This year I submitted works for the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society's Spring Member's Show which is a juried show. The juror for the Spring show is Pat Dews, a fantastic artist who specializes in exciting contemporary mixed media works.   

This is the very first juried show I attempted and I received notice that one of my pieces "Abuela Eligia" was accepted into the show!

This is a great honor for two reasons.  First, I've never entered a juried show; it is an honor to be included among such wonderful artists including my studio mates at Sally Treanor's Hope Studios.  

Second, this particular piece depicts my grandmother Eligia Davila.  My grandmother died young, when she was middle aged.  She raised 12 children against crushing odds living in the tenements of Brooklyn.  She spoke no English, she came here as an immigrant from Puerto Rico with many children in tow.  Her life is one I reflect on often as I look at our subsequent generations who've seen first time college graduates and so many of her grandchildren, great grandchildren and their generations doing what a woman in the 1930's had no prayer of doing.  

Hers was a life of poverty and unspeakable abuse.  She withstood significant harm to protect her children and see them safely into adulthood.  My painting depicts a woman of power--a serene power.  This was my grandmother.  Not one to laugh or be joyful, her life was one of focus and intensity and strength.  It is a story of survival.

That a painting of Abuela Eligia is included in the show--that her visage will be included--a proud, strong Puerto Rican woman--well this is so gratifying. 

It is my hope that my painting captures not only her strength but her regal bearing for she is the revered queen of our very large family and not a day goes by that my mother does not remember "Mama" and long for her to visit her if only in her dreams.