My friend who is a nurse and lot braver than I am has made two trips to Mali with a group of health care workers on medical missions. Its deeply shocking to experience the deprivation, illiteracy, lack of sanitation, food, healthcare and general hopelessness of the people she ministers to. She says the lives of those in this community have not changed since biblical times, if not for the plastic garbage blowing about one could forget they were in the 21st century. It must be just the need to share love and care that keeps her going back. This was one of the photos she took, which I used as a reference for a watercolor, now sold.
I wanted the painting to convey the chaos which is much of Africa, the pointlessness an outsider feels when looking on from afar at the ancient tribalism that promotes greed, hatreds and atrocities.
Its always the children and the women who pay the heaviest price.
4 comments:
Your talent is just amazing!!
A sad post indeed, but depicted so beautifully.
Thank God for people like your friend who go and help where they can. Your painting does capture the mood, I think. That child is so beautiful, and yet her expression reveals some of the pain in her young life. Thank you for sharing.
what a beautiful portrait kathi! yes, there is so much suffering. It is good to put a face to it so we can know we are not removed from what happens with all of humanity!
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