happy october! despite enduring a rash of bad luck, i had a nice weekend. friday night we enjoyed a yummy chinese meal with belen and cesar which was the perfect thing before a long night of deep sleep (after much tossing and turning the night before). last night we went to a fun little party where i showed off my atrocious table tennis skills, met some new people i really like, and finished off the night gracefully by throwing up in our friends' brand new extra bathroom sink. (no, i didn't drink too much. it was something i ate, an unfortunately fairly common occurence here in quito.)
anyhoo, do you remember the list of inspirations i posted a few posts ago? well, i have started a series of collages inspired by the ecuadorian economy, dealing in particular with some of the big industries and class division. you may remember that the first item on my list was the flower industry and this influence can be seen in my first two pieces:
1.
it was difficult to fully photograph this collage, but there are a few flowers mixed in the pink painted section, which is kind of important as the idea is she is "painting" with the flowers.
2.
and a couple of close-ups:
in both pieces the women are supposed to be indigenous women from the ecuadorian highlands who work for flower farms. there are flower businesses here where the workers are treated and paid well. but in many cases, lower-level employees work long hours for little pay to help grow beautiful flowers, many of which end up in the homes of americans and europeans and lead to piles of cash in the pockets of the wealthy ecuadorians, americans, and europeans who own the businesses. to me, there is both great beauty and sadness involved in this work.