Domitila Dominquez

 

I paint because I like to paint. I feel like I am creating what I want, I feel relaxed,

calm. When I don't paint I feel bad, I just don't feel right. When I paint, what I look for is

equilibrium—equilibrium of color, equilibrium of form, that things don't jump out where

they shouldn't, that each thing finds itself perfectly in its place. Sometimes, I also paint in

black and white because black has the possibility of a gamut of tones so broad that their

result can be as if it were full of color. Since 1982 I started to paint regularly, it was when

I realized that this was my path.

I believe that the reality that we live has a lot to do with what I do, the fact that I

paint the women has to do with the suffering of these women who are always with their

children and almost always have the heaviest part of life. If we are so submitted to the

poverty, I don't want that this life is so heavy for people, that at the very least there is a

little happiness. Painting can give this. With my work I try to explain that there also exist

nice things for everyone. This is part of my fight. Also, with my work, I am craving that

the people that suffer do things that lift their spirits. I think that all people have the

capacity to not let themselves be dominated by sadness—we have to paint, dance or do

something creative to remedy ourselves. You have to dare yourself.

When I shape my images on the canvas or the wood, I don't do it for myself only

but that I know that I also do it for the other people. Because of this, I like to exhibit my

paintings. I know that the people finish their daily work very tired and I believe that they

deserve to give themselves a pleasure, then the figures and the colors that I share with

them, I think that these can give them a little happiness. If I achieve something of this

when I put my vision on the canvas, then I feel satisfied, I feel that I am sharing with the

others something that is worth the trouble: joy. With my work I feel liberated from a lot

of burdens.

I believe that my work is both political and social. With my canvases, I direct

myself at everyone, but in a distinct manner: to Power, rejecting it and to the people that

it is not Power, telling them that we are brothers and we have to lift our heads and find

the good in life. It gives me a special pleasure when I tell myself that my images are

circulating in the indigenous communities because there are the people that suffer most in

this county that is Mexico, besides I belong to these communities. The books that we

make in the Colectivo Callejero, like "The Story of Colors" and "The story of the sword,

the tree, the rock and the water" by Subcomandante Marcos, fulfill for me this very

important function.

When I paint the Zapatistas with their masks, I compose them with different

animals and plants. Their masks interest me because one knows what is behind the

masks—there are their faces, there is the suffering—behind the Zapatistas’ ski masks and

handkerchiefs. They have taught me that my work is important.

-bio from Questions and Swords

contact: (spanish)  suepepo@yahoo.com

               (english-care of  Rebekah Meola)  RebMeola@aol.com