This is the final image of my transformation of Paco’s aunt. The first impression of her when he showed me the original portrait six weeks ago was not pleasant. The lack of warmth in her expression reminded me of some nuns I had the misfortune of encountering during childhood. “People are misbehaving somewhere,” she seemed to be thinking, “and are going unpunished.”
During her life she was called, Pura, short for Purificación. The Pure One. How does one live up to such a name? In the Catholic tradition, a soul that is not sufficiently “pure” at the time of death has to spend time in Purgatory to make the soul worthy of entering into heaven. When I began to repaint Pura, I had no idea of where we were going, except that I just wanted to treat her gently, with care. So I gathered my colors and brushes and we began to wander away from Purgatory. It was a surprise to paint trees and night and the moon around her, as if they welcomed us. Then came snow and clouds, then the edge of the sea. Everything began to feel like an embrace.
I tried to paint edges of energy, shapes in-between: between autumn, winter and spring, between day and night, between the sea and the forest, the organic and the mechanical, jewels and leaves, the lights of a city landscape. Or is that shape at the bottom of the canvas just a circuit board, or a strange pinball machine?
In a few days I’ll be leaving Pura and her nephew here in Valencia to return to my home in California, to a different, beautiful bardo. So this not a final image. It’s just where I have been able to pause a bit from painting us.
Stunning to follow Auntie’s transformation! The Bardo seems to have additional infinities, especially when compared to Purgatorio, a place likened to a dentist waiting room. Thank you for sharing your evolving process, and her process of evolution. I think she is 13% happier.
You know, at first when you presented the task of transforming the painting, I found it sort of an amusing chore. Certainly, Paco suggesting a quick dismissal by painting a big red X over the whole thing produced a chuckle or two, maybe a guffaw. However, you took the task seriously, and your efforts led you into very profound areas of art, painting, imagination, intuition, respect and tenderness. The project gained in seriousness when you determined “to respect the woman and the artist who painted her.”
The result seems to me to have respected the subject as well as the artist in great measure. All should be pleased: Pura, the artist, Paco to be sure who got much more than he probably expected, and you. This is a very fine portrait for the ages. Enhorabuena.