Jailed and Freed

by Sandra Pena de Ortiz

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Price

$100

Dimensions

10.625 x 16.000 inches

Title

Jailed and Freed

Artist

Sandra Pena de Ortiz

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

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This photograph titled "Jailed and Freed" is meant to illustrate the suffering of victims of mental illness that exist around the whole world and it is dedicated to them. The photograph is of one of the many "garitas" (or bartizans, guerites), which are overhanging, wall-mounted turrets projecting from the walls of medieval fortifications in this case at the wall of the city of Old San Juan. The photograph was transformed into a mixed media oil on canvas using the GIMP, the free software version of Adobe Photoshop. Going back to the image itself, the Atlantic Ocean can be seen from behind the garita, which is an Puerto Rico's official symbol. They are small, circular sentry posts or boxes that provided protection for guards who watched over the city. Their long, narrow openings made it difficult for enemy gunfire to hit the targets inside. Actually, the posts are so short and compact that they could usually only accommodate soldiers no more than 5 feet tall. As suggested in the opening sentence of the description the image represents the suffering by victims of mental illness. The inner area of the garita, which is mostly obscure, represents the mind of these victims; their actual jail. They are jailed by the incorrect wiring of neural networks in their brains, which causes people with mental disorders to perceive and respond to reality in a different way than healthy individuals. The fact is that mental illness takes away people's freedom and jails the them; sometimes they scream to the outside through holding on to the rails but there is no answer; after a while they just give up, leaning back within the darkness of their minds, becoming num and crawling up into the corners inside their jails, eventually sitting on the corner is disdain and despair. The window looking toward the ocean represents the longing to get a breath of fresh air and to dive into inner memories and nostalgia of past memories of better times. I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:12 "For now we see in a mirror obscurely, but at that time face to face; now I know in part, but at that time I will fully know even as also I was fully known". Finally, you see the glowing colors of small dotted or covered with speckles, especially flecked with small spots of contrasting colors including royal blue, green, and crimson red. In this context royal blue speckles represent a feeling of inadequacy or of lack of respect. It represents a desire high esteem by those around. The feelings are to desire to have those in their lives to respect and acknowledge them. The green represents green the color of inner balance, healing and hope, bringing peace, harmony, and soul rejuvenates, all of which are longed for by those suffering from mental illness. Finally, the crimson red signifies the celestial love of good. The fact that these speckles of the soul seem to escape from the jail, symbolizes the hope that the mentally ill will one day be released of their prisons to leave full live that contribute to our growth as a society.

Uploaded

February 27th, 2013

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