Time Magazine referred to Trudi Blom as “Queen of the Jungle” due to her advocacy in protecting the culture and rainforest of the Lacandon Maya in Chiapas, Mexico. In 1991, I packed up my New York studio art supplies with the intention of painting Trudi’s portrait, boarded a plane, followed by a series of busses to arrive at her home, Na Bolom, (“House of the Jaguar”), which also serves as a Mayan research center and small hotel.

She and her archaeologist husband, Franz Blom had rescued a crumbling monastery in the 1950’s to establish it as a renowned cultural institute. Notable personalities ranging from Diego Rivera to Henry Kissinger had previously made their own pilgrimages to San Cristóbal de las Casas also to be guests of Na Bolom.

When I met Trudi, she was in her 80’s and widowed for 28 years but wily enough to assist me in organizing travel into the rain forest where I met her friend and Lacandon Mayan sage, Chan K’in Viejo. He graciously invited me to stay in his home in order to document in sketches and paintings his large and extended family.

I became so involved in documenting the Chan K’in Viejo’s family and the Lacandon Maya and also setting up art workshops for the children of Lacandon villages that I never got around to painting Trudi’s portrait before she passed away in 1993.

Decades later, when The Lower Eastside Girls Club asked me to accompany them to San Cristóbal de las Casas to paint a mural of both Trudi and Chan K’in Viejo at Na Bolom, I felt it was time to travel full circle. While I have been working primarily on portraits of Trudi and Chan K’in Viejo and Na Bolom’s iconic jaguar, accompanying artist, Megan Kindsfather has been working on portraits of Franz Blom and his and Trudi’s adopted daughter, Doña Beti, who still lives at Na Bolom today. In addition, Club Balam and other affiliates of the Lower Eastside Girls Club have lent their hands in painting detailed flora and fauna.