Tag Archives: time

Snapshot Challenge Saturday

If we truly wish to make the most out of our short lived time, we must follow through with the burning passion we find within ourselves. To do otherwise is to deprive ourselves of enjoyment, fulfillment, and excitement.

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Day 2 In Bogotá, Colombia Continued: Museo Botero

Fernando Botero is one of Colombia’s most famous artists. Fortunately, we were able to take some time on our tour to explore his museum in Bogotá—Museo Botero.
Botero is known to paint individuals in a larger manner. He has explained that he paints voluminous people, not fat people. Specifically, he zooms in on their skin and not their facial features. He also doesn’t use models which is why so many of the people in his paintings look similar. One such painting that shows this is his version of the Mona Lisa, which is bigger in size and situated in front of the Andes.
One of the paintings pictured below shows a group of men, with only one of the men sleeping comfortably. This is because he is wearing a watch and to Botero, being in control of time represents power. If you notice, watches can be found in many of his paintings.
Fernando Botero donated much of his artwork to this museum, but had three conditions for doing so. The museum had to be free for everyone to enjoy, he wanted to display the artwork in the museum himself and place everything according to his personal preference, and the last condition was that the paintings could never leave this museum. With the conditions having been met, Botero donated 123 of his own paintings and other paintings that he possessed including many of Picasso’s pieces. In fact, Botero first started by painting artists whom he admired such as Picasso. Shortly thereafter, when Botero began painting other pieces, he painted a person with a guitar that had a smaller sized hole, but instead of calling this a mistake, he decided this would later become his style.
In the late 1970’s, Botero was driving with his son and second wife in Spain when they were involved in a terrible car accident. Botero’s son, Pedro, who was only a child, died in the accident. As a resulting injury of the accident, part of Botero’s finger was cut off. He later traveled to Italy and paid close attention to the sculptures throughout the country. Botero began sculpting because not only was it difficult to paint for some time after his accident, but because he was passionate about volume and knew that sculpting was a great way to give volume to his work. In addition to some of the various sculptures pictured below, you will notice a sculpture of a large hand, which is actually a sculpture of Botero’s hand.
Fernano Botero is the only living artist to sell a painting for over a million dollars, and his work is both enjoyed and celebrated throughout the world.
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View of Monserrate from Museo Botero
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One Child’s Bravery

On the medical mission I attended this past summer, a mother exclaimed that her son had become closed off after the recent passing of his father. She asked if there was anything we could do to help, so I sat with her son and tried to get him to open up. It turned out, his older siblings did not talk about the loss of their father, and he didn’t want to upset his mother with his sadness, seeing as she was still grieving as well. All it took was someone to help this young boy realize that it is okay to grieve the loss of his father. Helping him understand the importance of speaking up about his sadness was also essential in letting him feel as though he was allowed to talk about the pain he was experiencing. Even though I was only able to provide a lending ear, that was all this child needed at the current moment in time—someone to listen to him.

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