My Mother Named Me Beloved, Oil on Canvas, 24x36, 2021. In private collection.

My Mother Named Me Beloved, Oil on Canvas, 24x36, 2021. In private collection.

Nanay Ko, Oil on Canvas, 20x20, 2023.

Nanay Ko, Oil on Canvas, 20x20, 2023.

Innocents, Oil on Canvas, 24x36, 2024.

Innocents, Oil on Canvas, 24x36, 2024.

My mother named me Kalila, Ain (meaning: beloved, apple of my eye) because my birth brought her abundance, and a new capacity for love that was so all encompassing, she had previously thought inconceivable. My Mother Named Me Beloved (Namesake of Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel) and Nanay Ko (Tagalog for My Mother), center the deep unwavering love between mother and daughter, water as a source of reconnection, and exhalation as a result of this union.

Innocents: plural noun meaning pure or guileless persons, involved by chance in a situation, especially a victim of crime or war, not to be confused with, Innocent: an adjective rarely attributed to Black, Brown, and Muslim men and boys.