Rose from the Dead

Original woodblock print, limited run. 

Rachel and Selena are both the biological children of a Mexican American father whose own family history was largely lost to the US foster system and time. Though their childhoods were spent mostly removed from that half of their family, they have both sought a connection to their past, and to the people and the stories that contributed to the cultures that fostered their roots. This piece is about the feeling of loss inherent in having your history severed by circumstance, and the joy that can come with reconnection with the culture of your ancestors long passed. The roses grow like weeds in this print, they devour and obscure with dark tangles and thorns, but from their choking brambles, fed by the richness of the earth in which they are rooted, beauty and belonging emerge and persist just as resiliently as the thorns.

15x23 In

paper: Kozo

Artist: Rachel Annis