The Umbilical Cord of the Earth is the Moon 1977

Luchita Hurtado made this painting, The Umbilical Cord of the Earth is the Moon, with oil paint and a mystic sensibility. The way the blue deepens towards the bottom, almost like you’re peering into an abyss, tells me she knew paint was more than just color, it was depth and feeling too. There's something so tactile about the way she renders the rocks framing the view, you can almost feel the grit of the stone. And then, these feathers, rendered with so much attention, floating in this liminal space, like thoughts or memories. The single point of light is the moon, of course, but it also reads like an opening or maybe even a question. I think of Georgia O’Keeffe, who knew something about internal landscapes, and also Hilma af Klint, who explored the spiritual through abstraction. Ultimately, it's the kind of painting that invites you to get lost, to wander between what you see and what you feel, where the earth and the cosmos are but a breath away.