Nebulas
“My art is grounded in the belief of one universal energy which runs through everything: from insect to man, from man to spectre, from spectre to plant from plant to galaxy. My works are the irrigation veins of this universal fluid. Through them ascend the ancestral sap, the original beliefs, the primordial accumulations, the unconscious thoughts that animate the world”― From the artist statement of cubana artist/ ancestor Ana Mendieta
"To finally recognize our own invisibility is to finally be on the path toward visibility. Invisibility is not a natural state for anyone." -Mitsuye Yamada from “Invisibility Is An Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman”
My fascination with nebulas was born from a 2013 trip to Vieques, the same trip that sparked my determination to move to Puerto Rico, which I did exactly a year later. Vieques marks an axis between my political artworks, my first pregnancy and the loss of my brother. At this axis, contemplations on liberation consider life, living, surviving, being, existing, thriving, transcending.
Birthing at home, un-medicated, anchored in an intense, raw, physical state, spirit soaring beyond this plane, taught me to see through the nebulous. In the famed bay of Vieques’ bioluminescent waters, I was captivated by plasma, swirls of light as liquid matter as in lightning, the aurora and cosmic nebulas. The latter allow me to experiment with the visual essence of fluido, the universal fluid or light energy flowing through spirits, physical life and celestial bodies--a concept central to my espiritismo faith. The above quote by Ana Mendieta is a powerful example of this. I generally reserve my nebula portraits for images of ancestors, those who have passed and exist for us in spirit form.
Nebulas become a visual metaphor for existing between Earth and beyond; the space between dying and being born; living between two lands; being born a citizen to a nation in which you have no real representation. As in the Mitsuye Yamada quote above, “invisibility is not a natural state…” Nebulas are metaphors for the nebulous political state of Puerto Rico and for reclaiming and reaffirming visibility for a people rendered invisible by colonialism. In the fluid, nebulous in-between, like the water that flows between the land my parents were born on and the one I was born on but left, I find the answer: transcendence.
Black Lives Matter
After the death of George Floyd, I drew his image as a red, black and green nebula on black paper. Working with these colors, I reference Marcus Garvey’s colors of black liberation. Together with yellow/ gold, as in the flags of so many African republics, they also happen to be the colors of the common firefly/ luciérnaga.
Mas Allá de la Luna
As a play on Juan Antonio Corretjer’s poem, Boricua en la luna (Puerto Rican on the Moon), my series Más allá de la luna (Beyond the Moon) considers liberation beyond colonialism and political borders. It envisions spiritual liberation beyond this Earth. Puerto Rican freedom fighters, who have suffered through exile, incarceration, torture and death are reinterpreted as interstellar nebulas. The blue and red of Puerto Rico's flag are represented as gases in nebulas reflecting the light of stars. Blue is viewed in space when there is a high concentration of oxygen and red is present when hydrogen is more prevalent. Depicting these gases and their corresponding colors in the cosmos, I reference the water that comprises 3/4s of this Earth and 3/4s of our human bodies. The purpose is to imbue the flag with an expanded spiritual, universal significance. Nationhood is essentially an expression of what we all seek: connectivity in humanity and liberation. This isn’t to suggestion that liberation can only come with death; this a call to consider our expansive selves beyond this confined realm, as spirits whose energy and reach goes well beyond the physical spaces and present realities we embody.
“Corretjer en la luna,” 2024. Más allá de la luna series. Yasmin Hernandez. Color Pencil on black Strathmore Paper. 12 x 9 inches. Juan Antonio Corretjer wrote the famous patriotic poem “Boricua en la luna”. It inspired the title of this series, “Más allá de la luna” as in Puerto Ricans on the moon and beyond the moon. Corretjer ends his poem with “Yo sería Borincano aunque naciera en la luna.” (I would be Boricua even if I was born on the moon). It is a necessary message for so many born out in the diaspora who have had their identity questioned (myself included). This series, as described in the statement above, uses the colors of our flag to create nebula portraits of our warrior, freedom fighter ancestors. Beyond the moon, speaks to our ancestors existing on another plane. Aside from being a poet, Corretjer was known as a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, a former political prisoner, a socialist who inspired various liberation organizations. I created this work for the Círculo de Lectura Corretjer that is hosted by poet/ artist Ketsia Camacho Ramos at CucubaNación.
"Philando Castile Nebula" 2020. Yasmin Hernandez. Color Pencil on black Strathmore paper, 12 x 9 inches. Philando Castile, at just 32 years old was killed during a traffic police stop in Minneapolis on July 6, 2016. He was shot by the officer several times within close range. His girlfriend was in the car with her four-year-old daughter when it happened. She documented the incident via a video she shared from the car, providing evidence. That his loved ones would have to witness this, and a young child as well, is not only testament to the violence black men face at the hands of police officers but the lack of humanity. Additionally, when we lose our loved ones in this way, there is an added layer of violence where we are not allowed to simply grieve, but are tasked with the grueling process of documenting, providing evidence and fighting for justice.
"Yusuf Hawkins Nebula" 2020. Yasmin Hernandez. Color Pencil on black Strathmore paper, 12 x 9 inches. Young brother Yusuf Hawkins, just 16 years, old was killed by a mob of white youth in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn on August 23, 1989. He was there with a brother and a cousin to inquire about a used car for sale and never returned home to East New York Brooklyn. East New York is the community I grew up in. I was about to start high school that summer. Al Sharpton organized marches and the Nation of Islam provided security at the home. The news of the "Central Park 5" case was still on the airwaves, along with so many other incidents. This is the climate I was raised in and that helped shape my political formation not just as a Puerto Rican but one with a black liberation consciousness. For more information please watch the documentary Storm Over Brooklyn on your streaming channels. Follow this link for a trailer and interview with Yusuf's brother and the film director.
"George Floyd Nebula" 2020. Yasmin Hernandez. Color Pencil on black Strathmore paper, 12 x 9 inches. While drawing this portrait of George Floyd, my son who was 8 at the time wanted to know who I was drawing. I explained. Confused and saddened that his life was violently taken, he asked, "Whose belly was he in?” Finding a photo on my phone of George Floyd as a boy in his mother's arms, I held it up to him. "Why would anyone want to kill him as a grown up when he was such a cute boy?," he questioned. My child advocated for George Floyd's humanity, declaring him a "cute boy" worthy of love and justice as a grown man, connecting him to his source and history.
"Water Protectors" 2018. Yasmin Hernandez. Acrylic on canvas. 25 x 48 inches. Commissioned by Thelvia Bonano Scarlett, Jacksonville, FL. Water Protectors is inspired by my nebulas series and the bioluminescence in Bieké's waters. It envisions buffalo within the Standing Rock landscape as bioluminescent spirit warriors protecting the water that flows across these lands. Red and blue are references to hydrogen, oxygen in our bodies, our water, the cosmos. Included is the text: "Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find that money can't be eaten." Thelvia, who commissioned this work simply asked for a painting with these words (usually credited as a Cree prophecy in variations). I combined them with this vision of Standing Rock. Commissioned in the summer of 2017, I asked for an extension following Hurricane Irma. Two weeks later, Hurricane Maria hit. Needless to say, I didn't finish the painting until 2018, having gotten my lights back in January.
"El Regalo de los Reyes," 2017. Yasmin Hernandez. Outdoor Mural of Oscar López Rivera, Radio Raíces, San Sebastián, Puerto Rico. I created this mural to commemorate Oscar Lopez Rivera’s release from prison and his return to his hometown after 35 years as a political prisoner of the United States. With his birthday on Three Kings Day, it features Los Tres Reyes constellation or Orion’s Belt in the center with adjacent stars Betelgeuse and Rigel creating red and blue triangular nebulas of the Puerto Rican and Cuban flags. The text is taken from Julia de Burgos’ poem of the same title about our flag. This image was taken at the moment Oscar López visited the radio station and saw the mural for the first time.
"De-Debt/ De-Colonize," 2017. Yasmin Hernandez. Mixed media on canvas, 18 x 14 inches. Part of Occupy Museum's Debt Fair installation at the 2017 Whitney Biennial. The Puerto Rican archipelago is presented within a nebula. From the main island emerges the face of Political Prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera, held 35 years. The nebula follows the topography of Puerto Rico's cordillera central. Inspired by Moca, PR musician el Topo's song: "Verde Luz, de monte y mar...para ti quiero tener libre tu suelo, sola tu estrella."
"Eso que llamamos la libertad" (Portrait of Elizam Escobar), 2016. Yasmin Hernandez Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches. Portrait of artist, poet, professor, former Puerto Rican political prisoner Elizam Escobar. I include a quote I heard during his presentation at a conference: "That which we call freedom is not a state of being, it is a practice." I painted him dressed in a nebula to reference a transcendence and liberatory practice embodied by Elizam in his art, actions, and words. Elizam left this plane in January of 2021.
"La Transmutación del alma," 2016. (Laura Meneses y Pedro Albizu Campos) Yasmin Hernandez. Digital Montage on Paper, 22 x 34 inches. Tribute to Puerto Rican liberationist Pedro Albizu Campos, his wife Laura Meneses & their children. Featuring excerpts of letters he wrote to their daughters from la Princesa prison, 1936. In one of them he writes, "What mystery does water hold that God would choose it as the element for the transmutation of the soul?"
"Nébula: Filiberto Ojeda Ríos," 2015. Yasmin Hernandez. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 inches. This portrait of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, clandestine revolutionary leader, assassinated by the FBI at his Hormigueros home at the age of 72 envisions him as a nebula. The work was created to commemorate the tenth anniversary of his transition. In 2025 we will commemorate 25 years since he was assassinated on September 23rd, 2005, anniversary of El Grito de Lares.
"Nébula Pedro Albizu Campos," 2015. Yasmin Hernandez. Acrylic on black velour, 18 x 24 inches. Liberationist Pedro Albizu Campos emerges as a screaming spirit in this piece commemorating the 50th anniversary since his 1965 death. His death, exactly two months after that of Malcolm X, was from cancer resulting from radiation experiments he was subjected to while a political prisoner of the US. This anniversary marked a grim time in my move to Puerto Rico, one in which I asked his spirit for the strength to persevere here.
"Nébula: Isabel Rosado," 2015. Yasmin Hernandez. Acrylic on black velour, 18 x 24 inches. Nationalist revolutionary leader, former political prisoner, life-long activist, Doña Isabel Rosado is a floating spirit nebula with a white veil and raised fist, for all the stereotypes she defied and destroyed in her life-long revolutionary trajectory. She fought for Puerto Rican independence till her death at 107 years old, the same year this work was created.
"Nacimiento." 2014. Yasmin Hernandez. Digital Montage on paper, 18 x 12.inches This image is of the moment that my midwife Sakina O'Uhuru placed my second son Josef in my arms after I birthed him in our bedroom. His dad & brother look on. I describe the physical & spiritual intensity of my sons' births as my having had to go out into the universe to get their spirits and bring them back. That is what I depict in this image with Josef and I out in the nebula.
"Black Gold of the Sun," 2014. Yasmin Hernandez. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 18 inches. This self-portrait represents my 1st pregnancy. The image is inspired by the sun and solar flares, while referencing the lower three chakras (root/ grounding, seat of emotions, personal power) for the lessons revealed and embodied during that first pregnancy and home birth. The title is taken from the 1970s song by Rotary Connection of the same title. This is one of the last paintings I created in New York before moving to Puerto Rico.
"Leche blanca de la luna," 2014. Yasmin Hernandez. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 18 inches. This self-portrait represents my pregnancy with my second son. Painted in the colors of the upper three chakras (communication, intuition, spirituality/ connection to divinity) it references the lessons embodied in that pregnancy. The title (White milk of the moon) is borrowed from a lyric of Draco Rosa's song "Madre Tierra." I use it here to reference my experiences working with a midwife for my homebirths, honoring the lunar calendar and the moon’s role in pregnancy, birthing and breastfeeding. This is another work created in the weeks leading to my move to Puerto Rico from NYC.