A fertile gold glowing light emanates from a textured surface of cast palm fronds resembling petrified Earth. Peeled away cast paint reveals a prismatic surface of tropical botanica beneath sedimentary layers of glitter, latex house paint, spray paint and acrylic. The painting on bedsheet celebrates divine, mournful rest with the ancient Andean myth of Kuychi whose rainbow is an auspicious, yet mournful symbol for the sun diety's petrified son.

Flora Aura cast landscape paintings considers fertility culture across reproductive health and climate crisis in the Americas: a complicated historical, political, and geographic context wherein conquering the tropical landscape and diasporic women’s bodies stem from a colonial Eurocentric legacy.

Exhibited at the Southern Survey Biennial Project Row Houses Houston, TX October 12 2024 - February 9 2025 curated by Dr Kimberli Gant with support by Cydney Pickens

"The Rainbow, Kuychi, is also considered to be a thief (Urton 1981). Lightning was associated with the clouds and also with rainbows. Not only
did the Lightning make rain, but it also had the power to cause more destructive"

1. Handbook of Inca Mythology Paul Steel 1967 ABC Clio Press

2. Religious Systems of the World, A Contribution to the Study of Comparative Religion : a Collection of Addresses Delivered at South Place Institute 1904 Pennsylvania State University