Queen Between Moves 👑


by my aunt Ydalia Diaz, who's been painting ever since I can remember

I took a photo of this in 2009 when I visited my grandfather in the Dominican Republic, please excuse all the blurriness.  I’m showing a close-up of the painting first, then the full photograph so that its scale becomes more clear. 





Here you can see a family member sitting beside it on his phone, bizarrely perched on a stack of four lawn chairs.

Nevermind him. Or actually, do mind him. That strange detail is exactly why I took the picture in the first place. 

I have always liked photographing strange moments that catch my eye. During my visit, there were a few: a kitchen sink overflowing with limes under running water, a can of roach spray twice the size of any I'd ever seen, a towering statue of ceramic Jesus standing on a bathroom counter. 

So in a way maybe it makes sense that one surreal image ended up next to another.

Ydalia's ability to create tender, life-like portraits always impressed me. When I was a child in the 1980's and she was a young adult, we sometimes lived together. I remember her sketching, imagining a life where she could spend her days drawing in Central Park and selling her art to passersby. Or maybe we imagined that life for her, I don't recall 🤔 

I also don't recall much other details about this piece, only that I find it very striking and meaningful. 
 
A woman stands on a chessboard. Or is it a humanized version of the Queen? The Queen is the most powerful chess piece on the board, yet she cannot move herself. Someone must lift her and decide when she advances, sacrifices, kills, or disappears. 

I wonder what led her to paint this. Was it an art class assignment? A personal need to express? To be clever and thought-provoking? I look at her painting and think of the Shakira song Octavo Día, with its imagery of unseen forces manipulating even those who appear to be in control. I don’t know if she ever had that song in mind while working on this, but that's one of the connections I make.

I'm trying to ask her about it now, while I still can. Her health has made time feel fragile and urgent, and I realize how quickly stories slip away if we don’t reach for them in time.

I hope I'll still have the chance to find out. I've asked her via WhatsApp, but she hasn't been able to reply yet. 

This Queen cannot move herself, yet she endures every game played around her. I may never know the title, year, or the exact thoughts Titi Ydalia had while painting it. But her work remains. Life-sized, luminous, clever, and extraordinary ✨️

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