On Your Knees! (La Diosa de la Basura)

2022 Oil and acrylic on panel

Approx. 47×16”

This painting of the Aztec goddess Talzolteotl — also called “The Dirt Eater” or “the Goddess of Garbage” — was made during a residency at Womb Mexico, in CDMX.
I hadn’t performed the proper ritual beforehand, hence I got mortally sick the minute I started the preparatory drawing… The things we do for art...

The name Tlazoltéotl is derived from tlazolli, "trash" in Nahuatl, whose sound is reminiscent of tlazotli, "precious thing." Goddess of trash, or perhaps precious goddess? Codices and other manuscripts describe her as the patroness of joyful life, « she who provokes, ignites, relieves, and bathes the works of the flesh. » That is, she is said to be the instigator of lust in human beings, as well as the healer/redemptor of all sexual sins.

Her name, the « Dirt Eater », refers to her ability to « eat sins ». And as she’s believed to have been, originally, a fertility goddess, we can easily view her as a form of alchemical deity, ingesting what is unwanted, rotten or discarded, transforming it into abundance.