This year I’m in Montana, without my art supplies. But I do have that iPad Pro, Apple pencil, and Procreate (sketch, paint, create!) app, that I bought to try to learn some digital design skills. So here they are, La Loteria Familia Cards 2016, for the first time in digital form.
This year my nephew Lars didn’t really feel like any particular being, but instead felt aligned with fire…”because it’s fun to burn stuff.” He shot his first elk, which was at the taxidermist being prepared for a European mount (i.e. skull and antlers) when we talked, so I had to make it up…but since I’m using digital this year, I could lift the actual horns of his elk from the documenting photo. While he’s also playing football and wrestling, I went ahead and imposed my favorite moment of the year on his card. For his middle school graduation, my 6’4″ nephew decided to show up in style: black suit and bow tie. It was a statement on his part, but for mine, he was so striking and suddenly grown up, that I, like the rest of the family, started calling him “Bond, Lars Bond.” And that is a moment I never want to forget.
My older niece Rhiannon felt she was a basset hound or a scottie this year. When I showed her ridiculous photos of floppy-faced basset hounds, she said “yes! do it!”–and I do love when a beautiful girl knows exactly where to place her beauty on the self-image continuum–so basset hound, or perra de afloramiento, it is! This year she is absorbed by the podcast, Welcome to Nightvale (which provides an awesome background), and her activities include reading, running, failing at knitting, and writing–a totally contradictory set of visuals, but I did the best I could. On this year’s reading list have been The Feminine Mystique, Lady Midnight, and The Curiosities. Oh yeah, and she’s a Hamarkameratene soccer club fan.
My younger niece Echo continues her deep involvement in the Chinese American Association of Minnesota (CAAM) Chinese Dance Theater. She decided this year she is a panda, or oso panda in Spanish. That’s convenient, as her favorite colors are black and white, and this year, her favorite dances in the CAAM show were the Ode to the Lotus Dance, and the Magpie Dance–but since I covered that one last year, this year the oso panda was a lotus dancer. Echo and her partner Leora were also the winners of the Taoli Overseas Midwest Regional trophy for Chinese Folk Dance Duet. They performed the Brightest Flowers Dance.
Wishing you all the happiest of holidays, My Dears. You are all miraculous.
With much love,
Tia Susana
2016 Loteria Familia Cards
