holiday creations

today I saw

one

lone

leaf

t

u

m

b

l

e

slowly to the ground

the branches swayed

and all the water droplets held tight.

I realized

when I open my heart,

slow down,

& look close

everything is full of wonder.

———-

I wrote that poem s l o w l y on my type writer last week after the cold winter rain. I was sitting solemnly at my studio desk, looking out the window, holding the paradoxes of the world in my lap. There is so much joy and so much to look forward to this holiday season. I am overwhelmed with gratitude. And, too, there is the genocide in Gaza. There are the atrocities that happen on a regular basis in our country. There is the fact that in 2015 my Dad didn’t spend Christmas with us for the first time ever - and that would turn out to be his last opportunity to do so. Christmas was the holiday he decked our house out in lights, forcing me to go weeks with chapped hands, as I was one of his resistant helpers. It was when he’d let us ride down our snowy hill on his back - one time permanently jamming his finger because of this. I can still see him holding up his hand with his Italian smirk showing us his crumpled pinky finger. Now that I’m a parent myself, I realize it probably both bothered him and made him proud.

Since I was little, I have always felt everything deeply. I choked back tears in every movie. . .…almost every commercial even. I even get choked up when sports teams I know nothing about celebrate or mourn the end of a big game.

Som the holidays tend to be emotional for me. Fortunately, in my later years I learned (by experience) how art and how creating can lighten and soften me. Thats why I type. That’s why I write down everything I see and feel. Somehow, something comes out of me along with the paint and graphite on paper. There’s an alchemy that happens. So the act of making these cards starts with doing it for me. But I truly believe that when we can access that place within us - that place where it’s just raw and true and you can’t hold back - other people are moved by it, too. It’s one of those things that reminds us of our greater human family. Of just how interconnected we all really are.

And for someone that doesn’t love being the center of attention, sharing my creations is a way for me to still be seen.

And I’ve come a long way to realize that we all need safe opportunities to be seen and to be heard.

This is my first time selling my art! I have a handful of cards left, so please message me if you’re interested in purchasing. $4 a card or a set of 3 for $12 - Posa.jaime@gmail.com / Venmo @Jaime-Posa

A safe & warm & connected holidays to you all.

xoxo

jaime

p.s. if you know anyone who needs a little extra love this season please message me.