I have had the pleasure of participating in the National Museum of Mexican Art's Day of the Dead exhibits on 3 previous occasions. The past exhibits in which I was involved were very "traditional" in content displaying a large variety of altars (ofrendas), as well as paintings, and sculptures, honoring the memory of the deceased. Día de Muertos: A Spiritual Legacy is just as traditional, yet inspired by the Mesoamerican shaft tombs in which individuals were buried with objects and gear for the next life. While the exhibit has ofrendas, and other works of art typically displayed in Day of the Dead exhibits, it also includes work with a slight variation. In my opinion, this work approaches the subject matter from the viewpoint of the departed by specifically exploring the question, "What would you take with you when you die?" Thirty artists were invited to participate—we were all given a “veliz”, a suitcase, to use in any way we desired in response to the question posed. The exhibit opened Friday, September 21, and will continue through December 9, 2018. Hope you can see the exhibit and support the National Museum of Mexican Art. About the Piece
Personally, I do not believe that when I die, I will simply cease to exist and although this belief is viewed as naïve by many, I have faith that when I take my last breath, my spirit will leave my body and instantly be in heaven with my memory intact—memories of my life and of those I have loved. Therefore, in response to the question: “What would you take with you when you die?”, I would take 3 intangibles: faith in my God’s promise of eternal life, memories of events and experiences of my life here on earth, and finally, love for family and friends. P.S. Special thanks to my brother Javier Acevedo, for helping me with power tool “challenges”, or my ineptitude. Although I was invited to participate, I could not; therefore, I asked Jesse Arseneau to create this video for the Society for Latin American Studies Annual Conference held at the University of Southampton's Winchester in March of this year. I was invited to participate in the National Museum of Mexican Art's Day of the Dead exhibit titled Veliz, which will open in September of this year. The Veliz concept answers the question, "What would you take with you when you die?" I have begun to prepare a small suitcase, which will answer this question . . .
Sexual abuse can happen across all ages, but molestation is strictly limited to younger children. Because a child’s penis or vagina is too small for physical penetration, molestation occurs when the child is "forced to perform oral sex, touched in an inappropriate manner, and/or made to watch the adult masturbate. Sexual abuse happens over a longer period of time and involves actual physical penetration, in addition to everything that is included in molestation. The above quote is from: http://www.kidslivesafe.com/child-safety/sexual-molestation-vs-sexual-abuse A few years ago, I came across a video on the internet about a Peruvian girl by the name of Lina Medina who gave birth at the age of 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days. The focus of that particular documentary was about the pregnancy, her age and the medical condition called "precocious puberty", which enabled the pregnancy at such a young age. So, this was a case of sexual abuse and yet, there was absolutely NO discussion about the abuse or the man who abused Lina and finally impregnated her. She was a child of 4 years of age, still playing with dolls, and had no idea what was being done to her. How can a 4 year old even begin to wrap her mind around such a thing? Why, as a society, were we more consumed by the oddity of the age of the pregnancy rather than being outraged and disgusted by the action of the male who perpetrated such a violation on a child? This was in 1939 and yet, this abuse continues; children are still being neglected and sexually abused and molested. Here's the harsh reality and hopefully, food for thought and ultimately, a call to action:
For a very informative PDF, Child Sexual Abuse Statistics, go to Darkness to Light at: https://www.d2l.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/all_statistics_20150619.pdf Abstract: The above abstract was written by Dr. Bowskill and obtained from the below link.
I am elated that the article, Bearing Witness to Child Abuse and Trauma in Pilar Acevedo's Multimedia Fragmentos Exhibition, is now available online with the Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies. . https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24741604.2018.1453017 The following is from Dr. Sarah Bowskill's website: https://sarahbowskill.net/multimedia-women Multimedia Women and Digital Cultural Studies Some time ago, I wrote several vignettes about my family's migration north from Mexico City to Kankakee, Illinois—of all places. I have begun a series of paintings inspired by these stories. I created collages for each vignette and then larger scale paintings. In the case of Fig Tree Girl, I created a small oil painting as well, which is shown below. |
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