"Life Strings" | 2016 | Ink, Branches, and Yarn | 15'x5'
"Lost Innocence" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Art is Life" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Burundanga Love" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Lush" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"First Born" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Mexican Passport" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Playland" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Six Bear" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Settling Down" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Red, White, and Blue" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
"Four-Play" | 2016 | Ink and Pro-White | 10"x8"
Life Strings
Life Strings is a personal voyage into the life changing events of the artist from 1987 to 2016. Mimicking the hair wrap braid and string timeline she wore on her hair for four years, Elba Raquel wrapped tree branches in yarn to symbolize the natural, yet unpredictable, ups and downs of her life. Each color on the wrapped branches represent pivotal experiences that have transformed her character. Like distant memories that fade in and out, the corresponding images are monotonous, full of fragments, with only key elements clearly emerging from the mesh of reality and fantasy. This is an eleven piece installation with a constructed branch of about 15 feet, from end to end, unifying the pieces together.