Taataafa Popala Print

The themes of love and loss are represented here in this still life representing the struggle of coming from a multiracial background in America, the grieving process with the loss of a mother, and the struggle of raising three children as a single parent in the modern age. The subject matter are three knickknacks representing my three children that were there mothers and the style was chosen and inspired by Paul Gauguin because of his time spent in colonial Tahiti. Stinging nettle in my heart; A wretched wreck of oblivion am I; Casting my net upon the raging sea of care, I fly, Every wind is tearing me apart; The world has nothing left to impart, An afterlife is heaping a cast die, As herein torment upon the rack I lie; As rain like blood falls upon me and I smart; She is starring out from that other place, Calling out to God to see her face; The Mobled Queen runs ahead of me, Afraid that I if catching her might see; What is ahead though duty holds me here, To care for children left behind so dear.