La Mode Pratique Series (006). Madame Everglades

Watercolor & on Paper

22” x 30” 

2021

She is Madame Everglades. She is looking back over the last 100-plus years. García understands her as the personification of the Everglades—her history inked on her skin, like wounds drawn in images. Each of her tattoos tells a different facet of her life’s story, some of the most critical factors that have impacted the significant wetland. In this candid moment, she bears all, her wistful expression hinting at regret, in what appears to be a day of reckoning, a possible turning point, but even if she changes her ways, she’ll be unable to forget.

She trusts that we will be better people, hopes for its restoration, and her conservation.