pandora and the climate box

Dios todo lomira
God Sees Everything
Author and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison warned that "Language can never ‘pin down’ slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so . . its force, its felicity is in its reach toward the ineffable.” Yet it seems, it is imperative that we continue to strive to find a way to express ourselves, to understand, or to purge ourselves of the intensity of our thoughts and feelings when it comes to the current upheaval in the world today.  It is our humanity that preserves; searching for a way to begin the conversation in spite of the limits of verbal dialogue, that falls short only because we have become numb to it. When it comes to the question of the hell that fellow human beings are bearing, a hell we are either supporting, condoning, or failing to challenge - the inhumane treatment of victims of unspeakable violence, begging those who could help, for help, only to be met with more violence – the answer falls short of the ideals of humanity.  As an artist I am compelled to express through images what cannot easily be said, what might not otherwise be heard or felt. 
 
Many, but not all, of the paintings on this page were part of a series that began in 2019, which I titled, Dios todo lomira (God sees everything),   inspired by a photo in the New York Times of a small boy, living in poverty in Mexico, on the wall of his bedroom, were written these words. His hope and the faith in a better world, inspired this series.  At that time we were living 3 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, wonderful friends, a beautiful second home we restored with our own hands, and another home in Vermont. All that fortune, a product of our own hard work and sacrifice, not to mention help from families that had been here for generations. The fact is that I am here in this country, as the grand daughter of Polish emigre's who fled oppression at the turn of the 20th century. Their courage and the welcoming arms of this country, make it impossible for me to ignore the current fear and the rhetoric. I grew up hearing about the persecution and the prejudice first hand, on both sides of the Atlantic.
The second-class citizenship that all immigrants are met with is as real as what they contribute to the countries that embrace them. 

And, as for that small boy, if nothing else, when he gets to the other side, to the heaven he believes in, he will be met by "one of the good ones," to quote Hap (Audrey Hepburn) in the film "Always." 
jayne ollin 2019/2026

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