Katina Hago Saenz
Hecate at the Crossroads
Acrylic Paint on canvas
30 in by 40 in
For this piece, I wanted to imagine “What would it be like if I could meet two of the most important people in my life, my mom and my abuela, when they were my age?” For all three of us, our 20’s have been a pivotal point in our lives, a crossroads. My grandmother first immigrated to the United States from Mexico at this age, altering the course of all our lives entirely. In turn, I also stand at a crossroads, but the path ahead is still unknown. I wanted to represent a liminal space where different time periods mixed and melded together. Through this examination of crossroads, tome, and the lives of women, I was inspired by the Greek goddess Hecate. She is known as the “triple goddess” and fabled to have three forms, representing all the phases of a woman’s life and all the power that comes with it. She represents liminality and the crossroads: a place where the past, present, and future meet, with each of her forms holding torches to light the way. Reimagining this concept with my own lineage, I was able to explore identity, the passage of time, and grown more connected to my own family by realizing that our paths are all irrevocably intertwined.