This is the beautifully painted, powerful, breathtaking work {acrylic on canvas} of LA based artist Calida Garcia Rawles. I’m going to hand this over to her, because this description from her ‘about’ page says it poetically and perfectly:

“Merging sharp photo-realism with poetic abstraction, Calida Rawles paints African-American women and men submerged in glistening water; bodies are swarmed by a flurry of bubbles, ripples, and refracted light. For Rawles, water is a spiritually healing element for all people – yet she recognizes its historical connotations to racial exclusion and cultural fears. She uses the complicated duality of water as a platform to address identity politics while reimagining her subjects beyond cultural tropes. At times, her work alludes to current events, even making topographical maps of cities where acts of racially targeted violence have occurred. In other moments, her works are purely celebratory of the resilience, strength, and beauty of African American culture.”

Beautiful. But wait, there’s more… as stunning at Calida’s paintings are, I just had to share a few images from her Instagram feed. Some of her paintings are so big that she works by sitting on scaffolding… but look how small her brushes can be:

The pay off for using such teeny tiny brushes on those great big canvases? Yet another solo show at VSF {Various Small Fires} in LA, not to mention a fantastic interview in W Magazine. So, so, so inspiring.