Cle-ME-ntine
Image title: Cle-ME-ntine
Medium: Watercolor and ink on paper, mixed media
Size:5.8” x 8.3”
Date: August 2020
Artist: Arianna Garcia-Fialdini
www.garfiart.com
Arianna Garcia-Fialdini is a PhD Candidate in Art Education whose doctoral work is currently concentrating on exploring the pedagogical impact of collaborative art practices on new Canadians’ sense of identity and belonging, and in considering the role of food sharing in this process as a creative mode of connection with specific communities in Montreal.
Having migrated from Mexico City, Arianna associates clementines (or “mandarinas” as she grew up knowing them) to tradition, celebration, comfort and joy. A Day of the Dead ofrenda or a celebratory Christmas piñata is hard to imagine for her without them. These mandarinas are one of the fruits that most Mexicans await eagerly during the final 6 months of the year. Nonetheless, before this wonderful fruit grew in Mexico it had to travel long journeys from very far and remote lands, a discovery that despite being obvious to many, became only clear to Arianna when she migrated herself to her new country of residence in Montreal, Quebec.
“Cle-ME-ntine” is a personal sensory reaction to the idea of “go-to” comfort food items for the artist during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Finding refuge, ties to memories and home while finding herself physically far away from it in the scent, sight, taste and sound of clementines and their cathartic peeling, anchors the artist in an illustrated and mixed-media self-portrait that serves as a coping mechanism through ongoing uncertain times.
Over the past six months, clementines continue to evoke a strong sense of sociality for the artist as a new mother, far away from home and family/larger support systems, as she visualizes peeling away the discomfort, uncertainty and anxiety that she finds herself living with on a day-to-day basis through our current unsettling times. Working from home like most while balancing 24-hour parenting and contemplating the gradual re-integration into society following new socially-distanced regulations, Arianna continues to find shelter and stability in these wondrous fruits that provide activity, strength, distraction, vitality and nourishment through their high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C to both her and her family.
These approachable little fruits provide her children with skill building, playful interactions, explorations and self-nourishment as well as learning to care for themselves by feeding their little bodies with their healthy, sweet and strengthening nectar. Clementines have become quick reliable references that appease hungry little bellies as mid-day snacks as well as in moments when trying to balance attending webinars, responding to faculty emails and trying to ensure dinner is ready and set on the table. Clementines require no extra attention or added work in Arianna’s life. If anything they provide her with small breaks of space and added time to regroup and re-center as they keep little hands busy peeling away into the sweetness and relief that awaits patiently under the bitter surface. Furthermore, in a world where interaction and sharing are associated with danger, clementines have provided small pockets of normality and opportunities for sharing kindness, solidarity, playfulness, warmth and well-being safely with strangers as their protective peel provides a small but real security that guards the nutrients that the fruit provides at a safe distance from the uneasiness and menace that the novel coronavirus bears.
For Arianna, clementines, much like traditional meals that she regularly explores in her own artistic/pedagogical and community work with diverse groups, have become a perfect combination of comfort, connection and ties to her country of origin as well as to the promise of new possibilities in community building.
