Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Can a landscape-or for that matter, just colors and a few lines on a page-invite you to think of life and death?In the deepest sense, that is the task that architect-turned-artist Jorge Luis Bernal wishes to accomplish.In his art, he asks the big questions: "Where are we in life?Where are we going?What do we want to accomplish?What is important to us?" (see https://vimeo.com/121815356).Elaborating further, he comments that "we all encounter problems in our journey through life; we all have problems that we need to weather.There are mountains, bridges, and fences that we need to hurdle."In his vertically organized paintings, it is the horizontals-how we encounter those problems or overcome them-that describe the ways in which we walk through life toward our own horizons.He sees these paintings as narratives."It never ends," he says."There's always something to go to."Bernal's reflections seem particularly fitting for this special issue of American Psychologist, with its focus on youth development and the barriers and accomplishments of youth experiencing marginalization in particular.Born in Havana, Cuba, Bernal first came to the United States in 1958 to learn English at the Tabor Academy summer camp in Marion, Massachusetts.By the next year, Fidel Castro had come to power, and after the summer of 1960, Bernal did not return to Cuba.His entire family emigrated that autumn, settling in Jersey City, New Jersey (his brother, Guillermo, is currently vice president of Albizu University, with campuses in San Juan and Miami, as well as an active participant in governance at the American Psychological Association).Bernal has never returned to Cuba, instead retaining only memories of the beauty of his birth island.Fine art had been and continued to be a central aspect of Bernal's life, from a grandmother who was a "fabulous" painter, to routinely going to museums, to painting throughout high school.Although he wanted to go to college to paint, his family had other ambitions for him: He should become a doctor or a lawyer.His compromise: studying architecture (although he snuck an art history degree in there as well).As an architect, he could sketch buildings, draw, and design.His professional life, first in Miami and then at the National Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C., included working on residential projects, becoming a
Source: American Psychologist
DOI: 10.1037/amp0000369
Language: English
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4232187597