Patty Eljaiek
A Family of Women (2019)
collage on board
16 x 20 in.
NFS
“I come from a family of women born in Barranquilla, Colombia; poets, artists, dancers, ranchers, writers, singers, loan sharks, entrepreneurs. Their birthplace was the land of magic realism, where everyday life was filled with wonder. Their lives were my bedtime stories and I was an eager listener. As I grew older, losing each narrator made me more eager to keep the stories alive. The loss of their unique voices could not be the end for such inspiring, funny, tragic yet hopeful lives. I made portraits, I kept letters, I am the repository of hundreds of memories captured in grainy photographs. When I share their faces, words and memories in my artwork, they are still here.
For me, loss is the work of keeping a memory alive.”
© Patty Eljaiek