Yemaya Asesu

1999
Oil on Canvas
30" x 24"
Collection of Omar Quirindongo

This painting was created as a gift for my cousin who was initiated as a priest of Yemaya Asesu. It depicts Yemaya Asesu as a young African woman standing in the ocean with a flowing dress trimmed in eyelet lace ruffles. She is standing near the shore and so the ruffles of her dress form the breaking waves and their foam crashing on the sand. The eyelet lace has a design of a five-point shape representing the starfish, one of her beloved sea creatures. This shape also represents her sister Orisha Oshun who is associated with the number five. Oshun's force manifests in rivers, which flow into the ocean where the two orishas meet.