Homage to Yolanda Survivors

On November 8, 2013 Typhoon Yolanda, one of the strongest in recorded history, cut across the Philippines leaving over five thousand fatalities in its path of nearly total destruction.  This painting honors the resiliency and faith of the survivors who awed the world by speaking to television newsmen of their continued trust in God. 

The basic poses are borrowed from a painting by Pierre Puvis de Chavanes (French, 1824-1898) which I saw at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC shortly after hearing of the disaster. I reacted immediately to the inclusion of three generations in the open air scene. I changed the setting from somewhere in the Mediterranean to the Visayas. The ruins of a beachside home and a tangled fishing net are about all the material goods that are left to this courageous family. The young man looks out to the horizon for renewed hope while the mother tends her young child. The grandfather rests, resigned to the fact that life is hard yet it goes on.