My mother says we come from a clan of strong women who have seen a lot of pain. I never fully understood this until I lived through that pain of being abused by my father. I get my power from her, who gets it from her mother, who got it from hers. A power passed down from woman to woman in order to give us the strength we need to survive. As our mothers held us in their wombs, they gave their strength as well as their anger, sadness, and true essence. I have painted a open sun splitting into mars, the moon, and a simple star each representing their respective rulers. The formation of the planets is inspired by Mayan masks of life and death, a mask that is split into several faces and layers. I modeled my painting after this idea not only to honor my Mexican heritage, but to show the layers me and my mother have, the planets being split in two to represent both of us.