Verbal Description: Armig Santos, Procesión en Vieques III (Procession in Vieques III), 2022 and Yellow Flowers, 2022 

Narrator: Yellow Flowers is a vertical oil painting on linen that is 7 feet tall by 6 feet wide depicting a funeral procession. Seven people walk together facing right. The two people leading the procession carry bouquets of small yellow and some white flowers with long green stems in their right hands by their chests. Behind them in the middle of the group a person holds both a bouquet and what appears to be a shovel in their hand by their side. Behind them four people are carrying a large white cross above their heads. The cross is much longer than the people, beginning from the far left and extends beyond the opposite edge of the painting. 

The painting technique and use of color are particularly vibrant. We can infer that the artist began with a wash of dark blue which is present throughout the painting. The top third of the painting is a sky with visible paint strokes and subtle drips. The bottom two thirds of the painting depict a bare ground in brown. The same blue as the sky shows through the brown earth and large white cross. The group of seven are also painted in the same dark blue and with white outlines. Their shadows, along with the shadow of the cross are also painted in blue and outlined with white. One of the cross carriers wears white sneakers while the feet of the others merge into their shadows. Their expressions are not visible and their clothes are only partially rendered showing t-shirts, shorts, the outline of their hair and hats and a towel around the neck of one of the cross carriers. 

What gives this work a particular glow are bright blue dots scattered all across the painting. This technique unites the procession with the land and the sky and gives a feeling of optimism amidst the sadness. The dots are very small and close together with some larger dots here and there. The effect is like the stars in the sky and also gives the effect of the bioluminescent bay in Vieques. The artist explains, “Vieques is a bioluminescent bay that is very important in the context of Puerto Rico. Then I take the color of the dinoflagellates, which are planktons that emit this light that is a very clear blue.”