(C) U.S. State Dept
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How 3 artists celebrate America's workers [1]
['Lauren Monsen']
Date: 2024-08-28 19:53:23+00:00
After Narsiso Martinez came to the U.S. from Mexico at age 20, he spent summers picking produce to pay for school. Years later, his portraits of America’s laborers hang in museums and pay tribute to the farmworkers he once worked alongside.
Martinez, of Long Beach, California, paints and sketches farmworkers on canvases of old produce boxes to emphasize the role of workers in bringing fruit and vegetables to U.S. grocery store shelves.
“By drawing a simple portrait on these produce boxes, I can create that connection” between field workers and the rest of society, Martinez told PBS NewsHour.
This Labor Day, September 2, ShareAmerica highlights Martinez and other artists whose work pays tribute to America’s working men and women.
Juan Felipe Herrera’s upbringing as the son of migrant laborers informs his poetry and prose, including his 1995 childhood memoir Calling the Doves.
A California native, Herrera’s writing blurs styles and genres and combines English and Spanish verse. He served as U.S. poet laureate from 2015 to 2017 and wrote Peeling Chile Green with my Sister Sara, Brazito, New Mexico, 2014 for ShareAmerica. The 2015 poem recalls Herrera’s father providing for his family after coming to the United States in the 1890s.
In a 2020 interview, Herrera told Pen America that poetry and prose help people “to respond to the overarching stories of who we are, to generate dialogue — the key to peace and vibrant world humanity.”
Honoré Sharrer worked as a welder in a San Francisco shipyard during World War II and later painted detailed scenes of workers’ lives. For her 1951 masterwork, Tribute to the American Working People, Sharrer, who died in 2009, sought inspiration in Farm Security Administration photographs of farmers and migrant workers during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The painting is in the format of medieval religious art but features a factory worker and scenes of ordinary Americans at school, work and relaxation. Her 1943 painting Workers and Paintings depicts American families beside paintings by Pablo Picasso and other famous artists, suggesting art should be more accessible to working class people.
While Sharrer’s artwork also explores myths and fairy tales, she remains best known for her sympathetic portrayals of working Americans.
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[1] Url:
https://share.america.gov/how-3-artists-celebrate-americas-workers/?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=hero&utm_campaign=artists
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