This work is born from the intimate gaze towards the figure of my grandmother, but it is projected beyond it: it is also a symbolic representation of the women who inhabit the Andean rural world, of their silences, their contained strength and their invisible daily life. The title, Portrait and my roots, plays with a double meaning between the physical place and the emotional root that unites the portrayed with who paints it. It is not an image that idealizes, but a visual reconstruction that respects dignity from simple gestures, used clothes, hands marked by time and the broom that accompanies as a symbol of work, repetition and care. The brushstroke is based on a realistic basis but expressionist deviations are allowed, especially in the treatment of the fabric, the backgrounds and the emotional vibration of certain contours. It is not a nostalgic work, but a visual affirmation: these figures exist, even if they do not speak; they are, even if they do not appear in the books. To love without knowing completely, to value from memory or from the echo of presence: that is the root of this portrait. Painting like this is not just representing someone, but thanking their existence. This is a painting that observes with respect and builds from silence the image of those who gave rise to us without asking to be remembered.

19.69 × 30.71 inch - 50 x 78 cm

Oil / Fiberboard

2019