This is Penthesilia the first of many paintings I will be doing addressing the fate of the Amazonian Indians. The girl's tribe is the Karajá and like many of the indigenous peoples of Amazonia their livelihood is in danger. Her home is burned by cattle farmers who would see the rainforest in ashes for a cow. But there is another enemy that could prove more destructive. It is the large South American engineering company Electronorte, which has made plans to create a dam that would place her territory under 40 feet of water.
The Karajá do not paint lightning bolts on their face. I adapted the symbols on her cheeks to mimic the logo of Electronorte (www.electronorte.com) She is marked for extinction. The goal of this piece was to express as strongly as possible the feeling of sadness and anger that one feels when their home and traditional way of life is taken from them by a distant economic machine. I've seen artists who wear a similar expression. 16x20 acrylic on linen.
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