Corona in the City

Dear Amsterdammers,

My name is Manola Sint Jago and I was born and raised on the sunny island of Aruba. When I was fifteen I was forced to leave for the Netherlands. I had a serious autoimmune disease and could not be helped on the island. By now I have lived in the Netherlands for over 38 years, 30 of which in Amsterdam. So I feel like a real Amsterdam and would never want to leave here again. Because of my autoimmune disease I am now half-sided blind and half-sided deaf and I have also developed type 2 diabetes and rheumatism. The coronavirus has totally changed my life, because of my illness I am housebound and have little or no contact with the outside world.
When I heard that I had to stay inside because of the virus I started an art diary. Every day I made a work of art out of something in my head. It had to be a small work of art, because I wanted to finish it in one day. Because of my limitations I couldn’t make something bigger in one day. The slightly larger painting in the middle, I worked a bit longer on that and I found it fit nicely between the small works of art that actually don’t have a theme, but do form a whole of what went in my head in the past few months. Eventually it became a collage of mini-paintings I made in my living room, in a period of more than two months in which I didn’t set foot outside the door. For the time being I still have to stay inside, because it’s not quite clear yet what the situation is with vulnerable people like me, now that the corona rules have been relaxed a bit.
I’ve placed another larger painting of round format on the website of ‘Corona in the city’ with the title ‘The despair near’ and also a poem ‘My life in corona time’.
I never thought I would go through something like this in my life, but it happened anyway. I hope that one of my works of art, made in this special period, will get a place in the digital museum of Amsterdam. That would be a bright spot for me in this lonely and uncertain time.
Thank you very much for your time.

A tropical greeting.
Manola Saint Jago

by Mw. Manola Sint Jago

In haar intrigerende Corona KunstDagboek neemt Manola Sint Jago ons mee in haar herinneringen aan Aruba. Na 30 jaar in de hoofdstad voelt zij zich op en top Amsterdamse. Maar door haar lichamelijke gebreken veroordeeld tot thuiszitten, komen de beelden van de tropische vogels, palmbomen en sterke vrouwen van het eiland van haar jeugd bijna als vanzelf naar boven. Zij overwint zo niet alleen geografische grenzen, maar ook grenzen in tijd.