"El Futuro" and "Tesoros"

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"El Futuro" & "Tesoros"
acrylic & oil on board
48 x 24 in © 2003 Gabriel Navar

I worked on both of these paintings simultaneously. One features my wife and the other features me. We are each engaging in the act of "putting something in" or "pulling something out" of trash bins. The scenes takes place in the "mystery" of the night. I did this in order to make the paintings more theatrical and somewhat secretive.

As with many other of my paintings, these were inspired by the notion of generating creativity and "special" moments in the rituals of everyday, mundane activities. The symbolism within the picture for me has to do with the idea that often, we may find treasures in the things (physical, spiritual, mental, etc.) that we discard. Furthermore, I am interested in the stark reality that one (as an individual, community and society in general) may be "throwing" their future away. I feel that we need to look a little closer at the things that we discard (such as values, integrity and life itself) in order to not allow our future to slip through our fingers and onto the heaps of neglect, regret and blatant disregards.

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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.


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