@desk, guest room, a high floor, apartment, San Juan, Puerto Rico
After heartbreak 💔⛈ , “Cry Me A Pool” is a series of drawings I’ve been working on during these months of quarantine🏠🦠. By illustrating fantastic, joyful escapades✨, the pools are my way of healing—exploring my relationship with water, loss, and sadness—, and trying to find my joy again.🌈☁️
“Cry Me A Pool” is for people who long to be taken back to wonderful moments in their lives🌺. By looking back, they spark desires and help imagine possible futures for us. Like so much of my work, the pools are ultimately an ode to my paternal grandmother 👩👦. I have vivid memories of looking out the window👦🏻 and seeing the entire construction of the pool she and my grandfather built🏗 🧜♂️. I was probably seven years old, and recall seeing the massive, deep void in the yard slowly begin taking structure, shape, and eventually getting filled with water.💧✨
My illustrated pools are reminders: of taking swimming classes with siblings in summers🏊♂️🏊♀️🏊♀️, weekend getaways with a lover🛩, celebration with friends☀️; reminders of independence as well as insecurities🧼; of bbqs with hotdogs🌭, burgers🍔, and ribs🍖; of bonding with family while imagining the deep end are shark-infested waters🦈; of life in the Caribbean🏝; and of falling in love (and lust) at first sight💞.
The pools are printed on watercolor paper, and they measure 12"x12"📏🖍. They are $95 per pool + shipping📪. I've also included some iPhone wallpapers as a thank you for reading this far! I’ll be drawing new ones throughout the coming months: like my grandmother’s pool when I was a kid, I'll be slowly giving them structure, shape, and eventually filling them with water, color, and life.🍄🌿
PRINTS
“Summer” (2020). 12"x12", watercolor paper.
Limited edition series of 10.
SOLD OUT.
“Spring” (2020). 12"x12", watercolor paper.
Limited edition series of 10.
SOLD OUT.
“Without A Drought” (2020). 12"x12", watercolor paper.
Limited edition series of 20.
SOLD OUT.
“Honeymoon for One” (2020). 12"x12", watercolor paper.
Limited edition series of 10.
SOLD OUT.
“Puppy Love” (2020). 12"x12", watercolor paper.
Limited edition series of 10.
Available now.
“Blue Krismas” (2020). 12"x12", watercolor paper.
Limited edition series of 20.
Available now.
IPHONE WALLPAPERS
Always be like a water. Float in the times of pain or dance like waves along the wind which touches its surface.
― Santosh Kalwar
No water, no life. No blue, no green.
― Sylvia Earle
I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
—Psalm 63:1
That's what I wanted to believe
Right from the start
Just a little place for myself
In a deep blue heart
—John Mellencamp
I cry each night
It's tears for you
My tears are all in vain
I hope I hope and I pray
That maybe someday
You'll be back (you'll be back) in my arms (in my arms)
Once again
—Paul Anka
I'll have a blue Christmas without you
I'll be so blue just thinking about you
—Elvis Presley