trust – Heni's Happy Paintings

MERMAID WITH DOVE 1000 (1) — Floating Mermaid- acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Here is my new painting, Floating Mermaid. It’s feels good to be back to painting as I have had a long break. In early May, I took a road trip with my twin sister up to New York City. We met up with my two other sisters in New Jersey at my aunt’s home and had such a great reunion, also enjoying visiting with cousins and my aunt. It had been over ten years since we had all been together. We then took the train into Manhattan and got to spend time with my daughter who was finishing up her freshman year at NYU. She loves being in the city and it was reassuring to see how she was thriving.

Once she came home for summer break, an opportunity opened up for her to spend five weeks in China teaching English and visiting with Chinese friends she had made at school. It was all very sudden and with me helping her get ready for her adventure and having her home I found it challenging to focus on my art.

She’s been in China a week now and is enjoying herself and I am back to painting. This floating mermaid is the result. In life there are times we have to let go, relax and trust. As a mom, I was nervous about my 18 year old girl traveling on her own half way around the world. At this point, part of my journey as a mom is to let go and trust my child’s own path in life. In this painting I wanted to show a mermaid relaxing in the water as the sun shines on her with the white dove of peace soaring above her, knowing all is well.

I hope all are enjoying summer, whether you are home relaxing or off on exciting adventures!

Sometimes in life when we have big decisions to make, it can be scary. Like the time in my twenties after a bad break up, I decided to move to NYC with only 500 dollars in my pocket.

These thoughts have come to mind as I have recently celebrated being married to my husband for 20 years now and am feeling happy about that. That 20th year anniversary marker got me thinking about the choices we make in life and how those choices carry us forward. It was scary for me to make that marriage commitment all those years ago. When I found out I was pregnant, even though we had decided to have a child it was frightening, I didn’t know how to be a mom.

Once those decisions were made I just had to let go and trust that my intuition would carry me forward. I loved living in New York, that experience led to meeting my husband. Marrying him led us to creating a life together and then to our daughter who we love dearly and who has added so much to our lives.

I wanted to do a painting that describes that feeling. I’ve titled it Free Falling. It’s a painting of a barn swallow diving through the air. If you have ever watched swallows swoop through the air catching mosquitoes, it is mesmerizing. They swoop down and then curve back through the sky with no effort at all. I have found that once a commitment is made if we let go and trust, we can follow the currents and they will lead us forward.

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