"Before... After"
A Previous Featured Painting
" Before... After "
acrylic, pencils & oil on canvas
13 3/4 in x 17 7/8 in © 2008 Gabriel Navar
Let me provide some insight and thoughts regarding the painting "Before... After". The title and concept was inspired by "makeover" advertisements and promises to help an individual alter, change, and/or improve their situation, usually and more specifically the appearance of their face, physique, teeth, weight and so forth. The idea behind the "before/after" dichotomy is, of course, that before going through some procedure or treatment, an individual's situation was not as good as their situation after their "transformational" action.
The message in "Before... After" is that oppression, racism, discrimination existed and continues. The goal of the painting is to bring awareness to how certain individuals, groups, cultures, etc., are still being oppressed, discriminated against and otherwise marginalized. It is my hope, through the painting, to not only improve and increase consciousness about oppression to certain groups of people, but also to begin and, with a more optimistic sensibility, put an end to it now!
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more Featured Paintings
Visit my Current Featured Painting "app 4 disgruntled days". It was currently added to my site on April 2013. Also, visit my Archived Featured Paintings, I have about 20 Previous Featured Paintings. Each one of them has a story, a description about their creation as well as some background about their form, content and symbolism. Looking at the Previous Featured Paintings page I realize that I have had a wide range of interests over time in the figurative, narrative work that I have created over the years. I hope you can appreciate that an element that ties my work together is my desire to create thought provoking compositions that involve the figure, rich colors, and, often, the human theater.
If you enjoy the Featured Paintings know that it is updated three times per year on April, August and December. Please do return !
© Gabriel Navar 1989 - 2017 
You may contact me directly if you are interested in acquiring my artwork.