I was given a stone painted with the words, “I refuse to give up.” I hold this stone, connect with nature and paint these grid-like patterns. In this painting, you see a pink ground peeking through alternating rectangular marks of blue and green. I touched each

of those marks with a smaller teal dab of a similar shape. The creative, repetitive, and slow nature of this work rids my body of cortisol, the chemical that creates stress, which allows me to labor in peace. View this picture and place an intention on your experience. For example, “I will look at this painting and feel happy.”

Ya me llego, “Amor del Verde” is what Mamá used to say when she went to collect mail and saw her Social Security check had arrived. She would also use this same phrase to refer to Pipo giving her his paycheck when he got paid. She used a similar phrase, “Amor ha lo Verde” when referring to her plants and gardens. Mamá always tended to avegetable and fruit garden growing herbs like mint and ruda. And grew corn, squash, tomatoes, jalapeño, and serrano peppers. They had peach, apricot, apple, and fig trees.

And Pipo planted pecan trees at their house on Nicholas Street in Uvalde. She always had roses and marigolds blooming. I remember being so happy in her garden, picking handfuls of rose petals and throwing them up in the air. I danced under a rose petal shower. Notice the light violet and dioxazine purple stripes painted behind five radial patterns in green, yellow, and orange. Now imagine feeling that kind of happiness and love for green.

The winding pattern of the labyrinth represent the circulation of the spring-fed rivers of Borderlandia. An imaginary Nepantla that comes alive in my paintings, videos, performances and video. Influenced by the hope for a better future written in El Mundo Zurdo by theorist Gloria Anzaldúa I drew this selection of 8 drawings during 45-minute meetings. I sat still and learned how to make my life better. I made each drawing following rules as ritual to create and learn. I made the longest line to completely fill the page with a composition that renders a labyrinth of my thoughts. Like Vincent, I believe drawing is pertinent to painting. These alla prima drawings made me feel grounded. Look at the elaborately beautiful pattern of the drawing symbolic of my relationship with love, hope, tears, the bleeding heart and medicine.

Notice the heart shape in the lower left corner.  The winding pattern of the labyrinth represent the circulation of the spring-fed rivers of Borderlandia. An imaginary Nepantla that comes alive in my paintings, videos, performances and video. Influenced by the hope for a better future written in El Mundo Zurdo by theorist Gloria Anzaldúa I drew this selection of 8 drawings during 45-minute meetings.  I sat still and learned how to make my life better.  I made each drawing following rules as ritual to create and learn. I made the longest line to completely fill the page with a composition that renders a labyrinth of my thoughts. Like Vincent, I believe drawing is pertinent to painting. These alla prima drawings made me feel grounded. Look at the elaborately beautiful pattern of the drawing symbolic of my relationship with love, hope, tears, the bleeding heart and medicine.

In this study, I render a wall in Borderlandia, a reimagined landscape full of life and movement, not divided by borders. This is a drawing of a wall standing in the vast landscape of this imaginary Nepantla. Nepantla is a term used by theorist Gloria Anzadúa to describe a place of “in-between-ness.” Nepantla is a Nahuatl word which means "in the middle of it" or "middle." This wall stands in the bright sun casting a shadow. This wall functions only to hang paintings and provide shade. In my art, I invite people to contemplate the beauty that exists in a land where people negotiate their place, where people thrive and struggle, and where people resist the idea of unjust borders.