"El Che"

El Che

This is my Che. Not the icon on a T-shirt, not the slogan, but the question that has followed me since I was a teenager. I grew up reading about Che Guevara, fascinated by the rare idea of someone whose thoughts, words and actions seemed to align. Very few people manage that in life.

I painted this portrait because, even now, Che appears in my head as a constant internal conversation. What would Che do? Not as an answer, but as a challenge. A way of measuring myself against my own ethics. Of asking what is right, what is comfortable, and where those two collide.

The face is heavy, almost carved out of darkness, because ideals are not light things to carry. They age you. They complicate you. The colours breaking through the surface are doubt, anger, hope and contradiction all at once. The small red star is not a badge of certainty, but a reminder of conviction — and of the cost that conviction demands.

This painting is less about Che as a revolutionary and more about Che as a mirror. A figure I return to when I feel lost, when the world feels unjust, when silence feels easier than action. It is my way of asking myself, again and again, how to live with integrity in a world that constantly pushes you to compromise.

"Technique painting: Oil on canvas 40" by 32"