The sunset light raked across Xochitl's face as she seemed, for one moment, to shift from mirth, to contemplation.
The image reflects an amazing, though totally unplanned, resemblance to the great painting, "Earth Knower" by Maynard Dixon, painted circa 1935.
Dixon, whose paintings ironically now sell in the half million dollar-plus range, was, in his own lifetime, challenged with financial destitution. He survived and painted only because of the "Welfare System", specifically the WPA, or Workers Progress Administration.
Dixon's first wife was the equally great artist, Dorothea Lange whose photographs of figures in the "Great Depression" have been, recently, the focus of a major exhibiton at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Dorothea Lange. "Lettuce Cutters, Salinas Valley 1935" Silver Gelatin Print.
Maynard Dixon and Dorothea Lange would have had much to share with Xochitl Casillas, all knowing about living without monies, wanderings, and that the bravest and most sensitive members of our society often need nurturing and support, lest they perish from this earth.
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