Works on VIDEO
A visual documentary about my elderly mother during her last year of life. In the Fall of 2020 I had decided that it would be good to record images of my mother at that time while I was living with and caring for her. I wanted to especially focus on her hands as she did things like clean beans and prepare food. She was starting to slow down at this time and it was important to me to have these images of a Chicana woman who had lived a good life well into her nineties. I had learned a lot from her about the importance of personal rituals and routines as a way of connection and self care and she would make her bed like a soldier - you could almost bounce a coin on the surface. These images became a source of healing as I quickly edited the piece for her funeral reception and people had told me that the video led them to tears. With music composed by me and performed by John Steiner and featuring autumn trees of Sunnyvale, CA where she made her home for over fifty years.