Artist exhibits and teaches kids to paint
She’s a mainstay in the ever expanding world of Belizean art…and this week in addition to having an exhibition, Pamela Braun continues her work as an educator. Jose Sanchez dropped in on the artist to see what she’s all about.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Pamela Braun’s exhibit at the Mexican Cultural Institute represents thirteen years of her artwork in the U.S. and Belize. This show stimulates the intellect as it reflects Braun’s perspective as a woman and a mother.
Pamela Braun, Artist
“A lot of time I like to do landscapes. Especially in the last eight years, the growth has been dramatic in Belize. For example, Hopkins, when I painted a lot of bush scenes in Hopkins, now there is no bush, just resorts. So, in that sense the paintings become a historical record of what it used to be compared to what it is now.”
“There is a whole history of these Ophelia paintings, drowning woman series. Once I felt like I was drowning, but then when I got to that painting, it started out as a drowning woman but actually it turned into a life giving source. Water is a life giving source, kind of bringing back to life, so that you can see even though it’s a dead man float, she’s not drowning, she’s re-energizing.”
“If the man artist goes into his studio, the children don’t bother him the woman doesn’t bother him, she’s off washing his clothes, fixing his dinner. But the woman that goes into the studio has to contend with “Ma. Ma. I’m hungry” or “Honey, when is supper going to be ready?” When maybe you are so full of concentration you don’t want to stop that painting. She’s resigned. There is nothing she can do except be the mother of that child.”
“Those ones that have the collage on them, I call those Ying and Yang paintings because you have this incredible beauty and the opposite of that is the horrible violence. And so it’s trying to reconcile the two of them, trying to find some place in the middle where you could exist in that beauty. But then on the other hand it’s impossible because the reality of the situation is you have the opposite of that beauty, which is you have the real ugly violent part.”
This state of beauty and violence Braun and the rest of us live with has pushed her to become pro-active in the community. Braun teaches a free art course at the House of Culture for children after school, because she wants to keep them in a secure and constructive environment.
Pamela Braun
“The peak hours for children to get into trouble is after school, between after school and when the parents come home from work. So this gives them the opportunity to come here and be creative, keep their minds busy, and when we are away from television, they are also occupied. So they are not looking for something to get into in the neighborhood. So we don’t want to say we are babysitting. We’re fostering the imagination and we’re giving them time that’s not stressful and there is no peer pressure. The only peer pressure here is to be creative.”
Braun always looks for life’s lessons in art, whether she is in teacher or artist mode. The pieces that possess the most value for Braun are the Life In A Can Series. Because life can be stagnant when we stick to routines such as work, home, work, home every day, hence, “life in a can”. If we’re not living la vida loca, we might miss out on all the secrets of our existence.
Pamela Braun
“It’s that mystery. Those still lifes are my searching for that mystery. You can look at somebody that’s dead, it’s their body, but you don’t know where that spark is. So really painting is a searching for that spark. You reach a level where things reveal themselves to you, in nature for example. The act of creation then would become that elusive spark of life and so that what we’re looking for here. That’s it’s not just nice coloring in the lines, don’t get outside the lines. It’s the exploration to find that essence of that spark.”
Reporting For News Five, Jose Sanchez.
The exhibit at the Mexican Cultural Institute runs through October thirty-first.
