'Kamama' is a portrait of remembrance, an ancestor rendered not as history, but as presence. His eyes are closed, not in rest, but in inward seeing, a blue band crossing his brow like a mark of passage between worlds. This image came to me as a dream and this is what I saw.
Created with acrylic on a 20"w x 24"h x 1"d canvas, this piece carries lineage in its color and form. Above him, a great butterfly unfolds in gold and amber, its wings spread wide as if lifting from the crown of his head. To me, this is a symbol of transformation, of the soul's ability to shed one shape for another and still remain whole. 'Kamama', meaning butterfly in Cherokee, holds that meaning at its center: metamorphosis as memory, and memory as medicine.
This ancestor doesn't look outward for permission to become. He carries the change within him, quiet and certain, his stillness itself a kind of flight. The deep reds and warm earth tones root him to the ground even as the butterfly above him reaches toward the sky. This is a reminder that transformation doesn't require leaving who you were behind.
Every line, every wing-stroke, speaks to what endures across generations: that identity is not fixed, but carried forward, reshaped, and honored.
This original piece is ready to hang. This is a tribute to ancestry, change, and the sacred act of becoming.
