Calis, entre la laguna y el mar

The sea. The lagoon. Mother. Daughter. Death and transformation. A decade. A cycle of growth. The passing on of wisdom. Material inheritance. Spiritual legacy. Alis and Calita: Calis. Alkes, Crater: the cup, where sacred time, memory, and a legacy reside. The chalice receives, contains, and transforms. Knowledge must be passed on as an offering; otherwise, it stagnates and decays. For me, painting is a way of being with her, of letting sensations linked to that ritual she always practiced pass through my body.

I remembered the message she left me before she died, written on the back of a photograph of me at the lagoon: “Whenever you feel alone, return to the place where the lagoon and the sea meet...” This place is the message. It is the liquid vessel of wisdom and mysteries. This is THE relic, the cup where sky and earth mingle, where the inner meets the outer, where wildness meets the harmony of the landscape.

January 2026. The ritual is here. I am the vessel of this entire legacy. I am my mother's memory, and my body is the channel that transforms without holding on, understanding that everything must continue its course. Teachings must expand; nothing belongs to me.

I listen to the birds bidding farewell to the sun. The full moon gradually lights the path. A cricket keeps me company. There is a small sorrow in my heart, but it is part of this landscape. This chosen and inhabited solitude. The sun accompanies me, the lagoon, the softly roaring sea, the sand and dunes, the birds, the sky, the storms. The longing for that rain that refuses to drench us.

STRIPPING AWAY.

I AM HAPPY: THIS IS WHERE I AM.

Rocha Lagoon, Uruguay, January 2026.