Informed by the geography of her childhood, Terrazas contends with borders both physical and psychological. Born in Juarez, Mexico, she regularly crossed the border into El Paso, Texas to go to her favorite stores or to help family members shop for groceries. This fluid relationship was abruptly curbed when, at the age of seven, Terrazas and her parents were forced to leave Mexico and relocate to Dallas, Texas. Cut off from her extended family in Mexico, Terrazas felt rootless but never lost her sense of living in two cultures. In How many love tokens went missing in Mexico, 2022, Terrazas recalls memories of sending her uncle clothing from the United States that was unavailable in Mexico. Recently deceased, her uncle is portrayed as an angel, couched within a fantastical landscape of Juarez and a vision of her grandmother’s apartment set in front of a backdrop of mountains which are simultaneously a herd of giant cows. By sending her uncle gifts, Terrazas was able to transcend the bounds of time and space, and through the process of painting these memories, she also crosses the borders between life and death to reach him.

Translating to “gardener” or “flowerbed,” Terrazas describes the paintings in La Jardinera as seeds. Beginning as investigations into reoccurring phrases or mantras which would become lodged within Terrazas’ subconscious often coming to her in dreams, the paintings became portals populated by various guardian figures who could guide Terrazas towards healing and transformation. Just as a garden is able to grow and flourish, these paintings both nurture La Jardinera and are nurtured by the exhibition’s central ceramic fountain, La Fuente (para Sydney), 2022. A sphinx-like creature with the contemporary clothing of a young woman, the fountain’s pomegranate mouth acts as a nozzle from which water flows into a basin of hand painted, carved, and cut tiles ornamented with Terrazas’ unique cast of reoccurring hybrid characters of angels-devils and human-animals. A wishing fountain, Terrazas invites visitors to write down their wishes and throw them into the fountain. While wishes are usually kept secret, Terrazas believes it is important to make our wishes, desires, and hopes known in order for us to grow together as a community. Neither inside nor outside, good nor evil, human nor non-human, American nor Mexican, La Jardinera holds multiple truths at once, providing a framework for how individuals and society can gain the capacity to become regenerative fountains for giving.