Description
‘The Band’ by Gemma Román
Artist: Gemma Román
Title: ‘The Band’
Medium: Colour pencill, oil pastel, and acrylic markers on paper
Dimensions: 6″ x 10″
Framing: Unframed
Year of Creation: 2024
About the Artwork:
In Sinaloa México, there’s a traditional Banda song named “El Niño Perdido” (“The Lost Boy”); it was inspired by this real-life story from a small town where some musicians were playing music for festivities. One of the musicians carried his little son with him, but the boy got lost at some point while he was playing with other children. When his father realized that his boy had disappeared, he and his band and everyone in town began to look for him. With the darkness of the night approaching, exhausted and worried, the father climbed the top of the hill with the band and began to play non-stop so that the child could follow the sound of his father’s music and find his way back. After a long time, thanks to the sad longing melody, the child appeared crying and hurt by the branches and reunited with his dad and the rest.
The song is traditionally performed with one of the trumpets playing far away from the rest of the band, representing the boy’s cry. Then the other trumpet, representing the father, responds, and the “boy” gets closer and closer during the song until he gets reunited with “the father” and the rest of the band, and together they play from pure joy.
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)
Gemma Román is a Mexican illustrator, born and raised in Culiacán Sinaloa. Her creations are heavily influenced by her colorful country, flora and fauna around the world. She works from her home town, where she illustrates children’s books and her art has been published in magazines from the US and the UK and also exhibited in galleries in different galleries.