22 x 34. 4 panels of 11 x 17. Platinum Palladium/Cyanotype
In this series, I explore my own past and future, myths and stories given to me by two very distinct cultures, Mexican and Italian. Stories of the ocean and moon. The moon dictates our moods, our fate, and its effect on the ocean and what lurks below. The Moon can be an omen for good or bad, depending if there is a cloud around it or what phase it is in.
This first panel of Voyager 1 refers to the practice of sinking retired out of commission fishing boats near Catalina Island. They act as a reef to repopulate marine life. A way to give back to the ocean of what the tuna boat fisherman took during Los Angeles’s tuna era. I am a granddaughter of a tuna boat fisherman, actually of generations of fisherman. My grandma told of a story that when it came time to sink my grandfather’s boat they pushed the family old piano aboard to share the watery grave.
I have been influenced by Mexican Muralism. In that tradition, there is a meaning above and below the horizon line. Below can speak of the past, of ancestors. Seeds and bones. Here, the ocean acts as that division. In the ocean we have faint ideas of what is swimming below us that we cannot see but know is there. Like dreams and the subconscious.
22 x 34 4 panels of 11 x 17 Platinum Palladium/Cyanotype.
This is the most self portrait of the series. That is me in the kayak. Navigating and reconciling my past, a dark night. No moon.
22 x 34. 4 panels of 11x17. Platinum Palladium/Cyanotype.
In my Mexican family, we care for cactus, and it carries our memories. Great Grandma cared for this, and now I am giving it to you. We pass it on and give plants to each other, like heirlooms. We are overwhelmed by their resilience and beauty. Coupled with the ocean's healing waters and the power of plants. Cactus and the ocean. Hope as the moon finally rises out of the ocean.