Mayan Whisper
"Mayan Whisper"
24"x17"x1"
Acrylic painting on canvas with glitter and black sharpie
This divine goddess passes ancient wisdom under a crescent moon.
Last year during my short trip to the Yucatan Mayan land, I was fascinated hearing Tzotzil, mixed Spanish and English. I want Mayan descendants to advocate for fair labor, to pass on rituals, tradition, and language as more and more people move to urban areas or migrate to the United States leaving everything behind. Here in Seattle, as part of my wellness, I enjoy the benefit of Temazacal or sweat lodge on a weekly basis. Temazcal is a Mayan and Aztec ritual of cleansing and purification.
Curanderas, Hechicheras y Herbolarias
These painting are a visual narrative, depicting whimsical women, goddesses, and queens, calling for healing, harmony and reconnection with ancient herbal wisdom. Each painting has a layer of gold or silver glitter, where in many cultures, gold is a symbol of power, divinity, and immortality. These paintings have been created in the last year and a half. (2021)
Along my artistic practice, these paintings have helped me cope towards a personal healing and understanding of the power of being intentional while recovering from Covid trauma, car accident injuries, toxic relationships, and political corruption in the last 4 years.
Amaranta Ibarra-Sandys is a South Seattle based visual artist. She was born and raised in Mexico City, but she calls the PNW her home. She is a bilingual art educator, youth mural facilitator, public artist, business entrepreneur, performer, community builder, gardener, mother of a teenager and a cat mama.
Covid 2020 shifted her individual creative process, refining her style. She uses acrylics, watercolors, clay, tin boxes, maps and yarn. Her illustrations of gloomy landscapes, women, goddesses, and skeletons reclaim ancient rituals. Food and language blend elements of the PNW: trees, nature, sea life and mountains. Art has been her tool for social change in hopes to inspire others to find a fulfilling purpose in life.
