Legacy, c.2023

A new beginning may hold all the world’s promise, but an eventual end contains all of its substance.

Legacy features an elder sitting in a red chair before a bisected background; one side is a bright vermillion orange while the other is a deep pthalo blue, almost black. She looks to her left, the scenery swallowed up by a bouquet of roses, mingling among the dark blue. She holds a gathering of garden flowers in her left hand, squeezing the stems. She wears a chunky red sweater and blue jeans, her body bathed in shadow. A gentle vine of forget-me-knot flowers wraps around her pinky, sprouting from the vermillion on the right, a tie back to the vibrant side of the canvas.

Legacy is a painting about transition and loss, centering the elders who for many seem like permanent fixtures before they pass. It speaks about the hope that the end for our loved ones holds all the love we spend our short time with them trying to pass along before they go, while also reminding ourselves that a part of them never truly leaves us. Their impact is long felt through our marrow and memories, through the stories we tell to bond us with others who miss them and those who never got the chance to know them the way we did. Legacy is an ode to my maternal grandmother who left us too soon, as well as to aging family members who I am preparing to say goodbye to one day.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas.