Parents of "Children-Star" prefer drawings with photos
The artist from Berlin Larisa Reinbot draws stillborn children and children who died shortly after the appearance of the light - in Germany they call Sternenkinder, or asterisk children. Parents often wish to leave not a photo taken by the hospital staff, but a portrait to which they want to watch. The history of the artist told the DW edition.
The idea of imprinting stillborn children Larisa filed her sister Annica, midwives by profession. At first, the artist perceived the proposal of the sister in the bayonets, but still thinking over him. Larisa decided that if it could help many families to cope with their grief, it would be right to agree and write the first portrait. Recently, Larisa gave birth to the firstborn - daughter, and began to understand the people who lost their children more.
Larisa deliberately refused bright colors in his works. "My drawings are made in muffled black and white and pastel colors. If you draw such portraits in color, they will look like and terrible. I use art coal, oil pastel and pencils, "said Larisa in a conversation with DW. In addition, Larisa abandoned the exact image of a child by photography.
At first, the artist performed orders for patients of the maternity branch, in which her sister works, and now the requests come to her from all over Germany and from around the world. Parents, grandmothers and grandfathers tell Larisa, how they want to see a portrait, after which it offers them a choice of several sketches.
Sometimes Larisa writes portraits of children who died a long time ago. "People who have lost their child, sometimes for decades do not let go of pain, they experience terrible mental torments, they do not find the strength to come to terms with the loss of the desired baby," the artist explained. One day a man turned to Larisa, whose wife gave birth to a dead son 45 years ago.
"I get a lot of letters of gratitude. People write that with the appearance of a picture of a child-star in their house, they became somehow easier in the soul that they felt the taste of life again, "Larisa said.
Larisa faces criticism. She noted that she was accused of the fact that she allegedly earns on someone else's grief. "People themselves go to me. And if my drawings help them to survive the tragedy and give the forces to live on, then I mean I do the right thing, "she said. Also in a conversation with DW, she stressed that she takes as much as a person can pay. Larisa takes orders even in those who have nothing to pay.
"The realistic photo seems artificial, almost mocking, because the person who is depicted on it left forever, and it cannot be seen, it is impossible to touch it, and the accuracy of the image creates an illusion that is possible," Larisa expressed her opinion on his personal Site.
In addition, sometimes there are other children in the family who will also grieve and also wanted to see their left brothers or sister, and it is better to show them a drawing, and not a photo from the hospital, the artist believes.
