"i was never young," the art of beatrice huerta boswell
NX ArtHouse, October 2013.
I was never young
When you spend your days hiding in an apple tree with a book
Because everyone else is making fun of you
Because you sing along with the radio to every song you know
Because you don’t think like a third grader should
You see the war unfolding before your very eyes in black and white
Because you sit on the cracked wood of the back stairs with your freshly showered
Dad; drinking a small Olympia beer while he drinks a full sized one.
When you go to bed with a belly that is never full
When you drink a lot of water and hang out at your friend’s houses
Just in case you get invited for lunch or dinner
Because your father would rather pour his money into his car
Because he’d rather spend it on some bimbo he’s fucking
Because your mother is always borrowing money from your landlady.
When everything you own is secondhand
Even your pets are throwaways
And you feed them the bugs you catch
Because you can’t always afford chicken scratch
Because you are the only kids the feed store allows to buy a quarters worth of dog food
Because your cats do eat the field mice who wander into your house otherwise they both would starve.
Because you actually have fights with your father about Viet Nam War
Because you have a friend whose father has been missing for over a year now
Because you are wearing a POW bracelet with his name on it
Because you are hoping her dad comes back and your dad just leaves
Because you love him but you hate him
Because he is your father
Because he beats your mother
Because he beats your siblings
Because he beats you everyday
Because you stand up and defy him and refuse to believe that the was is just
Because you do not believe in “my country right of wrong”
Because you don’t realize that you were never young until you grow old enough to
Understand what an old soul is when you look in the eyes of your children.
About the artist:
“I was never young and would never dare think of ‘Me’ as an artist”, is how self-taught artist; beatrice huerta boswell describes herself and yes she spells her name all lowercase. boswell thinks of herself as a poet first and this poetic vision is what gives her inspiration to create visual “songs, limericks and prose”. A lot of her art is tongue-in-cheek, or just downright painful to look at. boswell works in mixed media and enjoys including found objects into her work.
Most of her subjects are from the literary world, myths or members of the LGBTQ community, she also finds time to wage a war of the sexes on canvas. She finds the act of making a new piece of work just as difficult and cathartic at times as writing a poem or essay on her childhood growing up poor in the San Joaquin Valley.
