LA LOUVER Los Angeles – January 2026 Photos: Matt Emonson
I am a woman, my woman.
I am a girl, my girl.
I am woman, the woman.
I am girl, the girl.
I know how to work.
My feet work.
My hands know.
I am girl, my girl.
I am woman, my woman.
You made me woman.
You gave me woman.
Woman of the Flowers.
Mother of the Sky.
Woman of the Roses.
Girl of the Roses.
Flowery Woman of the Roses.
Daughter of the Rose in Bloom.
You gave me woman.
You gave me girl.
You took a girl out of me.
You took a woman out of me.
……..
You gave me my spirit.
You gave me my death.
You put my soul inside…
—Loxa Jiménez Lopez
Loxa Jiménez Lopez is Mayan woman from an untold time. The legend says that Anjel, “daughter of the Lord of the Caves, whispered in her ear and then, in dreams, showed her the Book with all the magic words to be learned.”***
I imagined Rebecca the painter was not just giving us portraits of flowers. She adds words for each painting, and titles sound like a ritual she started for herself, about herself: the flowery woman. A face surrounded by Gold Hair, wearing a mask of colors from the flowers hidden in her body, blooming from her hands.
Pink Punk Rose — A punk rose starting out like a kid starts out, inexperienced. A flower not yet knowing about her destiny, aggressively confused, spreading fullness and tension. The blue tries to contain the edges, before giving up, becoming lines from the sky.
Dahlia Uprising — The dahlia’s flower is a miracle of geometry. Soft with petals, a head full of hair. The artist brings an inconceivable disorder among the petals, a nervous uprising as if flowers were refusing the vase, trying to go away from the corolla, perhaps asking themselves “why” are they here. Why were they cut off.
Pink Heirloom — Who are they their name doesn’t matter. They are valuable forms. Heavy as if full of juices, ripe to death. So is the vase. The last wish of both flowers and vase was picked up by the artist who suspended disbelief: they float in the air.
Nasturtium Crown — They climb, or fall on the ground. Nasturtium hold all their energy in their colors, they do not raise vertical from stem to stern. As a painted crown, they float in the space missing a surface where to pose, and smile. Except the artist gives it to them, filling the wall with a fan of light that pushes the texture of stick strokes away from oneself, and encourages the flowers to be up, for a while, all they can have.
Blue Hydrangeas — I had them as a child in the back of the house, the shadowy side. Blue and round small umbrellas that stole their color from the sky. In this drawing they look particularly happy, luxuriating in a hat for the lady vase still like a stone, while they play with the light not knowing, maybe, how long.
Afton’s Abutilons — Red lanterns looking down, imperial, full of themselves as they can be. Although, they might shiver inside, and activate inaudible bells, warning about the yellow danger of the table, an alien flatness they cannot avoid.
Preppy Poppy — The starch in their look makes them rigid, or slightly perplexed. Red edges around the petals merge pain into their beauty.
Self Portrait in Green and Red — How vulnerable she makes herself! Yet, to use Eliot’s word “vulnerability was an opening – an ‘entrance.’ Where people were vulnerable was where they had once made room for other people.” Modern people struggled to find a language to “render what is unacceptable about themselves intelligible.” (Adam Phillips) Rebecca Campbell is an artist, feelings and desire are her stem. Images are her language. Not everything can be explained, nor understood. That’s why she lets herself unfold, until touching the ground. She apparently accepts her (our) fate: accepting things that cannot be ignored and cannot be understood. But in the end, green is resilience.
“I am woman, my woman”
REBECCA CAMPBELL
1. Self Portrait with Gold Hair, 2025 oil pastel and UV varnish on paper, Image: 14 x 10 in.
2. Pink Punk Rose, 2025 oil stick on paper Image: 21 x 29 in.
3. Dahlia Uprising, 2025 oil stick on paper Image: 74 x 49 in.
4. Pink Heirloom, 2025 acrylic, oil pastel and UV varnish on paper Image: 19 3/4 x 28 in.
5. Nasturtium Crown, 2025 acrylic, oil pastel and UV varnish on paper Image: 27 1/2 x 19 1/4 in.
6. Blue Hydrangeas for Dot, 2025 oil stick on paper Image: 29 x 21 in.
7. Afton’s Abutilons, 2025 oil stick on paper Image: 21 x 29 in.
8. Preppy Poppy, 2025 oil stick on paper Image: 74 x 49 in.
9. Self Portrait in Green and Red, 2025 oil stick on paper Image: 74 x 49 in.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jerome Rothenberg, Technicians of the Sacred, University of California Press, 2017 pp. 369-372. For Loxa Himénez Lopez see Incantations: Songs, Spells and Images by Mayan Women, (El Paso, Cincos Puntos press, 2009) a Tzotzil/English version. “The fruit of the work of 150 people across thirty years, these are the first books written, illustrated and put together by Mayan people in nearly a thousand years.”
Adam Phillips, Equals, Basic Books, 2002
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