Siempre Verde #12 by kayla matta

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Siempre Verde: Music for Feeling & Healing #12 is a dreamy, delicate San Anto kitchen window scene peering out into the fertile backyard garden when you’re washing dishes and just...being busy pero contenta in your cocina. 

I feel wistful and misty imagining Kayla Matta meticulously working on this commission with green ballpoint pen in the paño arte tradition painstakingly perfected by our incarcerated familia who have all the time in the world to make worlds appear on mere fabric scraps to send home to those they love. 

Kayla drew from this lineage and kindly listened to my dreams/visions so that maybe this illustration will help my family manifest a kitchen like this, a garden, a Siamese kitty like the one Jenelle Esparza was raising for us. 

Siempre Verde #12 was a team effort, from my domestic dream/vision to my Tía Gloria’s pretty placemat she sent us with matching mantel (some of which we used in our @mysapl Latino Collection embroidery workshop, remember Sarah Castillo and Laurie Ann Guerrero?), from the green ballpoints in Kayla's steady hands to Larry Martinez photographing the artwork on my front porch so we could make quality prints to give away, from Joe De La Cruz editing the file to make it as crisp and clean as possible with Photoshop wizardry to right now as my kids are letting me write this before I get up to cut mangoes for their afternoon snack and...wash dishes in our cozy cocina. 

This multidisciplinary artwork is a perfect example of creative mutual aid, in this case with Edward Vela of Evergreen Garden at the helm.  

The second to last Siempre Verde is happening May 22, 2021 from noon to 2 PM featuring FREE prints and soooooo much beautiful music on vinyl in the garden. 

Gracias to everyone involved for making this dream come to life.