People With No Names: The Undocumented # 110

 

I am reading the Isabel Allende book about the history of Haiti,  "Island Beneath the Sea",  and was struck by the white plantation owners saying that "the black slaves have never accepted their fate".  It got me to thinking about the idea of "accepting your fate".  Today, the President of the United States nominated a new Secretary of Labor,  one Thomas Perez who NEVER accepted his fate.  He is the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic (next door to Haiti) and put himself through college collecting garbage and working in a warehouse.  The president described him as a tireless advocate for the 'American Dream'.  Then, in case we needed a refresher, the president spelled it out...he said, "It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, what your last name is;  if you are willing to work hard you can get in on the 'American Dream'.  It seems like a prerequisite would be...DON'T accept your fate!  This is an 11" x 14" oil on stretched canvas of a recent deportee from the United States.

People With No Names, The Undocumented: 109

This 11" x 14" oil on canvas is of a young man who was recently deported from the United States.  I keep thinking that we are not paying attention to history as it is unfolding.  We see so clearly that we should have done more as Jews were being rounded up in Europe during WWII...we should have helped in Rwanda.  We should have the attitude of a character in a book that I am reading (The Postmistress by Sarah Blake) as she realizes what is happening in Europe in the winter of 1941.  "Whatever is coming does NOT just come, as you say.  It's helped by people willfully looking away.  People who develop the habit of swallowing lies rather than the truth.  The minute you start thinking something else, then you stopped paying attention---and paying attention is all we've got."

People With No Names, The Undocumented: 108

This 20" x 30" oil on canvas depicts one of the growing number of immigrant women in the deportee dining room in Nogales, Mexico.  She has tried to run to higher ground (the north)...she was not successful this time...but she will probably keep trying because life depends on it.  Today I heard a discussion of the salvific power of myth and folklore in people groups.  Specifically,  when people pass on descriptions of what happens and what to do in the event of natural disasters, they are passing on life saving information.  In the case of a tsunami,  certain coastal dwelling people groups know that when the sea rushes out,  run for higher ground.  If you are tempted to remain, or even spend time inspecting the new landscape, you will perish.  In 'economic tsunamis',  when jobs, land and food are swept away,  people need to get to safe ground.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #107

This 18' x 36" oil on canvas depicts a woman at the Nogales deportee center who had on at least four layers of clothing.  It is cold in the shelter because there are only three sides enclosed.  I got to wondering if maybe she had on even more layers than I could see...and then I thought what a great metaphor the clothing layers are.  All of us, every single person on the planet is composed of so many layers...some that we can see and identify, some that we cannot.

People With No Names, The Undocumented: #106

This is an 11" x 14" oil on stretched canvas of a woman in the deportee center in Nogales, Mexico.  She has small children in the United States.  She came to Mexico to see an ailing relative,  and now due to enhanced border security, cannot get back to her husband and children in the United States.  I remember that when my children were little I used to viscerally yearn for them when/if I had to be apart from them for any reason.  To hold that yearning in my body...and not to know when/if it could ever be assuaged...well I don't know if I could keep going.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #105

This 11"x14" oil on canvas depicts a recent deportee from the U.S. looking back.  Is she looking at family that she has had to leave on the U.S. side of the border?  Does she have a husband and children from which she has been forcibly separated? Our president, in his recent inaugural speech, stated that, "Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as the land of opportunity. "  He mentioned the societal progress that has issued from Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall...and I hope also comes forth from the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #104

This 11"x14" oil on canvas is of an immigrant woman in the Nogales, Mexico deportee center.  Her hand over her mouth reminds me that many people in the world, (especially women),  do not have voices...many people in the world are still not 'heard from'.  Their lives, and deaths, go unnoticed and unmarked.  In that vein, the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has a huge installation at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. right now.  The installation is comprised of all the mangled rebar that was salvaged when a shoddily-built children's school collapsed during an earthquake in 2008.   'Wenchuan Steel Rebar (2008-2012)' is a powerful indictment of the Chinese government and a monumental reminder of the many young people who died during the earthquake.  Along with the installation, Ai Weiwei had people read and record each and every name of every child who was killed when the school collapsed. He was arrested and detained during the making of the piece, but his assistants continued to construct the piece. He says that his art flows from the search for the rights of individuals.  He says that the rebar stands for the spine,  and the fact that we are 'spineless' if we don't stand up against human rights violations.  Amen.

People With No Names: The Undocumented 103

Listening to an interview with the writer Barry Lopez today while painting.  He said that everyone has a need to have meaning in the world.  We need others to say,  "Your existence has meaning, your effort matters in the world".  This is an 8" x 12" oil on canvas of an immigrant at the deportee center
in Nogales.

People With No Names: The Undocumented 102

This was a FULL PAGE AD in the New York Times yesterday!  Brought to us by Yoko Ono.  Still a good idea.  This will probably not come from guns, walls and prisons.

People With No Names: The Undocumented 101

Here it is, the front page of the New York Times on Jan. 1!!!  So this is big news in the United States where there is widespread fear that immigrants will "take our jobs and be a disproportionate drain on our resources".  And the article goes on to say that , "The decline in birthrates was steepest among Mexican-American women who immigrated from Mexico, at 25.7 percent.  This has reversed a trend in which immigrant mothers accounted for a rising share of births in the United States."  It turns out that while Latinos were immigrating physically,  ideas about family size, education and career were immigrating into their family structure.  "In Denver, Olga Gonzales, the daughter of Mexican immigrants,  teaches a family planning class in Spanish to Mexican immigrants.  She tells her students that as a teenager in the 1980s, she decided to take the long view on life:  "I chose to do the college route first and establish my career and then think about babies later"  Now 40, Ms. Gonzales has a master's degree in nonprofit management, two children and a solid foothold in the professional middle-class. (Her father, one of six children, never finished fifth grade back in Guanajuanto, Mexico, before he had to go to work.)"  William H. Frey,  a sociologist and demographer at the Brookings Institute says that "the decrease has signaled much about the aspirations of young Latinos to become full and permanent members of the upwardly mobile middle class, despite the challenges posed by the struggling economy."  So,  those who see newcomers as threats...might want to revise their thinking.   Those who have seen only a particular demographic as assets...might want to revise their thinking. There is a precedent for 'open-mindedness and capacity for growth'... one hundred and fifty years ago TODAY Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation!  After Jan. 1,  1863,  Lincoln began to think seriously of the United States as a bi-racial society.  The work continues with our treatment of our most recent immigrants.  President Lincoln said,  "The dogmas of the quiet past,  are inadequate to the stormy present" and "we must dis enthrall our selves,  and then we shall save our country."  Amen. 

People With No Names: The Undocumented # 100

These children are EVERYONE'S children.  Parents and grandparents waited for them to be born,  to be among us.  These children are everyone's children.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #99

In this season of Advent...of waiting...of hoping, of COMING.... I had the privilege to paint this scene depicting Juan Diego (an indigenous American) presenting an image of the Virgin of Guadelupe (Mary coming to the Americas in the form of an indigenous woman).  This apparition is said to have occurred only ten years after the conquest of Mexico by Spain.  Notice how Juan Diego is looking toward the lighter skinned, crowned woman to the right (possibly representing Spain and the European Crown)  and the Virgin gazes at the darker skinned indigenous person on the left.  Taken as a whole, this image seems to tell the story of Guadelupe's raison d'etre...namely to blend cultures racially and religiously, the first 'mestiza' or 'the first Mexican' bringing together people of distinct cultural heritages, while at the same time affirming their distinctness.  Still, today we live in a time of waiting...we have dark-skinned Americans among us who are 'coming' and 'waiting'.  They are experts at HOPING and waiting.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #98

This is day two-  (my version of Mary visiting Elizabeth as done by the Italian Renaissance artist Pontormo).  I am painting on big pieces of corrugated metal that I am getting from a recycle place.  It is a sturdy, big, cheap canvas substitute.  Today in my reading,  I learned of a thing called "Hobson's Choice".  It is a situation where you don't REALLY have a choice...it is 'the thing that is offered' or nothing.  In the case of Mary, we are told that she 'took the offer' to be God's choice and said, "Be it done to me according to your will".  It was the epitome of grace and assent...the ultimate yes.  Often immigrants are offered the same Hobson's Choice.  They can assent to a new reality, 'go' to a new place,  move toward a new life or....well,  there is no 'or'.  So they take the Hobson's Choice and do what must be done.

People With No Names: The Undocumented # 97

I am sitting on my patio in Tucson, Arizona.  It is a beautiful sunny morning and I am watching the "workers",  (aka bees) pollinating my beautiful, Arizona Agriculturally inspected Meyer lemon tree.  Oh,  wait a hummingbird just swooped in...and dipped into the lemon blossoms.  Where do these beautiful little creatures come from?  Do they hop up from Mexico?  Are they American bees and birds?  Gosh I hope so.

People With No Names-The Undocumented #96

     For those of you who read this I am sorry to have been MIA for months!  I have been caring for a daughter recovering from surgery and studying Spanish!  I am also trying to get a book together...to document the first two years of immigrant paintings.  This is me, in my studio, with photos of every single one of the 120 immigrant paintings that I have done in the past two years.
     Yesterday I had the privilege of accompanying a woman up to Portland to meet with ICE (immigration and customs enforcement) officials.  She has applied for a two year grace period to remain in this country while her case is being sorted out.  She is one of many immigrants,  who were brought to this country as children and raised here.  She graduated with honors from her high school and even won two college scholarships.  Unfortunately, shortly after she began at the university (where she was having academic success and loving it) she was asked to leave because of her immigration status.  For ten years she has been longing to return to her studies.  Yesterday, with fingerprints and a retinal scan she came a step closer to realizing her dream:  legal status and university studies.  Before we left (early in the dark morning to make the two hour drive to Portland), she wrote letters to various family members to bid them good-by and reaffirm her love for them in the event that she didn't return yesterday...but instead became the latest deportee.  Needless to say, we left the ICE office building in celebratory spirits and even stopped on our drive home for a giant, Mexican lunch (to celebrate her hope and dream of one day becoming a documented/legal citizen of the United States!)

America's Most Wanted #13

This weekend I was a Eucharistic Minister at my church,  giving out "the body of Christ" to each and every person who approached me.  I knew nothing about most of the people.  They approached me for sustenance and I gave it to them.

America's Most Wanted #12

You know...it's all in how we frame things...our culture is rife with 'terminology' and 'spin'.  For example, people work for  corporations that operate and hopscotch all over the globe and we breezily call these huge companies 'Multi-Nationals'.   We understand that economic entities need to roam the world to grow and survive.  Sometimes humans need to do that as well.  Let's call THEM 'Multi-Nationals' too.

America's Most Wanted #11

I met this man in the deportee center in Nogales.  Notice the logo on his sweatshirt!  It is internationally recognizable...because money, corporations, food and goods now move freely all over the world.  We accept that we live in a smaller and smaller,  more and more connected world.  And yet, we still argue over, and restrict the movement of,  'human capital'.  Humans migrate for the very same reason that birds migrate...to save their lives.  And the reason that humans try to migrate again and again,  is that the reasons propelling them still exist:  Multi-national corporations have taken over their farms and factories,  a family member needs medical care,  kids need schooling,  and everyone is hungry.  It is ironic that the sweatshirt and its maker are allowed to roam the globe freely,  but this valuable human-being is criminalized for trying to find honest work in the rich country that borders his own.

America's Most Wanted #10

One of the things that you see, as you walk the migrant trails out in the desert,  is "the casting off of things" that no longer support and serve the journey.  The jettisoned artifacts attest to the fact that there is a universality evident in what people pack to 'go on a trip'.  And then there comes that point, when you realize that you actually need fewer things then you thought.  You don't want to 'lug' that much 'stuff' along with you...you might not 'make it'...it will surely slow you down...it is NOT LIFE GIVING. 

All You Holy Men and Women Pray For Us-Saints Among Us #3

This "saint" started "The Green Valley Samaritans".  Green Valley is a little town in the desert just a short distance from the Mexican border where lots of older Americans have retired to enjoy the sunshine and the golf courses.  Anyway, this small-statured,  super-energetic woman found out that people were dying trying to cross the desert near her,  AND SHE DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!  She organized a group that actively searches for people, and provides water, medical care, and clothing.  I have personally watched as she pleads with immigrants to "cuidado" (be careful) out there,  and tells them that the Sonoran Desert is "muy peligroso" (very dangerous).  And, in spite of all of the difficult things that she has seen, she exudes joy.  I think that her joy comes from a long-time place of doing 'good' in the world...because when I asked her about 'why' she did what she did, she said, "Oh, I am from Berkeley, Calif and social services that I helped start 30-40 years ago, are still functioning"  Big Smile.  In the 'Litany of the Saints' last night we sang a phrase over and over,  "Save My People".   I think maybe 'joy' comes from at least trying.

America's Most Wanted #9

Immigrants are NOT victims....but people of DIGNITY who have CHOSEN to assert their right to TRANSFORM their lives.

America's Most Wanted #8

NAFTA.  You've heard of it but you are not sure what it is.  Me either.  In the 1990s the "North American Free Trade Agreement" opened the borders of all of North America to the flow of products and money.  That sounds good doesn't it?  It was good... if you were the wealthy of the North American continent.  Not so good, if you were a small farmer whose family had been making a decent living on a family farm for generations...and that farm stood in the way of a huge agri-business gobbling up your land to set up a huge mechanized farm to bring cheap produce to a Wal-mart  or Super-Target near you.  Or say your little family farm was sitting on a stockpile of precious minerals....those could be mined for millions to improve the lives of "first-world" folks even further.  So, you have been kicked off your land...you have got to find a place where there is work and money to feed your family.....

All You Holy Men and Women Pray For Us-Saints Among Us #2

This "saint" works tirelessly with The Samaritans (Los Samaritanos).  "Since July 1, 2002, Samaritans have been a voice of compassion, a healing presence in the Arizona desert.  It is an organization comprised of people of conscience and faith who render humanitarian aide to migrants in distress in the Tucson sector of the Arizona/Mexico border.  In the desert,  if a person is actively exerting himself, (and the coyotes/paid guides ARE hustling them along),  he needs 15.5 liters of water per day to stay hydrated.  There is no way that a person can carry that much water.  Dehydration also makes a person more prone to hypo- and hyperthermia.  Then, to further compound problems, immigrants get huge, foot-encompassing blisters that render them unable to 'keep up' so they are abandoned in the desert by the coyotes.  IF they can continue,  they often become lost, succumb to the elements, and die.  The woman pictured above, hikes the trails searching for lost immigrants,  puts water alongside the remote ever-changing paths that immigrants take, educates others about the immigrant plight, and has co-authored a book titled 'Crossing With The Virgin'  (by Kathryn Ferguson, Norma Price and Ted Parks).  She also owns a dance studio and teaches belly dancing.  Oh glorious, myriad, diverse saints among us!

America's Most Wanted #7

This young man is tall, blond, and has green eyes.  He is from Guatemala and I met him at a deportee center in Nogales.  He stands out from the others because of his different coloring and stature.  The other men tease him because he has light eyes, light hair, and he is tall.  He is testimony to the fact that people are moving all over the globe.  He is good-natured with the teasing,  and claims that his small daughter in Guatemala looks just like him.  He may not physically resemble his fellow deportees,  but here how he is the SAME as all the other men and women in the center:  He looks dazed, exhausted...and determined.  He, (like all the others) has a family far away that is counting on him to find work and find a way to care for them. 

All You Holy Men and Women Pray For Us-Saints Among Us #1

It is closing in on our Easter celebratory time and I find myself looking forward to the singing of the Litany of the Saints...that wonderful song where we sing the names of Saints who have gone before us and then the refrain is, "All you holy men and women hear our prayer".   It gives this wonderful sense of us being in an historic and world-wide context, i.e. whatever our situation, we are not alone.  So, the portrait today is of a very elderly Rabbi (he walked up to the Presbyterian pulpit to speak, slowly, with a walker) who has been working with people of all faiths (and no faith) for 30 years.  For 30 years he has partnered with an ecumenical task force to provide humanitarian aid and advocacy for refugees.  He read from the book of Jeremiah 31: 31-34.  He said that historically, "It was a book written by a Jew, to Jews...but it was for everyone."  The assembled,  mostly non-Jews,  laughed but we got it.  Good stuff is FOR EVERYONE...not just a chosen few!  P.S.  Watch for more "Saints Among Us...they are everywhere!

America's Most Wanted #6

                                                          "Ningun Ser Humano Es Ilegal"

America's Most Wanted #5

Her name is Michelle.  She is seven years old.  She has a purse with hearts all over it.  It is really cold in the high desert at night so she is  bundled up in a hot-pink hoodie sweatshirt with a long brown wool jacket buttoned up over it.  Her mother has put her hair up in a neat ponytail.  But here is the big thing...despite the fact that she and her mother have been deported from the United States, despite the fact that she and her mother are living in a women's shelter, despite the fact that she gets two meals a day in a cold, cement floored dining room with 130 adults squished in at long tables...she exuded 'security in the face of insecurity'.  I am haunted by her trusting, calm demeanor. 

America's Most Wanted #4

Yesterday I went to "Operation Streamline" again.   It was a model of American efficiency.  In one short hour, 53 people were duly processed and entered into the American Criminal justice system.  (Remember to picture them in shackles, chained at the hands, feet, and waist.)  The judge quickly rattles off their "rights".  Every time he does it,  I try to picture speaking up for myself if I were in chains, a foreign intimidating environment,  and I didn't understand the legal lingo or possibly even the language that is being spoken. He asks each group of 7-8 appearing in front of him if they have been in any way "forced, threatened, obligated, or intimidated...or are not appearing voluntarily before him".  (...Um, yes, they were forced, threatened and intimidated off their land in their home country...decided to try the Land of Opportunity.)  He tells them that their fingerprints have been taken and that they are now in the American criminal justice system.  He asks them if they "have knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered a plea of guilty?"  They all say, "Si, culpable."  Remember that the crime that they have committed, is walking for days in a forbidding desert to find menial work,  to feed their families.  Its "The Hunger Games" being played out everyday...only FOR REAL,  not a Hollywood blockbuster fantasy.  And make no mistake...the real-life situation is equally dramatic and high tech.  It pits small, poor, hungry, de-hydrated people, on foot...  against tall, fit, and heavily armed well-fed and fully-hydrated people.  The hungry poor actually manage to elude the guns, dogs, helicopters, drones (no I am not kidding), trucks and ATVs... sometimes.  Their "prize" is that they get to live in fear of being discovered and do work that no native-born American would deign to do.

America's Most Wanted #3

Yesterday I was slowly picking my way through the book of John 5:1-16.  It is a story about a pool in Jerusalem,  named Bethesda, where a "multitude of invalids" 'occupy' and wait...hoping that an angel will come by and agitate the waters.  (I guess a modern day equivalent would be that someone would come by and turn the jacuzzi on!)  The belief surrounding the pool, is that when the waters are stirred they will possess healing power for the one who manages to dip into them first.  So Jesus comes upon this scene, and he picks out a guy who has been laying by the pool for 38 years, and asks him a question.  He asks, "Do you want to be healed?"  And the invalid replies that he doesn't have anyone to help him, so he is never able to get into the water first.  I can only assume that Jesus, being Jesus, is a good, compassionate listener.  But Jesus replies (with what is sort of a non-sequitur) and says,  "Get up, take up your bed, and walk."  The next thing that happens in the story is not what I expect.  I expected rejoicing that the man is healed.  I expected rejoicing that the man was 'empowered' to participate in his own healing.  I expected rejoicing that someone is able to contribute to the society rather than ask for hand-outs.  Nope.  The authorities asked the man what the heck was going on. They wanted to find the guy who broke the law.  It was "unlawful to work on the Sabbath".  But FIVE TIMES in this short passage it says to "take up your bed and walk".  Is it suggesting that we 'participate' in our own healing.  The immigrant pictured above,  is attempting to do just that! 

America's Most Wanted #2

On Saturday I walked the tiny migrant trails that criss-cross the desert near the border of Mexico.  I was with a retired 78 year old geology professor who is trying to find and map the trails used by migrants.  We walked from morning until late afternoon in dry, spiny, high-elevation desert,  trying to determine what was a human trail and what was an animal trail.  We found discarded clothing and hygiene articles.  We found lots of tuna cans and various hydration products.  We looked for, and checked places where humane organizations had left dated gallon jugs of water.  We wanted to know if the water stores were used up, needed replenishing, or had been slashed or shot and destroyed.  The desert has 7% humidity.  A lot of water is needed to keep a human hydrated and alive here.  When we found slashed water jugs (that people had carefully placed at strategic points throughout the desert),  the sweet, old geologist sighed and said, "Some people are just mean".  At the end of the day, I was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted.  And for me it was just one day.

America's Most Wanted #1

Okay, I am starting a new series of immigrant paintings.  They will all be oil on stretched canvas, 11"x14".  I am calling it "America's Most Wanted" as a sort of double entendre...i.e. we want work done in our country AND we want to find and deport workers.  We legally permit big American corporations and banks to plunder Central and South America (see NAFTA and The Profits of Extermination by Francisco Ramirez Cuellar),  thus shoving people off their land where they have made a living for generations AND we want to do a squeeze play at our borders as these displaced people try to make a run to second base (yes, I just used a baseball analogy).  People are forced to migrate northward to find work;  People are then arrested and criminalized for trying to feed their families.   People are arrested and criminalized for trying to do work that Native born Americans will NEVER do.  People are arrested and criminalized for being modern day  "Les Miserables".

Quotidian #2

This is an oil on canvas 20"x30".  This year I am thinking about immigration in terms of ALL of our 'leave-taking'.  All of us have particular 'expulsions' from 'home'  in our lives.  Places, things, and people are taken away from us.  We are forced to move to new places because we can no longer function in the old place.  Most of us go in sorrow, kicking and screaming.  We can't go back...only forward.  This couple depicted,  were forced out of their parenthood Eden and into the land of 'losing a child'.  They go forward with grace, dignity, and sorrow and hope.  The very least we can do is walk alongside them.

Quotidian #1

Last night (New Year's Eve) wonderful son and I shared an ice cream sandwich and played scrabble.  We actually "toasted" each other with the two halves of the yummy ice cream sandwich...clinking the two halves against each other before we enjoyed them.  Then we used pumpkin seeds to "play scrabble".  We had quite different approaches.  I wrote a letter on each seed and spelled out my word,  and he formed the letter shapes with multiple seeds.  Because I could just 'make up' my letters,  I spelled 'avuncular.'  I loved that it was more letters than allowed.  He spelled his favorite food:  bacon.  It was totally silly and fun AND no hangover the next day!!!

People With No Names - The Undocumented #95

This is an 8" x 12" oil on board painting of my puffy, warm, down parka.  It is super cold at night in the desert now.   When the sun goes down, it is freezing.  I am thankful for my parka.  But still, I wouldn't want to be walking across the desert at night in this jacket.  And from an immigrant's point of view, this jacket is just too bright.  When you are trying to hide, you don't dress in bright colors.   I am lucky, I don't have to hide.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #94

This is 24" x 24" oil on board.  As I looked at this image I realized that the mother appears in her gesture to be 'giving a benediction' or 'blessing' her baby.  Perhaps, the act of immigration could be seen as a benediction or blessing on the immigrant's children/family.  "May the Lord bless you and keep you...as I go out into the wilderness to find work...until we are reunited again."

People With No Names - The Undocumented #93

This is 30" x 30" oil on stretched canvas.  I am reading the new Joan Didion book, "Blue Nights".  In one chapter she discusses the fact that her one, adopted, "beautiful baby girl" is perhaps privileged.  She recounts that her "beautiful baby girl" had 60 dresses.  (She counted them).  Didion changed the baby's dress four times "on the afternoon the State of California social worker made her mandated visit to observe the 'candidate for adoption' in the home environment."  Her house-cleaner, laundress (of the 60 dresses), and nanny, Aurcelia, had been prepped ahead of time NOT to speak to the social worker,  and to busy herself watering the garden.  Didion writes, "The thought of an unstructured encounter between Arcelia and a State of California social worker had presented spectral concerns from the outset...what if the social worker were to notice Arcelia spoke only Spanish?  What if the social worker were to happen into the question of Arcelia's papers?  What would the social worker put in her report if she devined that I was entrusting the perfect baby to an undocumented alien?"  Didion goes on in the next chapter to acknowledge that her "beautiful baby girl" DID, perhaps, have a privileged life;  but "Ordinary childhoods in Los Angeles very often involve someone speaking Spanish".  Okay,  I have thought a lot about the ways in which undocumented people harvest our produce, process our meat, and do myriad menial chores both inside and out of our homes.  But until now,   it had not occured to me that these 'unseen' laborers also contribute greatly to the cultural life of this nation!  How many artists have been able to continue their work because an undocumented person "picked up all the slack" so that their employers could continue to work?  I, for one, was struck with thanksgiving for 'Arcelia' in Joan Didion's life.  Because of this undocumented helpmate,  Joan Didion was able to continue to write her luminous prose!!!

People With No Names - The Undocumented #92

This 16" x 20" oil on canvas is another 'portrait' of an immigrant who blends into the landscape.  I am using a 'gridded out' way of approaching the subject matter to think about the disjointed and disconnected way that immigration is being approached in this country.  For one thing, individual states  claiming frustration with the federal government's inaction  have enacted their own particular laws to address a nationwide situation.  Alabama has enacted Draconian laws that have caused undocumented immigrants to withdraw their children from school, flee the state and leave crops rotting in the fields.  The governor of Alabama says that he believes his new law will put his roughly 10% unemployed Alabamans back to work.  Unfortunately the unemployed "documented" U.S. citizens have declined the arduous, backbreaking labor...hence the crops are rotting in the fields,  the price of all produce goes up...food is more expensive for the employed, the unemployed, the documented and undocumented.  Oh and all those little kids are not getting an education...disconnect.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #91

I have done two new paintings, (16" x 20" oil on canvas), and I have been thinking about undocumented immigrants and that series of childrens' books "Where's Waldo?"  Waldo books encourage children to search among crowd scenes for a tiny "Waldo" who is always dressed the same and easily recognizable...presumably these books really encourage visual literacy/careful observation.  In this painting there is an undocumented man doing landscape work.  He is barely distinguishable from his surroundings.  And that's the way he wants it.  He does not want you to identify him and pick him out.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #90

Today in mass our first reading was from Exodus 22:21.  It said, "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."  So I was thinking about the universality of being "the stranger" in any given situation or place.  And I remembered this painting/copy that I did to study Masaccio's, "Expulsion of Adam and Eve".  They are being driven out of the only homeland that they know.  And I thought of how often people will ONLY go to new places (physically or psychologically) if they are forced to.  Things have to be really bad, to choose to leave everything you know.  You are quite literally DRIVEN out of your home.  And in the midst of that tremendous physical and psychological dislocation...those of us who are not (at this moment) "the stranger" have a choice to make:  extend kindness or make a hard situation harder.

Works in Progress # 9

This is an oil on stretched canvas 30" x 40".  I am trying to capture the 'Eden-like' quality of the little pocket garden that is just outside my studio doors.  There is not a lot of upkeep;  and the fountain turns this fabulous 'pond-scum green' on a regular basis...but still,  it is very compelling.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #89

This is a 12" x 18" oil on foam-core.  The subject is a gardener,  who I recently interviewed as he was working on the grounds of the walled-in, one city-block area of an historic inn, in Tucson, AZ.  The huge grounds are very lush, beautifully cared for, and require constant, labor-intensive attention (in order to achieve the 'effortless', unchanging serenity of the place).  It is a large cocoon of subdued nature,  which has long been a haven for those captains of industry who can afford under-stated, old world pampering.  It is soothing and lovely.  Everything is under control, you can relax.  Which brings us to the gardener.  He is perfect for this place.  He does not speak English (he will not be chattering at guests).   He prefers to be behind-the-scenes, as he may or may not be documented to be in the U.S.  He is very grateful to have this job (as he explained to me in Spanish) because they let him eat food there, and all the free soda he wants.  He is used to very manual grooming of plants...his work ethic dovetails perfectly with the tedious work required to give this place the sense that you are on the grounds of a very large private home.    

People With No Names - The Undocumented #88

This 8' x12" oil on board is another reflection on whether there is room in our hearts and minds for the foreigner/stranger/immigrant...or like the Governor of Alabama,  we want the toughest laws in the country to "keep them out' and 'root them out of our midst'.  Not only does Gov. Robert Bentley's new law require people to "show papers" to prove they are "legal",  his new law "requires officials in K-12 public schools to determine whether students are illegal immigrants".   In other words, teachers, as well as policemen will be required to act as immigration agents.  Officials claim that there will NOT be racial profiling.  Not that long ago, in the southern U.S.,  free blacks were required to show papers to verify their status as non-slaves.  I guess it wasn't the color of their skin that made people question their 'status'...I guess they just looked like people who should be slaves.  Just like some people look like they should be 'illegal'.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #87

This watercolor of the single chair is a metaphor for the prevailing mood in much of the country.  Many people and government officials feel that there is not room for anyone to 'pull another chair up to the table'.  Wonderful,  informative daughter (from yesterday's post) just told me that the Oregon House of Representatives could only muster 26 of the 31 needed votes to move a bill to the floor that would  allow kids, who have been raised in this country, to pay in-state tuition at community and state colleges.  The 26 Democrats all voted "Yes" to the bill...and then all of the Republican Representatives just let the Bill's time run out.  So technically, they didn't vote AGAINST it, and they are not saying you can't get an education...you just need to come up with a formidable amount of money.  There is a Spanish saying,  "There is always room for one more, everyone just takes a little less".   Another daughter told me recently that when you clear the furniture and clutter out of a room,  people have the urge to dance.  Let's make space for others...and dance.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #86

I am not sure that this painting is finished... but it is a series called 'The Other End of the Pool'.
 The two chairs make me think about this wonderful thing that Father Don preached to us two weeks ago.  He said, "En la mesa del Senor hay bastante espacia por todos"  (At the table of the Lord,  there is space for all.)  My daughter just explained to me the idea of "The Social Contract",   that she learned about in her philosophy class.  It is an idea/agreement in society that "this is HOW it is,  this is HOW WE DO THINGS,  this is how we have ALWAYS done things.  It may not be best for the dignity of every individual in society,  it may not INCLUDE every individual in our society,  but by and large the ruling majority is comfortable".  Then, along comes a "Moral Hero" who says, "I am going to go against the prevailing social contract, in order to do what is right for individual dignity".  (Think Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., the Freedom Riders, The Stonewall Insurrection)  Today we have an opportunity to offer disenfranchised, undocumented people a seat at the table.  We have an opportunity to treat immigrants with dignity and respect.  We have an opportunity to lift them up in prayerful support...not so they become more like us...so they become fully who God means them to be.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #85

Okay, this 8 x 12" oil on board seems weird for my series about immigrants,  but let me try to connect it.  I see these beautiful swimming pools all over Arizona.  They are feasts for the eyes and the body...to see and be dipped in beautiful cool water on a hot day.  Who wouldn't want that?  Water is  symbol and sustenance of life.   Whole 'pools' of water are available to some,  while others are dying of thirst (literally) walking through the scorching desert between Mexico and the U.S. to find work to feed their families.

why i paint what i paint #22

This 24" x 24" oil on canvas is a painting of my painting partner and me...painting.  I am very happy with the fragmented, unfinished nature of the image.  I am stunned over and over, how much more 'realistically' this way of mark-making conveys the truth of a thing, story,  person than the very crisp, realistic, finished work.  I think it has something to do with the 'river-ish' nature of our lives.  The minute we step in to the water...THAT water has moved on.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #84

This is the same family constellation, except with color.  The young woman (oldest daughter)
who is third from left, has been meticulously managing her father's care since his cancer was discovered 6 months ago.  She has a loose-leaf notebook full of his billing documents, and a loose-leaf notebook on all his treatments, medications, and doctor's orders.  She looms large in this painting, because she is a tireless and cheerful presence in her family.  My husband and I are struck that this young woman would make a wonderful nurse...to be a resource for our WHOLE community... not just her family.  Alas,  she does not have documentation that would aid  her in getting an education.   How can we equip all people to use their gifts,  regardless of their ethnicity or origin?  How can we view people as potential assets and resources?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:  "Every modern culture that we know of is a composite.  It is 'mestizo' made up of disparate elements,  which nonetheless form an integrated whole.  The cultural frontier is at the heart of every human grouping, every individual.  A human grouping---like any other living organism---cannot survive except by confronting the unknown, the unexpected.  It must re-form its identity at the threshold of every new encounter.  It is engaged in a ceaseless effort of absorption, assimilation, and transmutation---of symbols, images, modes of existence.  To try to arrest this movement at any given point---whether from nostalgia over the past or the dream of a sirenic utopia---is to condemn it to sclerosis and death."   Jacques Audinet (Institut Catholique, Paris)

People With No Names - The Undocumented #83

          This oil on canvas is an under-painting of the immigrant who is dying of pancreatic cancer.  There are those who begrudge him the medical care he has gotten...because that is "American medical care that is meant for American citizens. i.e.  He is using resources that are not meant for him".   He came over with his two daughters to pose for me.   In my living room, they were just a group of people whose lives were marked with uncertainty and gratitude that their father had /was experiencing the "milagro" (miracle) of living so long past his dire diagnosis.  They are very thankful for their long good by and the ability to plan for when he is no longer with them.          
          I just read about the Pope speaking with 12 astronauts circling Earth.  One of the astronauts is Mark Kelly.  His wife, a congresswoman,  was shot in the head while attempting to connect with her constituents on Jan.8, 2011 at a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, Arizona.  The Pope said that, "It must be obvious to you that we all live together on one Earth and how absurd it is that we fight and kill each other."  Kelly told the pope that, "Borders cannot be seen from space",  and noted that,  "Down on Earth, people usually fight for resources.  At the space station, solar power provides unlimited energy, and if those technologies could be adapted more on Earth, we could possibly reduce some of that violence."

why i paint what i paint #21

     I am reading a 20 yr old book that I stumbled upon at my local University Bookstore.  It is titled BORDERLANDS/LA FRONTERA The New Mestiza.  Apparently it was a groundbreaking work rooted in Gloria Anzaldua's experience as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist and a writer.  On the back of the book it says that Borderlands "remaps our understanding of what a "border" is,  presenting it not as a simple divide between here and there, us and them,  but as a psychic, social, and cultural terrain that we inhabit,  and that inhabits all of us.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #82

This 15" x 30" oil on canvas is another view of the migrant father who came from Mexico 16 years ago to support his family.  He is dying...before he can see 'The Dream Act' (a bill that would enable his children to contribute to their new homeland as educated citizens) realized.  But there is hope,  because  U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Dem.- Chicago)  has gone on a 20-city tour to urge the White House to develop a fairer and more humane immigration policy.  "Barack Obama--who once bemoaned when  'communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing,  is on track to deport more illegal immigrants than any U.S president since Dwight Eisenhower and Operation Wetback in 1954.  (That crackdown resulted in the removal of nearly 1 million people.)  The Obama administration deported 800,000 people in its first two years."  Gutierrez wants Obama to spare two groups of people with an executive power known as "parole-in-place"---illegal immigrants who have U.S.-born children, and college students who might have qualified for legal status under the Dream Act.  Many Latinos believed in Obama's promise of "change" three years ago.  They need to see it.  For some, time is literally running out.     (the portion in quotes is from a column by Ruben Navarrette Jr. from the Washington Post Writers' Group, May 13, 2011)

People With No Names - The Undocumented #81

This is oil on board 8" x 12".  He is dying of pancreatic cancer.  He is undocumented.  He is running out of time and he will leave a wife and two children undocumented and vulnerable.  He is very, very skinny,  but is dressed up and slowly walks  into my house so that he can sit for me to paint him.  He had an air of quiet dignity. I ask if he is in pain and he re-assures me that he is not, because (and here he pulls his shirt collar down to show me) he has a fentanyl patch on his chest to slowly release strong pain killer into his body.  His daughter who has driven him to my house says that it is a "milagro" (miracle) that he is still with us. 

People With No Names - The Undocumented #80

This 24" x36" oil on canvas depicts an immigrant who is doing gardening work in my neighborhood.  I love his turquoise ladder and orange glove.  I will probably return again and again to the ladder metaphor/motif in my paintings...but maybe not always as a way UP (up in society, up economically).  Rather,  I am thinking of the ladder as a tool that helps a person "reach" something that is unreachable, and return to the ground safely.  We all need effective tools in our lives.