the pieces I’ve been working on this summer 2026 at Free Columbia Art Residency (NY). I’ve been meditating on how the Spanish word “cielo” translates to “sky”, “heaven”, & “ceiling” ~~~ & I find it so interesting to have had the English language (the language I grew up in, the one that entrenched my perception) separated the divine from the sublime as well as from spaces lived in. It makes me question how to find spiritual solace within an embodied life rather than one built off of asceticism.
& so that has led me to blind contour drawings of clouds + trees in plum + cherry scented ink on mulberry paper to flutter through the pen&ink drawings. The ephemeral impermanence of the scent is fleeting while the mulberry paper brings me closer to nature through the gorgeous leaves & petals pressed into each sheet of paper.
It has led me to gray-toned paper at night with watercolor pencils to contour my psyche or internal condition, allowing me to lay the pigment down dry & then with a brush + water to transform the surface (almost like sowing seeds of growth)
& it has led me to wrapping wire with shared found materials from @beachskunk.png ‘s childhood craft room that I had the privilege of encountering as we grew up together. Allowing for the conduit of the wire to be protected and ready for metaphoric connection in a way.
The meditation and communing with materials has been so healing in ways that are hard to describe. the only attempt i have to try at the moment is to acknowledge the reverence within how Agnes Martin worked.
CIELO; 2:10min experimental animation & sound art piece. 2026.
blind contour drawings of clouds & trees, plum & cherry scented inks on mulberry thai paper + watercolored pencil drawings on toned paper, 9x12in., digitally embellished & animated.
original melody made by Lyndsey Gillespie with an original score by Umanya
composer/mixing engineer: Andrew Umaña