Updates From The Studio | Rossana Romero

"I Want to Love You with Your Walls Down" is a four-part story depicted in paintings, exploring the lives of two jaguars, Saturn and Pluto. These jaguars follow each other through life, initially led by love and pleasure, but are eventually separated by the border, which forces them to love through survival and find their way back to each other. I have introduced Saturn and Pluto in my previous works, using them as motifs to illustrate whether the narrative is set in reality or a higher realm.

Saturn remains in the physical world, teaching us the consequences of our intentions and actions, and facing the obstacles before us with cycles of love and survival.

Pluto, on the other hand, leads us into higher realms and our underworlds, guiding us through vulnerability and helping us lower our guards by navigating the complex layers that have held our walls up. Saturn and Pluto move through the land together in balance, giving to the land and taking what is needed with intention, love, and pleasure. They fill and feed our spiritual and physical selves with each other until they lose each other at the border. One gets tangled trying to cross the barb wire, while the other is swimming through the waves trying to not be taken under.

Jaguars, known as solitary predators, travel and hunt alone once mature. Recently, due to climate change and border control in the Americas, their migration patterns have been disrupted, pushing them towards extinction.

Traditionally, jaguars are revered in indigenous practices, symbolizing rain and shapeshifting among shamans to maintain balance between good and evil. These spiritual creatures, deeply connected to the land, are now restricted and abused.

These pieces are asking the question, What would love be like without the upheaval caused by political influences on the land?

Would we have received a love that is playful and balanced, as fruitful and lush as the Amazon where jaguars roam? Or is there an inherent tension? Obstacles created by human intervention. Unable to bring our guards down, our walls down, due to fear and control.

Some of the titles are inspired by revolutionary writings of Angela Davis, words from astrologers that I note during my research into time and history, thoughts that arise when I yearn for home, or advice from my father during our solo car rides.

All are tied to my own healing but also questions that come up during the process of healing. Imagining a life without surveillance, would you still love me the same?
Would love feel different without systemic obstacles? Would your love feel fear and the need to control due to the many times you were left disappointed, rejected, or abandoned? Would love be more understanding and gentle if the walls never surfaced? Would we still feel defensive and paranoid? Would it feel like tiptoeing over thorns towards freedom and survival?

Updates From The Studio!

I Want to Love You with Your Walls Down

An Audio Guide into the Magical Worlds; in Conversation with Rossana Romero