Happy Mother's Day! Follow up to last post

Abuela Maria Emilia (grandmother Maria Emilia) - Image of a young woman with red hair dancing in the center of a green circle covered with bright pink and hot pink roses

In my last post I promised my mother an image based on a vision I had of her mother so here it is.

I never knew any of my grandparents so my art about them is all based in intuition and stories from my mother's very early childhood memories. In this my grandmother actually merged with my sister as I was creating the work. My mom always said she could see reflections of her mother in my sister with the auburn hair and hazel eyes so I gave my piece orange hair and put it on a green background. I think my grandmother's eyes were green but I am just working from the place of the unknown. Also I remember a story o my grandmother dancing and when I told mom about this piece she shared a story of her mother dancing in the Tierra Amarilla Catina.

As artist I suspect many people work from the unknown. Sometimes we are working to express what we can't explain and other times we are trying to create an authentic voice to connect with others. I know for me I often can give verbal pr written explanations of my art but they are fairly incomplete. It is so hard to put into words what comes through visions and waking dreams.

Nurturing the Flower - A woman in a white dress standing in front of a man in jeans, a t-shirt and a cowboy hat. The couple is framed by 2 arching vines creating a green heart with flowers and leaves. There are als knee level flower at their feet.

The interesting thing is often times other people will see what is under the surface and can sometimes give the words to what elude me. I created this one piece after reading an e-mail about a friends gender affirmation surgery. All these people who knew none of the history commented on how the people were blending into each other and the woman's hair turned into the man's mustache. I did not have to say this is about gender identity and transitioning, many people just knew on an intuitive level.

Digging deep and staying open as an artist seems to bring about work that resonates with the people it is meant to touch.