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Nov 1, 2023
Media: oil on heavy Fabriano paper
Size: 22x15 in
Today is All Saints Day, November 1...so I painted the portrait of a young and living saint...I am calling her a 'baby saint'. I am beginning to believe that saints are regular people who PERSIST in carrying out their life's mission. And where most people, (for some very legitimate reasons such as the threat of real danger to self or loved ones) might not persist, there exists in these people some supernatural 'gumption' to carry on. Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani female education activist, was only 11 years old when she began writing a blog for the BBC Urdu to detail the Taliban occupation of her homeland and their opposition to the education of girls. She rose to prominence giving interviews in print and on television, and was nominated for an International Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu. But all of her good work brought about notoriety as far as the Taliban were concerned; and people feared for her safety, as well as that of her father (an educator of girls and human rights activist himself). On the way home from school, at age 15 Malala was shot in the head point blank in an attempt to silence her, and her point of view that 'all girls should be educated'. She survived that assassination attempt, and can no longer return to her homeland, nevertheless she persists in promoting global education for girls. Her youth, her gender, the political circumstances, her exile from her homeland have not deterred her. She has chosen the welfare of others over her personal safety. Her father has always said of her, that "she is as free as a bird". I wonder if all saints aren't 'free', in the sense that they live lives that are 'apart from the opinion of others', as well as 'focused and fearless'. Today is All Saints Day, November 1...so I painted the portrait of a young and living saint...I am calling her a 'baby saint'. I am beginning to believe that saints are regular people who PERSIST in carrying out their life's mission. And where most people, (for some very legitimate reasons such as the threat of real danger to self or loved ones) might not persist, there exists in these people some supernatural 'gumption' to carry on. Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani female education activist, was only 11 years old when she began writing a blog for the BBC Urdu to detail the Taliban occupation of her homeland and their opposition to the education of girls. She rose to prominence giving interviews in print and on television, and was nominated for an International Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu. But all of her good work brought about notoriety as far as the Taliban were concerned; and people feared for her safety, as well as that of her father (an educator of girls and human rights activist himself). On the way home from school, at age 15 Malala was shot in the head point blank in an attempt to silence her, and her point of view that 'all girls should be educated'. She survived that assassination attempt, and can no longer return to her homeland, nevertheless she persists in promoting global education for girls. Her youth, her gender, the political circumstances, her exile from her homeland have not deterred her. She has chosen the welfare of others over her personal safety. Her father has always said of her, that "she is as free as a bird". I wonder if all saints aren't 'free', in the sense that they live lives that are 'apart from the opinion of others', as well as 'focused and fearless'. |
Available Paintings by Pamela Hoffmeister
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