Name/Title
Wishes in the WindContext
According to the artist, "'Wishes in the Wind'” is a portrait of three exuberant Milwaukee children who have been challenged by adversity, and represent the voice of all children hoping for a brighter future.'"
From the artist's remarks at the dedication of the original "Wishes in the Wind" painting at the Central Library on September 22, 2011; the original painting has been returned to the Wisconsin Governor's Residence courtesy of the Richard Pieper Family Foundation, and this giclée print from the artist is displayed in its place at the Central Library:
"Thank you Paula and everyone at the Central Library for welcoming this painting here. Thank you Mrs. Walker for thinking of the Central Library as a location, it was a great idea.
I’d like to briefly talk about each of the three children featured in the painting, throw in a little bit of science, which I love to do, and then maybe tie that in with why I paint the way I paint.
Up on top, with her arm raised, in a kind of Statue of Liberty type of pose, is DeAngel Beckworth. In the painting she is seven years old, and she is a member of the Don and Sallie Davis Boys & Girls Club on the south side of Milwaukee.
As many of you know the Boys and Girls Clubs is a tremendous organization, they provide a safe and supportive place for kids after school, they can hangout and have fun, but to also get help with their homework, and take classes. Their impact on the youth of our city is actually measureable, Club members are more likely than their peers to be proficient in reading, more likely to be involved in their community, and more likely to graduate from high school. The clubs serve about 35,000 kids in some of the most difficult and violent neighborhoods we have. And here is the part that gets to me, about half, 17,500 children, come from a household with an annual income under $15,000. Can you even imagine what that would be like? What choices you would be forced to make, to raise a family on $15,000 a year?
In the lower right hand corner is 4-year-old Dimitria Campbell. She is actually here today along with her mom Pearlie Walker. Thank you so much for being here today.
In Milwaukee on any given day there are about 1000 people living on the streets, homeless. A couple years ago Pearlie Walker and her children spent three months living at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. A wonderful organization over on 19th and Wells. They serve about 700 meals a day, and they provide shelter each night to 300 people. They have a section for men, and a separate section for woman and children. And in the most compassionate way, they provide everything a person might need, for a short period of time, to help them get back on their feet, to help them find a home again. So here is Dimitria. Can you imagine what it would be like to be 3 years old and be homeless?
And finally in the middle, peering out from behind a soap bubble is Brogan Calvillo. A few years ago a drunk driver killed Brogan’s older brother, Bailey and his father, Alan. This story is extraordinarily poignant for me because ten years ago a drunk driver killed my brother Tom and his girlfriend Marcia Larson.
Here we stand in Milwaukee, brew city, a town proud of its brewing heritage. We are home of the Brewers, who play at Miller Park, and you cannot go to a tailgate party, the State Fair, Summerfest, an ethnic festival, block party, or even church picnic, without finding alcohol. We are the drunkest state. But all that fun, has a dark side too. About 10% of drinkers will develop a drinking problem, and alcohol abuse contributes to every social ill you can think of. From teen pregnancy, to workplace accidents, to spouse abuse and child abuse.
But by far the most tragic result is drunk driving. This year about 300 people in the state will be killed by a drunk driver. And we all let it happen, collectively if we wanted to stop it, we could, we let it happen. There are solutions. Other states do a much better job at combating the problem, and other countries have much higher alcohol consumption rates, and at the same time, lower drunk driving rates.
So here is Brogan. Can you imagine what it would be like to be four years old and have your older brother and your father killed by a drunk driver?
So that is the back story of the three children.
The bubbles are meant as metaphors, they are the children’s dreams and wishes, translucent and fragile, as children’s dreams tend to be, reflecting images of the neighborhood and they silently float above the sidewalk.
Back in the early 1990’s, in a lab in Parma Italy, researchers discovered a specialized class of neurons in the human brain and named them Mirror Neurons. Using MRI’s they discovered the very same neurons are activated in the brain when you experience something, like pick up a book, as when you sit still and watch another person experience the same thing, you watch Joe pick up a book. The same neurons in your brain are activated. It is fascinating stuff, it has all sorts of implications.
We have all experienced this phenomenon ourselves, right, if you hate spiders and you see a spider crawl up someone else’s arm, you yourself will get a creepy crawly feeling. You might actually shiver. That is your Mirror Neurons firing. The experience is more powerful than mere understanding, this is more than just intellectual understanding, you actually feel as they feel, so much so that scientists are now calling these cells Empathy Neurons.
Evolutionary biologists now regard these Mirror Neurons, or Empathy Neurons, as a critical driving force in the rapid development of our species. With Empathy Neurons we can understand and build on another’s experiences, without having to go through it, discover it, ourselves. And every time that happens, it is a building block for knowledge, and in turn culture and civilization.
But today we have also constructed all sorts of organizations to block our natural tendency to have empathy for one another. For example if are watching the Green Bay Packers play, some Packer fans might cheer if one of our players inflicts a brutal, painful hit on the other team’s quarterback. Our natural tendency to feel for the other player, to feel their pain, is blocked by our team loyalty.
In the same way we might be indifferent to pain of people who look different from us, sound different, or speak another language.
I would argue that when we don’t listen to our natural ability to have empathy for other human beings, then society itself takes a step backward, because we fail to learn from the experiences of other people. Social commentator and author Jeremy Rifkin said it best, he said, “to empathize is to civilize.”
People often ask me, why do you take so much time to paint all those details, why do you make it look so realistic. And the answer is I am trying to tap into your natural ability to have empathy for another human being. I’m trying to make those Mirror Neurons, those Empathy Neurons, light up in your brain.
If I make it real enough then maybe you will know what they know, feel as they feel. What is it like to live in the central city, what is it like to be homeless, or loose your brother and father to a drunk driver. If that happens, then maybe in some small way, if we let our empathy be our guide, then maybe it will lead to a more peaceful and just society, where every child’s hopes and dreams are honored and cherished."Collection
Wisconsin Art Collection, Artwork CollectionAcquisition
Accession
2019.1Source or Donor
David LenzAcquisition Method
GiftProvenance
Notes
The original painting was commissioned by the state Executive Residence Foundation and funded by Milwaukee area businessman Richard Pieper and his wife Suzanne.Research Notes
Notes
"In an interview, Lenz said he carefully selected the three children portrayed in "Wishes in the Wind." The African-American girl, featured in a Journal Sentinel column on homelessness, spent three months at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission with her mother. The Hispanic girl is a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. And the boy's father and brother were killed by a drunken driver in 2009." MJS 6/5/11