miracles by any name
My first retablo, ex-voto. Acrylic paint and collage on tin. Not my first miracle, but the first of what I hope will be a long series of re-creating and celebrating the milagros that have been scattered throughout my life. This piece is about my finally being over the grief of loosing the finca. Anyone who knows deep loss, knows you can’t “just get over it” because or when you want to. To wake up knowing I have the bounty of the memories, and the all place taught me, without the pain of the loss, feels like a miracle, indeed.
I am rather passionately drawn to these this primitive Mexican art form. I’ve always loved outsider art. Maybe subconsciously I saw it as a way “in”. (If Grandma Moses could do it, maybe I could too). I remember being transfixed by Frida Kahlo’s collection patch-working across her studio walls. On that same trip to Mexico City a few years ago, in the midst of a very disappointing broken dirty Barbie doll sort of flea market, I was lucky enough to find two beautiful retablos from the 30’s, that I bought — and cherish. A year later I commissioned an art student in Guanajuato to create one as a thank you to pals there. Hard to give it away...So now, creating my own feels quite good.
Otherwise, it’s been challenging for me to get real creative these days. Call me crazy, or maybe just lazy, but I haven’t been able to figure out what the heck one writes of interest about sheltering at home and a worldwide pandemic. But...thankfully, there’s something about mixing paper and paint, words and glue, that lets me dive in and just play. Maybe I love retablos especially because each is a story told in both words and art. And that’s the way I roll best.
Speaking of mixing words and pictures, i just got the very good news that my book, La Finca, is somehow, despite the dystopian shutdown of so much — still slated to come out this summer—-! More details, and maybe even have a cover to share soon. For now, the notion the book will be real feels like another miracle. Here’s to the many, many we all need right now, and to all who help them come true.
#graphicmemoir #graphicnovel #illustratedbook #womenwhowrite #womenwhodraw #retablo #tupress #vieques #latininmysoul #finca_victoria #artheals #outsiderart
