COPYRIGHT © by John McDonald. All rights reserved by the artist. Any and all publishing and reproduction rights are retained solely by the artist. This image is not to be re-distributed, copied, imitated or misappropriated without written consent of the artist.
Butterfly Cry
A portrait of My Mexican Heroine the Beautiful Wife of diego rivera by John McDonald
Butterfly Cry is the first of the Mexican Heroine series by John McDonald, a body of work exploring human themes of love and loss, suffering and strength, passion for life. Inspired by Mexico’s most-loved female artist, who is also oved around the world, Butterfly Cry expresses the power of creativity to change suffering or pain into beauty.
Butterfly Cry depicts a creative and imagined portrait of John’s Mexican Heroine, researched through a variety of historical photographs. The beautiful wife of Diego Rivera is depicted in red, yellow and black indigenous Mexican Tehuana costume, with silver earring, red braided headscarf, and red floral headdress, on a turquoise and soft green ground.
This unique and moving portrait embodies the South American symbolism of feminine grief transformed into butterflies: the Mexican Heroine's tears are represented as colourful butterflies, one for each year of her life. Forty-six butterflies may be easily counted, and the forty-seventh is hidden somewhere else in the portrait.
The pathos, vibrancy, and universal appeal of Butterfly Cry, makes this the leading portrait in John McDonald's Mexican Heroine series. The artist has a very literal empathy with the beautiful wife of Diego Rivera, through loss and bereavement from self, but most of all in a passion for life that can change tears into butterflies, overcome disability and pain, and that celebrates the indomitable strength of the human spirit.
