I like to explore political issues in my work. These issues often expose themselves in hidden meanings. Art has often educated and opened eyes to social and political issues.
I want to believe that my paintings reveal on the canvas a kind of intellectualizing of the internal human conflict of reality and hope, and of my conflict as well. I would hope that they draw the viewer into a consideration of fear, love, anguish, and other human emotions in conflict, and because the conflict is ongoing, there can be no successful end to the search for comfort, no matter how much we might hope for it. Ultimately, the futility of the search is an absurdity, or so I think these paintings discover. Who we essentially are in the world is not who we would be. Always the conflict. I feel it when I paint.
I would like to focus my work on the issues of the immigration in European countries that has been allowed since 2005, as well as the immigration of Mexicans trying to enter the United States illegally. The work I plan to make will symbolize their unheard voices. I like to explore political issues in my painting. These issues often expose themselves in hidden meanings. Art has often educated and opened eyes to social and political issues. I hope my paintings can do the same.
$7.25 Project
During my summer residency at GoggleWorks, I have decided to engage with the issues and challenges that minimum wage workers face every day. After researching about Reading, PA prior my arrival to residency, I decided to focus on immigrants from Mexico and Puerto Rico, who’s population is growing in Reading, as well as represent in this project a struggle of all people who need to meet the demands of daily needs by getting a position that often is minimum wage. In some cases, the language barrier also limits an individual’s capability to get a job in the profession they were trained, resulting in them being underemployed in low-paid positions. For this occasion, I decided to paint one hour per day throughout my residency at GoggleWorks. Each day, the resulting painting, produced in one hour of work, will be offered for sale at $7.25, or Pennsylvania’s minimum wage.
To purchase a painting from the $7.25 Project, visit GoggleWorks’ information desk at 201 Washington Street, Reading, PA 19601. Any unsold works will be made available on August 10th, at Spotlight Night from 5:30-7:30pm. Learn more at bartoszbeda.com/7-25-project, where images of each day’s paintings will be posted. You can also follow along on Instagram using #minimumwageproject #bartoszbeda.