In the Daily Labor of the People by Diana Berek

All copyrights for the art on this page are owned by the artist, Diana Berek.

In the Daily Labor of the People by Diana Berek

Artist's Statement
In the Daily Labor of the People Gouache on illustration board 2000: 20" x 15"
The painting was inspired by a Carl Sandburg poem entitled, "The
People, Yes". The title of the painting is from the lines:
"In the daily labor of the people,
By and through which life goes on. . ."
The people of the world are represented by the the four figures
rendered in the four colors of the people of the world. One figure
is clapping her hands to symbolize the creation of music and art; one
figure holds a flowering plant to symbolize the growing of food for
sustenance and the growing of plants for medicinal and utilitarian
purposes as well as aesthetic and decorative purposes. One figure
is holding the atom to represent the development of science and
technology. The fourth hurls a thunderbolt representing the uses of
power in society. These figures are emerging from the waters of Lake
Michigan, just as Chicago had emerged from the lake by re-building
right over the ashes dumped into the lake front after the Chicago
fire.

This painting is to honor all the workers who built and who continue
to build, our city: by working in the factories, by the daily
caretaking of children, the ill, the elderly, and by creating the
songs, the poetry and the art that lifts our working class spirits,
enlarges our vision and inspires our conscious action.

Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center (UM-CAC). E-mail UM-CAC at umcac@art-teez.org Ph.773/561-7676