Michael Sedano
It's an early morning call. Would I like to sit for a portrait in a few hours at a workshop in Margaret Garcia’s Northeast Los Angeles studio? Knowing I'd regret turning her down, I jump on the offer and call my friend Thelma Reyna to join me for an hour of fascinating immersion into the world of Chicanarte. Garcia's one of the foremost creators in Chicano painting with a tradition of outstanding portraiture. I cannot miss the experience and want to share it with my friend.
I’m the second sitter in Margaret Garcia’s (link) envisioned portrait series. I sit facing her, we chat and the artist probes and creates with questions and brush and color.
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| David Balfour, Lynn Dwyer, Bonnie Lambert finding inspiration |
Garcia visualizes this series of portraits on gallery walls, their stories so compelling the images thrust out from the flat substrate to demand attention while creating a narrative mosaic of people seen at critical junctures of their lives.
Garcia and I chat desultorily about her process. She’s well aware my critical moment is being a refugee from the fearful Eaton Fire that ravaged my community and destroyed my home.
Garcia’s portrait of me tells of the lingering horror of fire while distilling an hour’s sitting into the singular image laid bare on the back of that box.
It's going to be a memorable exhibition. Third in the series will be a woman, wife of an accomplished painter, who faces the chaos looming over Chicanos and Mexicans from the current U.S. campaign of racist terror.
