With an entire life dedicated to music – as a pianist, teacher and pedagogue, well known in San Juan – and committed to different cultural institutions in the province, what Josefina Beatriz Marún – Betty, as everyone calls her – least imagined was that At this point I was going to be going through musings and debut nerves. And although she takes it calmly and with a good dose of wisdom, it is inevitable to tame the little tickle that comes with being in front of a premiere… and not a musical one, precisely: At her vital and lucid 85 years of age, she will hold her first exhibition as a visual artist. Well yes, after emerging a talent that she only delved into when she retired, in which expert eyes noticed that provided her with tools and encouraged her to dive into this adventure, she finally decided and from tomorrow she will show a cut of her production to the public , in Syrian Lebanese (see separate). “Flowers. “Evocation of her essence” is the name of this exhibition organized by the Retama agency, where the protagonists are the reflection of her own garden, but also a manifestation of her inner world.
“Since I was a child I have lived in houses with gardens. My maternal grandmother had a devotion to them. I still have plants and flowers grown by my mother, whose names and origins I do not know and which no longer exist in nurseries (…) I have not been able to let go of the memory of the flowers that I have seen grow and bloom in my gardens. “They are my models, a spontaneous mixture of sensations and emotions in conjunction,” he wrote for the exhibition catalogue, which he will specify with a very personal intention: to appeal to and contribute to sensitivity, “indispensable” in a world that perceives “asleep, without empathy, indifferent to the other.” This was stated in dialogue with DIARIO DE CUYO Betty, who is not worried about being compared to her admired great-aunt, Bibí Zogbé, “the flower painter.” “It happens that in the countryman, Lebanese family, the gardens are a cult. I present flowers from my garden, which I have seen grow and bloom,” she explained, who has made her own experience.
“My drawings are not a copy of reality, they are half abstract… What arises, I leave it. I don’t use pencil, or eraser, nor do I draw beforehand; I directly draw the line, it’s my way. And if I don’t like it, I crumple it and throw it away, until I make one that feels like it’s finished, but it’s instinctive; “I don’t think about where on the paper I’m going to draw, what the composition should be, I don’t know any of that, I don’t have academic studies, I draw by ear…”, said the music teacher, who at the request of her brother Jorge, took classes. of oil painting with Arturo Sierra. She also took a course on Stimulation of Creative Capacity with the great Leonor Rigau de Carrieri and, recently, she received advice from Pablo Henríquez, all visual artists.
“When I retired, my brother who is a painter told me: “What are you going to do, crochet and take care of the garden?” and he took me to the workshop. Arturo was very rigorous, very academic, he suited me well. Then I started with Leonor, a reference in every sense, who helped me find my own language and always encouraged me to show what I draw. And the one who gave me another huge push was Pablo, who gets angry when I call my drawings scribbles,” said Betty, who, she noted, does not consider herself a draftsman or painter.
“I’m very new to this, it’s the first time I’ve shown and said I’m drawing… Everyone knows me as Miss Betty, from music. It makes me a little resentful, I’m afraid that what I’m doing seems very presumptuous and I question myself, I feel very exposed…”, she was modestly honest, although she did acknowledge that “perhaps all that sound and sensitive world that I have developed for so many years years through music has formed in me this matrix that allows me to draw with complete freedom. More than anything, I think it is my interiority that is there…” she added without false modesty or pretensions.
“What I really value is that the moments I spend drawing are very happy moments. I didn’t expect, in the decline of life, when you start to be a child again… Well, maybe that’s the reason why I enjoy drawing so much, the circle is closed…”, he reflected out loud with his little sparkling eyes. . Visibly excited and eager to infect her peers, Marún harangued: “I think we all need this. Although what you do may seem like a nonsense, it is something that is your own and unique, because we are unique, unrepeatable people… And if they don’t want to paint, well, what do they believe in cooking, I don’t know, but don’t let them stay… We are all human beings. creatives, what we don’t give ourselves is the opportunity and we have to do it,” she urged convinced from one of the favorite corners of her house, surrounded by her own paintings, those of her brother and Pablo who, she expressed, encourage her to continue. “Even if what happened to me happened to everyone… I never thought that my drawings could reach others, that they could move people, that they could send a message… No, I never thought about it! That’s why I say that for me it’s like a spring of life,” she concluded, moved.
FACT
“Flowers. Evocation of its essence. Sample of drawings by Josefina Beatriz Marún. Opens Saturday, June 15, 5:30 p.m., Club Sirio Libanés (Entre Ríos before Av. Libertador). Free entrance. Organized by Retama, he will accompany the Vocational Choir, directed by José Domingo Petracchini.
