Hold on to Peace - Image courtesy Ira Mitchell-Kirk

Hold on to Peace - Image courtesy Ira Mitchell-Kirk

Wednesday 21 September 2011

First Canadian Work for Legato

Legato (Italy) May 2011 included this small painting by Bernadette McCormack, who responded quickly to my initial inquiries to artists in Canada. Next year Legato will focus more on Canadian and Italian art.

This work has since been on display in Roccasecca with other works and the small but growing Legato permanent collection. It draws comments from adults and children and is one of the most popular new additions on display. Children seem to know almost instinctively that there is much to read in the work, and find symbolism in it that escapes most adults.

Bernadette McCormack

Sono cresciuta in Canada, una nazione tranquilla. La mia sola esperienza di guerra erano le storie raccontate dai miei genitori del tempo in cui erano bambini a Manila e, per sfuggire alle bombe, durante la seconda guerra mondiale, dovevano inerpicarsi su per la montagna in cerca di un posto sicuro. ll mio secondogenito ha sempre avuto un grande interesse per la storia militare fin da quando aveva sei anni, quindi ha iniziato ad introdurmi agli orrori, alle strategie, ai sacrifici occorsi durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Recentemente siamo stati in Normandia per soddisfare la sua curiosita' e abbiamo visitato le spiagge e I luoghi dello sbarco. Sono rimasta impressionata nel vedere i cambiamenti prodotti dagli anni. i campi verdi, le spiagge ben tenute, pronte per I turisti. Ma so che la terra, cosi' come la gente, ricordano le tragedie della guerra. Questo e' cio' che voglio simbolizzare nei miei quadri usando l'innocenza dei fiori che crescono dentro all'elmetto dei soldati caduti.

I grew up in Canada, a peaceful country. My only experience with the war was the stories my parents told of their time as small children in Manilla, where they had to escape the bombings of the second world war by climbing the mountains to a safer location. When my second son was born, he started to show an intense interest in military history at the age of six years old, and he started to educate me further of the horrors, the strategies, the sacrifices that occurred in the second world war. As he grew, he started to beg me to take him to the province of Normandy to satisfy his interest in the D-Day Invasion. Just recently, in order to fulfill my son's wishes, I found myself accompanying him to the landings and beaches of the D-Day invasion in Normandy. I was impressed with the way the land had renewed itself. The fields were smooth and green, the beaches were clean and flat and ready for sunbathers. But I know that the land, as well as the people, all remember the tragedies of war. I wanted to depict this notion in my painting by using the innocence of flowers growing in a fallen soldiers helmet.