Mother Earth Demands Action

This piece is inspired by the words of Berta Cáceres Flores, an Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader, and co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015, for "a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam" at the Río Gualcarque. She was assassinated in 2016 in her home by armed intruders, after years of threats against her life.

This collage is part of a body of work conceived in 2018 during a 5-week artist residency at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva, Florida. The art residency was the most productive and artistically regenerative time I had experienced in my life. The picturesque tropical beach landscapes in Captiva truly expanded my imagination and gifted me with the time and space to get lost in my own images and ideas. The environment allowed me to feel relaxed and to forget the urgency of city life, and to delve deep into my creativity. During this time of isolation, I realized how much I value my solitude and my ability to make art. Bob’s spirit was present throughout the compound, and it was an honor to partake in the kingdom he had built for himself. The natural environment - everything from the leaves on the trees, to the ocean waves, to the many different kinds of wildlife on Captiva, - inspired me to take my artistic practice to another level.