Milagros, 2015 / milagros and pencil on paper / 21″ x 34″
Created for the 2015 UTSA Art Auction to benefit the UTSA Art Department. Milagros was drawn with mechanical pencils to create fine details in the portrait. Every tone and gradation is made methodically without smudging or blending which results in a fine texture throughout the artwork.
As each milagro was sewn into place with red thread, one by one, they began to take on meaning – or rather I applied meaning that related to the subject, my Grandmother Louisa Escamilla. In particular the bus seemed to strike me the most. She drove a bus for the school I attended and some days I would ride along with her. We didn’t talk much and for the most part I sat in the back quietly staring out the window while she went along her route. She was kind and resilient, she worked hard all her life and I respected her greatly for it. She is also blind – from both a degenerative eye disease and an accident driving through brush with the windows rolled down a branch snapped back and took her vision. I never heard her cry about it or complain, and it certainly never seemed to slow her down.
