Precious Memories

Natalie Bellido

I created Precious Memories to remember my grandmother who died at the beginning of the semester. My grandmother was an important figure in my life while I grew up and she was like a second mother to me since she helped raise me while my parents were working. She helped shape me into the person I am today and she’s the only grandparent I’ve ever known. I’ve been filled with a lot of sadness and frustration since we have been unable to give her a proper funeral and fulfill her last request which was to get buried next to her sister’s grave in Mexico. I chose to place photos of happy memories in the wings of monarch butterflies to celebrate her life and surrounded my favorite photo with these butterflies in a field of lilies. My grandmother was born in Mexico and came to the United States with my mother to find a better life so I felt that the monarch butterfly fit perfectly as a symbol of that journey to the United States and her desire to return to Mexico since these butterflies migrate to and from these locations. I chose lilies because she loved flowers and she was sitting near a vase full of them in one of the last photos I saw of her.

Precious Memories (New Art City): _{Link to New Art City}

Email: _{NatalieB1998@gmail.com}