Ava, Boudoir of mystical delights

When I started this new series of paintings, I  was fascinated by the story of Ingrid Betancourt, the French Columbian politician who was kept  hostage in the Jungle of  Columbia by the FARC.The newspaper article with her picture; sitting in the Jungle of Columbia: chained: motionless, like in trance, like life has left her; but somehow in her, somehow in Ingrid was an emerging universal strength, her letter dd: July 8th, 2008, to her mother,   was related to every contemporary woman; this article which I keep like a treasure at my studio as well as her picture; The letter starts with: “ Rainy morning like my soul, my adored and divine mother of my soul, everyday I wake up thanking God that I have you”. A Saint like image, her experience made her go through  life’s sufferings we “normal” people don’t  cope with; somehow her fear,  made place for surrendering to God, whatever his plan was for her.In the series Ava, boudoir of mystical delights, I focused on the beauty which we find in the small things, even when we are in trouble, alone or worried. We can still hope and dream and love.  

At the end of finishing my series of paintings, I read about  Ingrid's liberation and decided to make the last painting of the series about Ingrid:

Oil on canvas 100cm x 150cm

PICTURE PAINTING BETANCOURT This painting looks very contra dictionary to the other paintings of my series, which have a certain air of luxury, perfect world, but in Ingrid s painting she is holding a relic, the cattleya trianae orchid, the national flower of Columbia, like an relic. In all her suffering, she is holding on to something beautiful and she looks as serene like all the other woman do in the paintings, she is close to the fantastic. When she returned into the free world,  people considered her transformed.

I like to dedicate this series to Ingrid Betancourt,  also as a reminder of the remaining 700 political hostages still kept by the  FARC. Also I dedicate this series to Marleny Orjuela, a mother of one of the hostages  who still captured, she goes every Tuesday to Bogota’s Plaza de Bolivar to call out the names of hostages, demanding their release. And to all the mothers who suffer when their children suffer.

Marjolein Van der Sluis