La Floración (The Flowering)

Becoming a Mother is…

Something I never thought I would want to do. I’m not particularly motherly though I have always been proud to be a woman, as I’ve been surrounded by wonderfully powerful creative women.

This particular piece was inspired by the birth of my daughter. The labor was so quick that she popped out like a flower. I’d carried a simple drawing of her birth in my sketchbook for years. When I saw a photograph of the Zapotec goddess of birth, 13 Serpents, I could see in my mind how I wanted to depict the birth. The goddess, with her woven headdress of 13 serpents would be cradling me in her arms. The gripping black pain of birth would give way to the leaves and flowers, and from that, my little daughter, her bright yellow skin would slowly twist her way out. Her rounded head was like the center of a blossom revealing herself between my thighs.

To this day, she continues to grow and blossom in ways that still surprise me.