Querida

Querida, meaning Beloved, is a series of paintings that depict the nature of loving. There is a feeling of hope, rebirth, resilience, protection. “Mother” within oneself, within others, within community. Womb. Not as a feminine blueprint nor anything so strategically named but as something innate and transcendent. 

Lirios en Tierra Fértil, 2026

Oil on canvas

Lirios en Tierra Fértil began on an encounter with spider lilies. Seen on a walk with my mother in Mexico. Upon closer observation, I saw motherhood. I saw new blooms and spent ones sharing space, dried red pistils falling like healing wounds, flowers attempting to survive a vignette pressing in around them. The underpainting is of La Virgen de Guadalupe. The wall in the background became gold surrounding the flowers like reverence, because flowers that tall only grow in fertile ground.

The stars dance while the youngest blossom, 2026

Oil on canvas

Obdulia nació contra corriente,

Habitante de un pueblo

donde la innovación se negaba

en conocer el polvo y el barro

Ella igual bailaba y cantaba

y supongo que teníamos puertas de madera en común.

Portales y fracasos, entradas y salidas.

Aprendió a navegar los ríos

hasta llegar hacia mi mundo

Cuando la veo desde la sombra,

soy incapaz de ver detalles más allá

que la corona de oro que adorna su cabeza

La imagino inalcanzable a caballo

Madre como raíces incorruptibles

Somos ramales

suplicando impulso.

Ella,

guardiana de nuestras memorias,

guarda las estrellas

en cajas de porcelana,

tal como los ríos le inculcaron.

Ella aun se ve cómoda

en faldas largas que fluyen

como la corriente que nunca olvidará.

Yo soy la rama más lejana,

Verde y Fragil

pero yo también bailo y canto

para nunca olvidarme.

Obdulia, 2025

Color pencil on paper

Obdulia was born upstream,

in barely a town

where little innovation reached

the dust and the dirt.

She sang and danced and

I suppose we had wooden doors in common.

Portals and failures, threshold and home.

Winding rivers led her to my world.

I look to her from the ground,

unable to see detail past the yellow halo

gracing the crown of her head.

She looks impossibly far away on horseback.

Mother as ancient roots.

We are the branches gasping for air.

She, keeper of our memories,

stores the stars in porcelain jewelry boxes

because the winding rivers led her in such a way.

She wears long skirts that flow

like the icy rivers she never forgets.

I am the left most branch,

furthest from the river,

frail and green,

and I too sing and dance so I never forget.

Angels Unfurling, 2026

Oil on canvas

Congregacion de las flores amarillas, 2026

Oil on canvas

Yuya’s Kitchen, 2026

Oil on canvas