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cat falling off table

2022

acrylic on canvas

Martin Luther King Jr., January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968.

This painting explores death and the destination of the souls for our ancestors, the Mexica. The body contains within itself numerous animating energies, or souls. The three most important of these are the Tonalli (the destiny, represented as a serpent which resides in the head), the Teyollia (the personality, represented as a hummingbird which resides in the heart), and the Ihiyotl (represented as a breath which resides in the liver). These are independent entities, who possess agency and will. Together, they give life, warmth, and vitality to the body, and compose our spiritual self. This painting represents the moment of death, as the forces which give us life abandon us, and we are stripped of ego and individuality, and become as one with the totality of being.