A Death Foretold

In a collision of three scenes, the central environment of the painting is my great grandfather's funeral procession (1986) depicting a generation of Latvians that endured the full weight of the brutal Soviet occupation (1941-1991). Through a diagonal, from the left handsight, the procession is preluded by a young woman playing the flute on the shores of the Baltic Sea, dressed in a traditional Latvian gown. The snow covered beach leads into the central figures, reserved and hardened by the dehumanizing aggression of the occupants and the years spent fighting for survival, deported to remote settlements in Siberia. Moving forward, they melt together with stained glass church windows and transition into a distorted androgynous figure, representing the newer generations, liberation from the hostile state and a release of emotions repressed deep inside.

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