How Dear You…? #12

This work shows the hands of each of its maker holding what is dearest to them.

All of the artists of the Deanna Sipaco (DS) Foundation for the Differently-Abled, Inc. Art Collective made these works in one art studio, simultaneously. Starting with the background, they executed the same steps, same simple movements, same shapes and patterns within the same time, but with obviously very different outcomes. As a result, all of the artworks show a floating white square-like shape on which each artist painted their own hands… holding what is dearest to them. For someone, that is a book. To another who loves cutting paper, scissors and paper. Another artist’s hands holds a remote control, and another her lovely dog. You’ll see hands holding a piece of fried chicken, a slice of water melon, a watch, a book, brushes, a fan, a smartphone, a mango, a piece of bread and a flower.

It seems the artists were quite in the moment when they made this piece of art. They painted whatever it is they hold dearest at that time.

We all tend to hold close to our hearts what is dear to us. In “How, Dear You…?” the works make you ask your Self: “What do You hold Dear in your own life?”. If we think a bit deeper into this, and we hold one thing or perhaps a person close at heart, we’ll find out that there are relatively many things and several people that we hold dear and that these are actually attached to other things or people that we don’t feel (that) close to, or may perhaps even dislike.

Because when we embrace something, we embrace all components that this something is made up from and exists through. Every aspect that made it come to realization. When we embrace someone, we embrace everything that made that person who they are right now. So, you cannot take one aspect out because it is already part of it or of the person. How dare you do that? We then realize that everything is interconnected. If there’s one thing that the artists of the DS Foundation tell us and teach us through their actions, it is to hold and to embrace things and people undividedly. Entirely and wholeheartedly.

We like and love outcomes, the finished product, that what we see and presume to know. But can we love and hold – embrace even – every aspect of it? Can we also embrace what we may perceive as its negative components or parts? Perhaps we find out that there is so much we hold dear, that it is life itself, with myriads of aspects we will never be able to perceive. How, Dear You, pick only certain aspects?