Fresno Famous

Peter Reynosa has done  a series of paintings about Madonna the singer and one of them deals with the issue of abortion. The name of the painting that deals with the issue of abortion is called  Madonna and Aborted Child.  It is a painting of Madonna and a child she had aborted standing next to her.

"It is a tragic painting about abortion," Reynosa explained. And while it deals with abortion and uses Madonna he says the painting is in no way, shape or form an attack upon Madonna. "I don't want people to get the idea that this painting is meant to be a personal insult to her in any way."

Reynosa said that it is a very symbolic painting. "I have Madonna and the child dressed like they did in the Renaissance  because Madonna and child paintings were very popular at this time period. And their faces are white to represent the innocence of the child and the innocence of the woman. Above their heads is a nimbus for each person. A nimbus was usually put above the head of someone thought to be very holy and close to God. So obviously this means both the woman and the child are sacred and holy and one is not more important than the other. And the two crosses in the painting represent death: the death of the child and a part of the death of the woman because  she has had an abortion. And I show the aborted child as a young person to stress the fact that this is a person."

Unlike many paintings about abortion, this one is not a mean or spiteful or ugly painting in any way. "Even though it deals with abortion, I tried to make it a beautiful painting." And Reynosa has said even though it is about abortion and Madonna, he does not know if she has even had an abortion. "I have no idea if Madonna has even had an abortion. So this could simply be an imaginative painting of one of her children if she had had an abortion." Peter Reynosa currently lives in Yuba City, California but he is a graduate of Fresno State.