During a trip to Brazil, I visited Salvador de Bahia with no a priori knowledge or expectations about the city. The centre of the city looks like a Portuguese town, with lovely colourful houses and squares, but the story behind it is much more interesting. Salvador is known by his black population and cultural inheritance because during the slave trade 40.000 slaves where brought from Africa to this city. I had no idea how to put that in a painting until one evening, as I was walking next to the sea, I saw a scultpure of her, Yemaya. In the days of famous superheroes, I have to say Yemaya is a missed opportunity to make an amazing heroin. She was standing strong above the sidewalk, and she was inspiring. She arrived all the way from Africa, when african slaves brought their traditions and their religion to Brazil with them. Yemaya is a goddess of the Yoruba religion, she is the feminine principle of creation, protector of children, women and sea creatures.
She is connected to the moon energy or women/mother energy, as she is seen as mother of all. The painting represents a collection of symbols associated with her: the moon and the shell in the top left corner, the blue dominant to represent her connection with the sea and the blue horizontal separation to symbolize the sea horizon, the Earthen Basins flowers on the left and the Cola Acuminate flowers on the right, the cowrie shells in her hair, the necklace of 7 blue beads followed by 7 crystal beads at her neck, and the 7 Malawi Cichild fishes swimming around her. She is often shown dropping stones in the sea, like in this painting.
The name of the painting comes from the way she is summoned in prayers - Omio Yemaya
