Savagely Sorrowful India: A Painting by Stacy Berlin
Savagely Sorrowful India
(oil on canvas)
Stacy Berlin 2021
Leslie Lampe Long, “I thought of your painting when I read this, “Art always comes from the desperate center of the artist—and each of our centers is desperate. That’s why good art is such a relief” (Glennon Doyle). Savagely Sorrowful India is a relief.”
John Sloane, “This whole conversation [India’s covid rates] is helping to restore my faith in Humanity. And Stacy’s oil painting offers an image to go with the words, as powerless, vulnerable and green as they feel in the face of this raging “pandemic of toxic entitlement” as Paula so aptly put it (Paula Marchese).
Paula points to the universal, developmental origins of “entitlement” (toxic and non-toxic) in a way that the socio-political label, “fascism” does not.
Fascism, autocracy and racist or class privilege are especially egregious forms of self-supremacy (toxic entitlement), but merely naming and condemning them is not enough. That is necessary – but not sufficient for their containment and attenuation. Repression is not the solution. Somehow, healing rifts requires understanding of their origins in personal trauma and collective degradation and exclusion.
We all have the birthright to breathe and be respected as human beings. Non-recognition runs deep and gives rise to rage-full self-assertion on the one hand, and fearful submission (pathological accommodation) on the other, rather than mutual recognition and accommodation to one another’s needs that prepare fertile soil for new growth…”
Paula Marchese, “An incredibly powerful painting putting both image and words to what so many of us are experiencing. The outpouring of collective grief and horror, the profound experience of a deep love for humanity that continues to be shared by colleagues throughout the world, enables one to breath in wisps of fresh air, catch rays of light, and provides more than just glimpses of hope. It is almost as if we can breathe even though so many cannot. And the sense of responsibility that accompanies, that fills our lungs, as if we need to breathe deeper for them, for the George Floyds who have been suffocated, the desperate lives being lost in India, deprived of oxygen, and they along with so many around the world, gasping for a vaccine.”
John and Paula’s vital comprehension bridges and fills the holes on the royal road to reciprocal recognition.
Stacy
