Beatriz and Makaya are a mother and daughter who sell flowers at the cemetary in Chacaritas whom I met personally, showed them my work, and asked if I could portray them. Leticia y Andrea, Ramona, Rose, are among many such examples as well. I did a number of sketches in my travel journals of Beatriz and Makaya: I was struck by their kindness, beauty, the poignancy of the setting- where they earn their livlihood and spend their days, and the overall surreal and sublime nature of it all. There is something ancient about Flower Vendors-- something straight out of not just Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but something out of the Bible, Odyssey, Upanishads, Vedas even...
Chacaritas is a special cemetary because Carlos Gardel-- Carlito Gardel: a God among Men-- is buried there. He was one of the greatest Tango singers of all time. Four women committed suicide when he died unexpectedly: one in Havana, one in Paris, one in NY, one in BA! there is a statue of him at the cemetary and, in his hand, is a continuously lit and burning cigarette (people replace it constantaly!), and, every hour of the day or night, someone is playing guitar, dancing, singing, crying, laughing, toasting, sometimes a whole drunken group!, at the foot of Gardel's tomb...
Beatriz y Makaya are an homage to Workers, Mothers, Daughters, Feminine Strength and Grace, Solidarity; and also the ephemeral Transient Nature of All Phenomena.
The larger statement being made in this piece-- as in all my works-- is our commonalities as Humans on this Earth, deserving of Dignit
