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How I've Grown to See my Father
How I've Grown to See my Father
Two-Dimensional Wall Art > Paintings (Mixed Media)
48 x 72 x 1.5
$14,000.00
Artwork #
648
Artist's Statement
How I’ve Grown to See my Father is imbued with the nostalgia of watching my dad leave at 6 am every morning to go work at his construction job. He would wreck his body to provide for his family in the way that manual labor affords immigrants. As I have grown older, I have gained a more nuanced, dialectic understanding of my dad. I reflect on his being as not just a father, but also as a husband, and as a mentor, not just a provider. Through conversations with other Latinx peers, I have ultimately grown to see my dad as a placeholder for the opposing characteristics of more traditional Latinx men.
The scene depicted stretches beyond the confines of a single realization, spanning the understanding of my dad that I have formed over my lifetime. I used to find nobility in manual labor, a humility in his scoliosis induced for the sake of providing for his loved ones: my dad the martyr. Now, I have matured to include a labor analysis when observing my dad’s tool shed, which makes it hard to idolize class oppression: my dad the prole.
