I’d like to formally introduce my logo.
Let’s start with the obvious. Being that Paloma means “dove” in Spanish, I definitely wanted that image. My parents chose the name in recognition of the Spanish blood on my mother’s side, and of my grandparents on my father’s side, who lived, wrote, and painted in Mexico for fifteen years.
The dirty truth about Paloma, is that it also means pigeon. That’s why in the famous song, it’s specified as La Paloma Blanca to make the distinction. Having spent eighteen years in New York City, the pesky pigeons were a daily reminder of what I tried to cover up.
Fact is, I’m flawed. I’m insecure, I get depressed, I stress out, I fall on my ass sometimes. At the same time, I’m also confident, strong, cry from joy, go on adventures, help others who are in dark places.
La Paloma Negra! Proud, complicated, filled with doubts, but taking off anyway because she is compelled to. This is about being constantly suspended in a state of rebirth and invention. Feathers flying, dirt spraying up from the ground.
I wore jeans and a small repertoire of black shirts and sweaters for, I don’t know, ten years of my youth into early adulthood. I wanted to be dark and hidden. In my twenties, I began wearing my first pops of color. And of all the colors in the spectrum, it was pink. Blush, fuschia, raspberry, coral. At one point my wardrobe was only black, grey, and a plethora of pinks.
I wear all the colors now, but I had to include tourmaline pink with the black dove. The glimmer of change and empowerment and coming into oneself.
And the cherry on top. I was fortunate to have the dove painted by one of my all time favorite artists, Dan Green, based in the Hudson Valley, and best known for his work in comic books. He was inspired by the image of the dove flying out of the dying Replicant’s grasp in Blade Runner for the logo. How appropriate in so many ways. Great nerds think alike.