Gate / On divides between people (Maria Farrar, Jul 2023)

This started its life from the parable in the bible - Lazarus and the rich man. ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury everyday. At this gate was a laid a beggar named Lazarus covered with sores and lining to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores” (Luke16: 10-21)

Nothing in my narrative painting is ever fixed, and there were some days when I was simply painting the tulips from Kew Gardens, and what was meant to be a beggar just became my mum, only because she had come to the studio that day to help and I modelled her bowed legs.

But what remained constant was this theme of separation between people via the concept of a gate. Whether it could be opened or closed, and who could come and go. Why do some people get to come and go more easily than others?

When I was little I couldn’t understand the point of a passport, all it did was provide trouble especially for my mum. A passport seemed to me not something that helped her pass ports (boarders) but hindered her, more like a ‘stop-port’. Her passport meant that there were gates she couldn’t pass through.

To be honest, I don’t really have a point to make. I’m not a politician and I’m not a well read historian either; it’s just an observation on how there are divides between people and sometimes they’re hard to see, and sometimes they’re obvious; the ones which are harder to see cause a lot of heartache.