Acrylic on wooden box
28 x 13 x 5 in

This is a woman and child who stayed behind as their husband immigrated. They exchanged letters back and forth between old and new lands, but eventually, for the mother and child, the letters would stop coming. With the death of the father, the mother and child have lost their other half—their faces half-painted and adorned to symbolize the portion of their lives they now miss. The woman holds a white calla lily, representing the departure of a soul, but also its purification and potentially its rebirth.