Quotidian # 3

Okay, this is an 8" x 12" oil on masonite painting of my favorite olive oils.  I am LOVING painting my favorite things.  Maybe I should start humming the 'Sound of Music" song while I paint!  Although, to be honest, I am often freaked out and worried when I work.  I HAVE to paint. I know that it is gift that has been given to me... and yet I suffer from major 'imposter syndrome' (you know the voice in your head that tells you that you are not a REAL painter, or writer, or film-maker). I am sure, that any minute, everyone is gonna find out that I can't really paint...or that the 'muse' has left the building.  So I ignore the inner voices and try to do what all of my heroes advise, "You just need to keep showing up every day, and doing the work."  Some of my heroes are Peter Brown Hoffmeister (the writer), Carol Marine (painter) and Alice Neel (painter who just kept going no matter what life dealt her).  So if you are a doubting artist out there, I want to encourage you to "Just keep swimming" (Dory) xo

Quotidian #2

This set of four (oil on watercolor paper) studies is 11" x 14".  Each individual study is 5" x 7".   Lately, I just want to paint the portraits of all of my favorite things.  This is a red lacquer paper
mache box that sits by my bedside.  I got it from my 94 yr old beautiful neighbor!  So it is both beautiful and reminds me of her.

Quotidian #1

I know that I have been missing in action all summer.  I was living in our wonderful old house in Eugene and hosting every single kid and grandkid...it was awesome.  I am blessed indeed.  Now I am starting a new series of quotidian (fun word that I love which simply means "daily") people, things and places.  The stuff of life, which many of us are experience and maybe don't really see, or particularly notice.  I know that I am guilty of that a lot!!  So here goes...I promise that it will be humble stuff, often very ordinary. xo

Aspiring Americans: #3

This is another 6" x 6" oil on canvas.  As I paint these portraits, I am struck with the ancient Mayan features that I am seeing.  My daughter just sent me a beautiful photo of a Native American man that is captioned, "You're against immigration? When did you leave?"  Check out the website Voto Latino.

Aspiring Anericans:#2

This is a 6" x 6" oil on unstretched canvas.

Aspiring Americans: #1

This is a new series of 6" x 6" oil on un-stretched pieces of 12" x 12" canvas.  I am titling each of these portraits "Aspiring Americans"; because each one of these people wants to be a contributing United States Citizen.  So, I will be using a new term for what some call "illegal aliens", some call "undocumented immigrants", and henceforth be referring to people as "aspiring Americans".

People With No Names: The Indocumented #128

This is a 6" x 6" oil (on unstretched canvas) portrait of a recent deportee who I met in Nogales, Mexico.  One question that she asked, still haunts me.  She asked, "Why are Americans so hostile to us?"  She said that if Americans came to her for help, she would help them.  She would welcome them and she would feed them.  She would share whatever she had.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #127

Yesterday, the County Supervisors of Tucson, Arizona voted to have our county (Pima County) be "Immigrant Welcoming".  The City of Tucson has made this a 'welcoming city'.  This is especially noteworthy because Pima County has the most border area of any county in the U.S.A.  Human dignity and human life are being given respect.  This small 8 x 10 oil study is a depiction of 3 immigrants being captured and surrounded at gunpoint by 5 U.S. Border Patrol agents.  It is another version of the last two paintings posted.  This image references a real event that occurred along the U.S. Mexico border.  Despite the new policy in Pima County,  THIS is the welcome that immigrants can expect until we have an 'immigrant welcoming' policy at the Federal level.  Still, 'Bravo' Pima County Supervisors!

People With No Names: The Undocumented #126

This is a small study, 6" x 8" for the painting that I posted yesterday.  I actually prefer these loose studies because I think that they reflect more accurately the situation on the U.S./Mexico border. 'Who is who' is not so clear, it involves a lot of people, and it is a big legal mess.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #125

•          Hágase tu volundad en la tierra, como en el cielo
  

People With No Names, The Undocumented: #124

OIL on canvas 11" x 14".  He may look like a young boy, and he is.  But he is the FUTURE and not the PAST.  Nelson Mandella died yesterday...and he was amazing, and great, and a species changer, BECAUSE he chose the FUTURE,  not 'the old way of doing things' and of 'being' in the world.

People With No Names, The Undocumented: #123

These are two 6" x 12" oil on canvas panels side by side.  Depicted are two women waiting to be fed in a deportee dining room run by the Jesuit ministry The Kino Border Initiative. Today, the Advent scripture readings include the story of Jesus feeding the multitudes with seven loaves and a few small fish.  Every single day this miracle of feeding the multitude, with compassion, happens just steps from the walled border between Mexico and the U.S.

People With No Names, The Undocumented: #122

This 11" x 14" oil on canvas portrait is a recently deported Mexican worker.  He is young, best friends with young man in #121, and the two of them will try again and again to get back to the United States to work. They have seen a place where there are jobs, and they want to get back to that place.  E.J. Dionne Jr., an opinion writer for the Washington Post explains:
                           "Pope Francis has surprised the world because he embraces the   
                            Christian calling to destabilize and to challenge. As the first leader
                            of the Catholic Church from the Southern Hemisphere he is
                            especially mindful of the ways in which unregulated capitalism has
                            failed the poor and left them waiting."                     

People With No Names: The Undocumented #121

This 11" x 14" 'portrait' of a deportee in Nogales, Mex.  On this, the first day of Advent 2013 we are admonished to be 'awake' and to 'watch'.  "The night is advanced, the day is at hand".  We still don't know exactly WHEN Jesus is coming again...but we do know that we should 'watch carefully' the events unfolding around us.

People With No Names: The Undocumented 120

These four oil on canvas (each 11" x 14") paintings are the four quadrants of an image of two undocumented roofers.  They function independently as abstractions.  It seems appropriate because the whole idea of 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country is a pretty abstract concept unless we get to know the people who are working among us.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #119

This 8" x 12" oil on board is an unfinished view of an undocumented immigrant building a fence,  in the United States, for a family.  There is an unfinished section of foliage "on his back" and as I looked at it, I realized that it reminded me of the "burden" on the back of the 'Pilgrim' in the story "Pilgrim's Progress".  What a relief it was for the pilgrim in the story, when his burden was rolled away.  What a relief it would be to 'roll away' (i.e. reform the immigration policies in our country) or remove the immigrants' daily fear of being 'found out', of being deported, of being separated from their loved ones and possibly never seeing them again.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #118

This is a little 8" x 12" oil on board portrait of an undocumented immigrant building a nice new fence for an American family.  The irony of a man who is legally "fenced out" of America, building a fence IN America is rich.  I heard recently that immigration is a problem if we don't know who we are...as a nation, as a people.  If we know who we are, we are secure, curious, and not defensive.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #117

     This unfinished 24" x 36" oil on canvas is titled,  "Que busca?" or "What are you looking for?"or "What do you want?"  These child venders, at a market in Guatemala, kept asking me this question.     Now I am asking that same question of my government.  What do we want?  As I write this, the government is shut down. National Parks and Monuments are closed, many Federal employees have been told NOT to come to work, and those people who are required to continue working will NOT be paid for their work.  All of this is happening so that 'The Affordable Care Act' will not be funded...so that the children, the weak and the vulnerable will not be cared for.
     European tourists in the United States today expressed disbelief that the country that claims to be the "Leader of the Free World" does not want to extend health care to all of its citizens.

Why I Paint What I Paint

This lovely gathering of friends and family in my home for a meal is something many of us take for granted.  Many people must LEAVE their homelands and seek work in new places, in order to provide food, shelter, and education for their families. 

People With No Names: The Undocumented #116

These are roofers in Tucson, AZ.  Roofing is hot, dirty work but someone needs to do it...because we literally need roofs over our heads.  So until non-immigrants want to get up there and do this job,  immigrants will do it.