[ad_1]
GULFPORT, Fla. — Art is cathartic for Judith Villavisanis. “A lot of things are happening now, and it’s a way of me being able to deal with them,” the muralist said about the political upheaval in the United States.
The Gulfport artist is working on a piece she named “The Would-Be King Holds Court.”
“I want people to look at it and form their own opinion about what it is,” said Villavisanis.
She says the topic is not too hard to figure out this time — it’s about the supreme court.
The mixed media piece joins other protest art in the exhibition, “We the People. This is what democracy looks like,” at the Brenda McMahon Gallery in Gulfport.
“There’s so much dialog going on in the country about really fiery issues, controversial issues. And I feel like art has such a way of addressing issues at hand, not with the mental mind, but with the heart.”
No stranger to protest art — Villavisanis creates work around her worries — like her interpretation of the living swamp in peril: Sorpresa Tempesta.
“It means everything to me. And a lot of it is disappearing,” she said.
And where the professional mural artist makes all her ideas real is the sketchbook. “It’s my map.”
Sometimes this terrain is tricky when she takes the path less traveled.
But like McMahon, she wants her work to communicate in a way words fail.
“And I think through art, I can connect better, too, with the message,” said Villavisanis.
This is her message — her expression of freedom — as the United States celebrates its own.
[ad_2]
Virginia Johnson
Source link