Vaca Mariposa with Calf, Fruits and Creek

🐄 this is one of the biggest paintings i’ve ever made. i wanted a centrepiece for the exhibition, something to anchor the different world-building elements i was creating ; and it felt right to go to the source. this work takes direct inspiration from simón díaz’s song ‘el becerrito’ and the wider lore of la vaca mariposa, the butterfly cow.

🌺 i’ve become deeply attached to this image. to the cow, to the calf, to the soft and strange protection they share. in the little calf i see an inner child, resting, being protected. in the adult, i see a guide, a memory as creature, myself at times.

💧a creek runs through the scene, carrying flowers and fruits like in the song. in the distance, oil pumpjacks rise and fall… looming omens, characters in this and every story, as extraction often is.

🧸this whole exhibition is, in many ways, a love letter to my inner child. to the kid i was. and the kid i still am. learning from his creative fearlessness, protecting him, and painting him into being.