Mexican president defends record on women's issues

126598377_web1_todays-Update

Times Leader P.M. Update: Monday, March 8

Prolific local artist Sherene Barilla has painted everything from little kids to lily pads, from mountains in the morning to lighthouses at night, from a realistic hummingbird in flight to a whimsical rendition of John Lennon as a llama.

But one of the most meaningful pieces she has painted is an homage to “The Goldfinch,” her recreation of a 1654 work by Dutch Master Carel Fabritius — who was considered by some to be Rembrandt’s best pupil.

Fabritius’ painting, which was featured in a 2013 novel and a 2019 movie of the same name, shows a little bird attached to its perch by a delicate chain.

“I was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer in 2010,” Barilla, of Swoyersville, wrote in an artist’s statement, explaining the symbolism the image holds for her. “Being chained represents cancer’s hold on me. But I can still fly to Jesus, who is my Savior, my Healer, my Divine Physician, my source of all hope, my everything.”

The artist isn’t shy about sharing a poignant moment she experienced several years ago. She was visiting her brother in Georgia and accompanied him to his church, where the pastor invited people to stand with their eyes closed.

“When I closed my eyes, I saw this,” she said, referring to a hand, emerging from a flowing white robe, stretched out in welcome and support. “I saw the hand of Jesus.”

Eventually, it was time to sit down and Barilla opened her eyes. The vision was gone — but she remembered it well enough to paint it, and she still feels a deeper spiritual connection than she had before.

When she was diagnosed with cancer, Barilla said, “I figured I had three months to live.”

More than a decade later, she’s still here.

As she explained in an artist’s statement, she believes “God had other plans for me. I trusted and believed in Him and asked Him into my heart and to heal me. He heard me and here I am … healed and thankful to Him and my Geisinger oncologist Dr. Paula Ronjoin.”

After she was diagnosed and had undergone two rounds of chemotherapy, Barilla said, her daughter, Jen Barilla Britze, gave her a gift certificate to Sue Hand’s Imagery in Dallas.

She hadn’t studied art before, and she was delighted to realize how much she enjoyed it.

“It’s my therapy. It really is,” she said. “It takes my mind off everything that’s going on in the world and in my life. I relax and concentrate on what I’m doing.”

Jen’s daughter has been a student of Sue Hand as well, and Barilla enjoys having that extra connection to her granddaughter, Kyra Britze.

As for what she’s going to paint next, the artist isn’t likely to run out of ideas.

Relatives who live all over the country send her photographs, and Barilla sometimes feels inspired to paint those images — squirrels, chipmunks, owls, mountains, just about anything. Perhaps soon she’s try her hand at recreating the picture of majestic horses that her great-nephew Scott Hizny, who works as a ranch photographer out West, sent her.

She also paints subjects close to home, such as a crusty loaf of bread from a long-time Swoyersville staple, Nemetz Baked Goods.

And she’s been inspired by the coronavirus lockdown to paint a weather-beaten door with a padlock on it. “I lot of people have told me they like that,” she said.

Barilla’s artwork has been shown over the years at places as diverse as Ye Olde Clock Shoppe in Dallas and the Bloomsburg Hospital. You can see a wide selection of it anytime at Paintings by Sherene, a Facebook page maintained by her husband, George.

“I enjoy art so much that I want to paint it all,” she said. “There’s so much of God’s beauty in this world and it’s all there to paint.”

“I’m going for it.”

126574313_web1_sherene.john.lennon

126574313_web1_sherene.audrey.hepburn

126574313_web1_sherene.hand.of.jesus

126574313_web1_sherene.locked.door.2021

126574313_web1_sherene.without.glasses

126574313_web1_sherene.the.gold.finch

126574313_web1_sherene.bird.of.prey

126574313_web1_sherene.red.bud.tree

126574313_web1_sherene.blue.poppies

126574313_web1_sherene.dog.as.harry.potter

126574313_web1_sherene.wood.duck

126574313_web1_elvis

126574313_web1_-evening.bubbles-

‘I want to paint it all’