful watercolor painting of Big Cypress.
Mountain El Ávila National Park, over the city of Caracas, 2014 FloridaTrail.org
