Paintings

Five Feet Six Feet Seven Feet

"Five Feet Six Feet Seven Feet"
oil on board 36 x 36 inches 2020

Americans, oil on linen, 42 x 52 inches, 2020

'Americans' is a painting about heritage and migration. It asserts that all Americans are a product of migration, whether recent or ancient.
The central figures are two sisters, whose American and Mexican lineages intertwine, shown by the grafting of a Mexican oak and an American oak. The older girl wears a traditional dress for her quinceañera.
Portraits delineate their genealogy. On the left, their mother’s ancestry is shown as far back as their third great grandparents, the grandfather in his uniform of the Union Army in the American Civil War, then on to the Revolutionary war ancestor, about whom they know only oral tradition. A wagon pulled by oxen refers to their parentage who traversed the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail. A locket in the shape of the Star of David holds portraits of their maternal grandmother’s Russian Jewish forebears, who escaped pogroms in Ukraine to thrive in New York City.
On the right side, their abuelos (grandparents) hand down their heritage of the Mixtec natives of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, who, as their father says, “have always been here.” Along the way there is the legendary Spanish grandmother, and another reference to a personal story of separation and tragedy.
All these family stories show a grafting of genes and cultures, and a migration of aspirations bringing with them the value of place. Old places, new places, old peoples, new populations, all joined together by marriage and family.
On the low horizon of the painting are two ships. The one on the left is the Mayflower, and on the right is Columbus’ Santa Maria. They remind us that America, both North and South, are constructs of centuries of European migration, interbred with those who were here before. It is likewise true of today’s generation, and the next.