Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/26/26 Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/26/26

About Freedom, 2026

Jessenia Nauta

Freedom, 2026

Dominican Republic

Freedom was the first drawing started in 2020 that required the longest evolution — since it was at the beginning of my journey to reconnecting to my voice as an artist after my first real big burnout from the VFX industry. It was also after my first Peruvian ceremony, integrating within my home in Ecuador.

I had sketched back then something I wanted to wear as a costume. Something that represented this blue bird, this freedom of an energy I had started connecting with back then. It was the very first pattern I made, that changed probably 10–20 times before finalizing into what you see here. Starting off with a black and white pattern that I wore out — which I absolutely loved — then slowly evolving it over time based on what the art was bringing out in people. Balancing that line between what the art wanted, but also this way that the art kept bringing people’s desire for color out.

It was my second experiment with color, due to the level of intricacy as you can see. Which over time became even more intricate. The base shapes for the feathers, which felt like leaves, deserved more details within the black and white lines, which also deserved more details within the colors. Even bringing the image out a bit more to reveal more detail. The constant balancing act back and forth took a couple of years, before I was able to bring to life a particular style that felt steady and true. True to the original concept of this blue bird — iterations of prints with just the blue feathering (since at that time, and currently, I still have zero interest in figuring out how to make intricate costumes) — but then evolving it into this multicolored piece which still kept the black lines alive.

The evolution itself is also what sparked this relationship to freedom. The black lines — the somatic portion of the piece, which for me is the most fun part — but also the intricate detailing of the colors, which for me was the more uncomfortable part. Still developing a relationship to color, you can see my growth of that relationship through the sequencing of the rainbow design. The imperfection behind it. Somehow, that combination of fun, yet that slight edging of something new, is the vibration of freedom. This combination of what brings me fun, but also this devotion to continuing exploring something new — unexplored, into the unknown.

Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/26/26 Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/26/26

About Serpent, 2026

Jessenia Nauta

Serpent, 2026

Dominican Republic

The Serpent is a reclamation of indigenous connection to ancestral relationships with the moon — through reconnecting through symbolism.

The Cañari were a pre-Columbian tribal confederation of Cuenca, Ecuador, where my ancestry on my father’s side is from. The word Cañari itself comes from “kan” meaning “snake” and “ara” meaning “macaw” — making the Serpent not just a symbol, but a living part of the name itself. This image of the Serpent came through researching old symbols; the original artist of the template is unknown to me at this time. Through recreating my own version, and through intuitive somatic connection to the symbol, what arose — as you can see through the detailing — is multiple worlds within the world of the Serpent. It has a journey of its own amongst the intricate curves, reminding you of the aliveness that still lives within the Serpent.

What came through after the completion of this piece is an awareness of aliveness kept throughout whichever part of the journey you are in within your life. Things will keep moving, as long as you keep moving. Even in stillness, there is aliveness. Death is something that cannot be controlled, but something that initiates you into another spectrum of your journey. Just like the colors alternate in the colored version, and the pulse within the black and white version continues to undulate no matter which direction you look — through that, you can seek your own connection to protection around this particular cycle of life.

Similar to the relationship with the moon. The cycles, the constant change, isn’t here to serve as a problem as much as it does to restore you. To shed what no longer serves, and to remind you of what your truth is at any given moment. Truth isn’t singular — as much as it is an alternating, pulsing vibration that is always with you, following you as you journey amongst the many ups and downs of life.

The three-dimensionality within the Serpent itself also serves as a meditative reminder of these ups and downs of life. Which, for many of us, may feel grueling — but when we look at the bigger picture, there is a beauty that dissolves within itself to create an intricate image that brings a sense of wholeness to life.

Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/26/26 Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/26/26

About Wild, 2026

Jessenia Nauta

Wild, 2026

Dominican Republic

Wild in essence is the reminder of our human nature. Lots of swirls, lots of patterns of circular curves, lots of shades of greens, blues, and yellows — even with the completion of a rainbow sequence. It’s a reminder of the nature that exists within us, and the wildness that can never be tamed, no matter how hard you try to straighten out the lines.

Wildness for me, as the artist, is also a commitment to allowing things to be easier. We often envision easy as a single path forward — a straight line, a destination toward the “end.” Wildness is the journey of allowing that to take twists and turns, and just like rivers, eventually they all connect to bring you back into the ocean. The birth of where all life comes from.

Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/21/26 Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/21/26

About Permission

Jessenia Nauta

Permission, 2025

Dominican Republic

Permission was the second exploration of the idea: “What would a sequence of colors look like?” — especially from a lot of triangles. Sharper shapes that somehow still all came together. Both very meditative, and an experiment.

Permission, over its creation, became just that — Permission. Permission to break things apart. Permission to bring things together. Permission for things to be an experiment. Permission for things to be lighter.

Each set of color was selected before starting the sequence. A commitment to this particular union of color.

The doodle itself was made on a day with a lot of tension within my body. Somatically, it was an expression of bringing myself into union with keeping art very simple. Shifting from very elaborate, perfective traditional pieces into somatic expressions of what I was moving through at that time. Bringing the fun back into drawing for myself.

Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/20/26 Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/20/26

About Joy

Jessenia Nauta

Joy, 2025

Dominican Republic

Joy was the first experiment with bringing color into a somatic doodled, hand-drawn piece with Micron pens. Absolutely terrified of color, I tried to bring a rhythm of music into it. Allowing the rainbow to speak to me. Pressing them intuitively, rhythmically, to see what shape would emerge from the doodle. Once the shape emerged — after its completion through Procreate — the somatic connection that came through during the intuitive drawing session made it through the colors and expressed itself.

Joy became a reminder of how not every joy is something you experience immediately. Sometimes you need to go through a couple of iterations, to be transformed in the process of that transformation, to receive the joy itself. Through that transformation, the uncomfortable sensations illuminate what you were too scared to feel. In feeling it, joy makes itself known. Joy is a journey — not static, but always moving.

Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/14/26 Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 10/14/26

About Dreams

Jessenia Nauta

Dreams, 2024

Dominican Republic

About Dreams

Dreams was painted in 2024, mixing elements of local nature with somatic movement. Bridging sensation and visuals to illustrate the felt sense of dreams — as the artist expresses their experience of living in their own home for the first time after a decade of nomadic living.

This mural was an offering to themselves, to support anchoring a vision held since 2023: creating an art center in Santiago, Dominican Republic, where their mother is from. A resting spot where creative energy is welcomed, nourished, and taken care of.

Creating this mural was also their way of clearing the energies of those who lived in this home before — old experiences, old patterns — and starting fresh in their journey toward an embodied sense of safety. An extension of their somaCREATIVE™ practice, where intentional art becomes an actor into a desired energy.

This home, which is also Jessenia’s studio, remains a continuous mirror for the artist. A reminder that safety is something they deserve — and that a dream worth growing requires a safe home to take root.

Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 9/9/26 Jessenia Nauta, somaCREATIVE™ Founder 9/9/26

About Generational Trauma

Jessenia Nauta

Generational Trauma, 2026

Peru/Dominican Republic

About Generational Trauma

This piece was made initially within the jungles of deep Peru. Between ceremonies.

It's a visceral expression of the masks I've worn over the years as a Non-Binary being, to "fit" in as a Girl. An expression of the feeling within my body that comes up growing up, not having known there was an outward mirror in my life, offering me the perspective into my own inner landscape, around who I was being permission able.

It's been an ongoing piece for the last 6 months — that I would go back into slowly, at my body's pacing, until one day I felt internally it felt complete.

Although this particular expression is my way of showing to the world a mirror into the shadows of wearing a mask as a Non-Binary being, it also serves to remind people of the masks we take on through generational trauma, around our expressions. The heaviness around it. When we carry these masks without question, and pass it on to the next generation forward carrying the light.

This particular piece doesn't show you the "exit" as much as it shows you something deeply still within the process of being within the mask. The constraints you see within the big masses of darkness, plus the sheer contrast of the white background, stirs up discomfort. It's meant to support the viewer to see, and viscerally feel, what masks are they still wearing — because it's a mask that's been passed on from generation to generation. It proves a mirror to see, question, and open up a doorway through that mirror, of something else — by becoming aware of generational trauma.

This piece is part of a series that will become an Adult Children's book. Taking a print home supports both.