December Artist Spotlight - Barbara Masterson
Art is like a serum, transforming its audience for good or ill.
As I paint, the play of light has taken my breath away.
Migrant workers came into view. They have transformed my vision.
Familiar shapes in fields and orchards, migrant workers toil in the Hudson Valley doing jobs most Americans won't, earning modest wages, sometimes risking deportation.
Hard at work, they summon our attention and invite us to come closer, to see their labor and their humanity.
Who are they? Can you see them?
It’s possible for society to confer invisibility on a group. It’s convenient; if the group is invisible, we relieve ourselves of concern about health care, working conditions, pesticides, housing, lack of ability to get their own food.
What is life like for them? What role do we play in keeping them unseen? My work can expand our perceptions of these workers. If only by their images in my paintings, the viewer will come to see these persons for the vital role they have in our lives.