Original artwork description:

During an ayahuasca journey, I saw an image of Sachamama, an indigenous rainforest spirit, as a joyful woman emerging from the roots of a towering Lapuna tree. I was inspired to portray Sachamama, whose name means “Forest Mama,” as a vibrant Yanomami mother who was nursing a small child and holding another slightly older girl on her lap.
In appreciation of Sachamama’s marvelous medicines, I surrounded her with botanical portraits of her transformative vision-inducing plants: including a chacruna bush (far left, near the Shipibo woman picking its leaves) and a chagrapanga plant (on right, behind another Shipibo woman serving the tonic brew). Rising behind the three women are three types of sacred vines, or huascas: the ever-popular cielo huasca (heavenly vine) shooting up the center tree; the knob-jointed cascabel or kapuri huasca rising on the left; and the rare but extra potent trueno huasca (thunder vine) climbing on the right.
In celebration of the rainforest’s rich fecundity, I felt called to depict Sachamama surrounded by a variety of colorful rainforest birds—toucans, macaws, hornbills, and small song birds—as well as several of my favorite rainforest predators: a stealthy ocelot (mid-left), a powerful Harpy eagle (center), and a golden tree boa (mid-right).

Materials used:

Acrylic paints