|
T he Artist’s professional success did not alleviate the unremitting poverty the Sheyneses were precipitated into by the forced removal and devastating exactions committed by the Russian Government. The natural and calculated result of the mandated surrender of over 500 art pieces was Sheynes’s inability to sell the remaining lithographs at rates affordable to ordinary buyers. In America, his sales did not generate a regular income because he could not afford reducing his asking prices. From their resettlement in the U.S. in December 1986 until her untimely demise from a severe form of leukemia in July 2000, Marina Sheynes had to function as the primary breadwinner of the family. An accomplished and dedicated translator and journalist, Marina, despite her increasingly acute disabilities, had to work full time at low-level clerical jobs combined with “freelance” translation work. She was paid too little to set aside any meaningful savings, and had to deal much with societal bias and hostility against immigrants. She was frequently ridiculed, insulted and mistreated both at work and on the street for looking and sounding “different” – an aged female with visible physical impairments and accented English. Three times she was fired from her job without a valid reason, and nobody came out in support of her cause. Yet she clung fast to her individuality and her unique identity as a citizen of the world and the wife of an accomplished artist. This Website is also a shrine to the glorious memory of Marina Sheynes.
Requiem in pace!
|
