A bit of culture...

The pictorial arts have always talked to me with a special force. Painters can portrait reality -and fantasy- in a very unique way, where the story is told in layers, bringing us to the core of the action in a different way photography does. Photography has another quality, and horrible scenes can be portraited in harsher way with the camera than with the brushes.
But the sophistication of painting can bridge the gap between tragedy and time, geography, human races, religions, and cultures to give us a view that will reside in our memories or that will bring a reminder about something that might be happening in this very same moment.
The following painting shows a tragic struggle for life, the same struggle and most of the times an ending that more than one Cuban refugee meets when coming to liberty in a new birth. Instead of posting graphic and disturbing photographs I prefer to bring their plight to your attention by sharing the image of this monumental painting with all of you.

The artist, John Singleton, painted Watson and the shark inspired by a real event in the Bay of Havana, Cuba, in 1749. Brook Watson, a fourteen year old orphan who was a crew hand in a merchant vessel, was attacked and almost killed by a shark while swimming in the bay. His mates tried to save him, in a rescue effort to preserve his life. This very same drama unfolds daily in the waters of the Straits of Death, in the stretch of sea from Cuba to Florida.
Next time you are in Washington DC take time to visit the National Gallery of Art, where this painting is exhibited.

Painting data:
John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, 1778. National Gallery of Art, Ferdinand Lammot Belin Fund 1963.6.1