Food Mexico and Me Aug. 2015 | Page 25

FEATURED ARTIST The Painter of “The Mother Earth” Who is William Vive? William Vive is a painter and master of surrealism. He is most famous for painting “The Mother Earth,” a collection of paintings celebrating the beauty, majesty, and serenity of our planet. He was born November 17, 1965, and became enamored with art from a young age. He experimented in childhood with both realism and fantastic art. He has an intense love of colors and his paintings are full of vibrancy and the joy that many bright colors exude. Moreover, he has participated in many artistic movements in Latin America, often distinguishing himself as one of the foremost painters. His work includes many art exhibitions in Latin America, Australia, the United States, and Europe. His unique style has attracted the attention of professionals, ecologists, and women’s rights activists from many countries. Why is he so great? William has acquired the talent of blending the beauty of the feminine with the magnificence, perfection and divinity of mother earth. For example, Mother Earth is often personified as a partly clad sleeping figure that has been blended into the landscape of the painting, usually as a string of hills or mountains in the background, but sometimes as an extension of a plain. In one painting, she is sitting upright interacting with the faces in Mount Rushmore. One of his goals is to express nature through painting in its pure state. So he aims to catch the nuances of what we see in nature, those simple sites that generate awe, wonder, www.mexico.is “Peace on Mother Earth” Oil/canvas 121 x 125 cms 2010 inspired by and dedicated to michelle obama and a sense of beauty, and translate them into painting. This might be a field of flowers, trees lining a mountain in the distance, or the roll of clouds across an expanse of sky while birds sing their tunes. Whatever William is painting, you can be sure that a great portion of the painting captures the expanse of the beauty of nature. Moreover, the beauty of the feminine form is woven into this landscape, almost personifying the serene and peaceful aspects that characterize the feminine in our imagination. He paints in a variety of styles including popular paintings, reproductions, flash paintings, spin painting, and drip painting. Biography and Achievements Art became a passion of his life in childhood. In his adult life, he has participated in two art studios, the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Corozal, Sucre in 1979 and the Centro de Educacion para La Vida at Sydney, Australia in 1994. He also participated in Art Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2012 and he participated in Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte Contemporanea Citta di Firenze, Italy. He is currently participating in a digital exhibition in the entrance to the Musée du Louvre in Paris where four of his paintings were being continually displayed on a large digital screen during the 12th, 13th, and 14th of June, 2015. This project was organized by the Museum of the Americas located in Miami, Florida. Close William has changed the way people see nature, but especially the divine feminine. His goal is to help us appreciate the beauty of women without objectifying them. Instead, the beauty is woven into the fabric of the beauty of the earth that is around us every day, a beauty that is to be appreciated, nurtured, and cared for. The serenity of women and nature remind us that both women and nature can be subject to painful destruction, conquest, and objectification. It is up the viewer of the paintings to decide upon a better path. Special Edition 2015  Food Mexico and Me  25