February 20, 2015
In "Las Pintoras", as with "Birthday Boy", I have attempted to capture a warm, sentimental moment that I witnessed in my life.
The sweet women on the painting are two of the women that I had the opportunity to meet in 2013 while volunteering at the SNDIF, or the Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, a public institution for social assistance located in Mexico. During the time that I was there with my closest friend, Monse, we engaged in conversation with the women, who were painting with acrylic on linen. They worked gently and carefully on their art as they were gentle with us, inquiring about our families and opening up to us about theirs. After a little while, we all passed the frijoles and tortillas that were given to us around the table and ate the warm, nourishing food.
The elderly never fail to evoke an emotional reaction from me. Perhaps it is the way they take their lives slowly and calmly, despite the hardships; the subjects, particularly their concern about their families, that they embrace through their soft words; or maybe, the way they are often seen by much of society- as useless, incapable, homely beings, that bring me to want to make a difference for them, whether by helping them physically, listening to them, or even conveying to them that, despite their age and decaying capacities, they still matter just as much as anyone. This painting thus magnifies their everyday moment of peace, serenity, and slow diligence, portraying them in the full humanity that the society often strips from them and from similar elderly men and women.
No comments:
Post a Comment