Big Bang Baby by LUSMERLIN
Big Bang Baby is rooted in the Afro-Dominican and Native Taíno spiritual traditions that the artist encountered through her grandmother's Santería practice and personal cultural research, paired with concepts from quantum physics drawn from her background as a chemical engineer. These aren't opposing frameworks: they are parallel ways of explaining transformation, energy, and what lies beyond the visible.
Working through light, color, and a process of controlled chaos, LUSMERLIN creates her own Zemis (Taino spiritual vessels): figures that act as intermediaries, creators, and carriers of spiritual force. Rather than illustrating mythology, the work invents new divine women shaped by inheritance, memory, and lived belief. These figures emerge from the artist's own body and lineage, blending spiritual knowledge passed down through domestic ritual with scientific inquiry into the origins of matter and the universe. Big Bang Baby asks not what divinity is in the abstract, but how creation, belief, and cosmic origin are carried, embodied, and reimagined across generations.
Working through light, color, and a process of controlled chaos, LUSMERLIN creates her own Zemis (Taino spiritual vessels): figures that act as intermediaries, creators, and carriers of spiritual force. Rather than illustrating mythology, the work invents new divine women shaped by inheritance, memory, and lived belief. These figures emerge from the artist's own body and lineage, blending spiritual knowledge passed down through domestic ritual with scientific inquiry into the origins of matter and the universe. Big Bang Baby asks not what divinity is in the abstract, but how creation, belief, and cosmic origin are carried, embodied, and reimagined across generations.
Anointment of the Ancestors, 2026, Pastel and Acrylic on Canvas, 90×70 in.
Installation at the Rouse Company Foundation Gallery, Howard Community College, Jan. 26th - March 15th, 2026
Images of Individual Works
Consecration of Stardust
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood
2025
48 × 36 in
What does it mean to be stardust? Can divinity be claimed, and not bestowed? This piece reimagines sacred ritual on a cosmic scale, a play between planes, body and energy.
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood
2025
48 × 36 in
What does it mean to be stardust? Can divinity be claimed, and not bestowed? This piece reimagines sacred ritual on a cosmic scale, a play between planes, body and energy.
Floating in Divinity
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood
2025
48 × 36 in
Resting within a glowing field, she does not perform or seek approval. The work honors stillness as sacred, suggesting divinity as something lived and felt internally.
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood
2025
48 × 36 in
Resting within a glowing field, she does not perform or seek approval. The work honors stillness as sacred, suggesting divinity as something lived and felt internally.
The Great Cosmic Hush
Pastel on Wood
2025
40 × 120 in
Where do matter and energy come from? A glowing field gives rise to fantastical figures. One exhales into space, as if shaping the universe itself. Shifting bodies form a constellation, linking breath, energy, and space-time.
Pastel on Wood
2025
40 × 120 in
Where do matter and energy come from? A glowing field gives rise to fantastical figures. One exhales into space, as if shaping the universe itself. Shifting bodies form a constellation, linking breath, energy, and space-time.
The Cycle
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood
2025
30 × 30 in
This painting reflects the repeating cycles that shape life, from planetary motion to daily human behavior. Inspired in part by eclipse projection drawings I encountered in the home museum of Benjamin Banneker, the work considers how cosmic rhythms quietly guide nature, society, and our sense of time.
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood
2025
30 × 30 in
This painting reflects the repeating cycles that shape life, from planetary motion to daily human behavior. Inspired in part by eclipse projection drawings I encountered in the home museum of Benjamin Banneker, the work considers how cosmic rhythms quietly guide nature, society, and our sense of time.
Self-Baptism
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood
2025
48 × 36 in
Who has the authority to grant forgiveness and belonging to us? The work imagines baptism as a personal act, an inward commitment to care, accountability, and self-love.
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood
2025
48 × 36 in
Who has the authority to grant forgiveness and belonging to us? The work imagines baptism as a personal act, an inward commitment to care, accountability, and self-love.
Anointment of the Ancestors
Pastel and Acrylic on Canvas
2026
90 × 70 in
Women are central to healing. The healing symbols are drawn from my family’s spiritual backgrounds: my grandmother’s Santería, Taíno indigenous healing practices, and Christianity of my Lebanese ancestors. I reflect on the place in the universe for multiple beliefs and types of knowledge.
Pastel and Acrylic on Canvas
2026
90 × 70 in
Women are central to healing. The healing symbols are drawn from my family’s spiritual backgrounds: my grandmother’s Santería, Taíno indigenous healing practices, and Christianity of my Lebanese ancestors. I reflect on the place in the universe for multiple beliefs and types of knowledge.
Big Bang Baby
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood and Paper
2026
96 × 120 in
Composed as a five-panel mosaic recalling altars and churches, the work blends ancient ideas of divinity with contemporary icons of power, transformation, and imagination. Transforming a plane into a three-dimensional world, she is a superhero hovering between dimensions.
Pastel and Acrylic on Wood and Paper
2026
96 × 120 in
Composed as a five-panel mosaic recalling altars and churches, the work blends ancient ideas of divinity with contemporary icons of power, transformation, and imagination. Transforming a plane into a three-dimensional world, she is a superhero hovering between dimensions.
The Big Rip
Pastel and Acrylic on Canvas
2026
80 × 333 in
Space, time, and relationships begin to tear apart. Bodies appear fragmented, drifting in and out of connection. The work asks whether, in moments of collapse, we hold one another with care, or just perform, or cause further harm. Across cultures, stories of creation always carry stories of destruction.
Pastel and Acrylic on Canvas
2026
80 × 333 in
Space, time, and relationships begin to tear apart. Bodies appear fragmented, drifting in and out of connection. The work asks whether, in moments of collapse, we hold one another with care, or just perform, or cause further harm. Across cultures, stories of creation always carry stories of destruction.
Artist Statement
My work celebrates women, nature, and the unseen forces that connect us. I draw from two areas: the quantum physics I studied as a chemical engineer, and the spiritual traditions and folklore of my Dominican Taíno, Lebanese, and African heritage. These aren't opposites: they're parallel ways of explaining transformation, energy, and what lies beyond the visible. Part of my work is historical preservation, as I come from a family that practiced African religion.
I work in large-scale pastel, acrylic, and paper, using color, gesture, and texture to capture movement. My process begins with a concept, then I identify symbols from my traditions (plants, animals, quantum particles) that carry a similar meaning. In the studio, I embody these ideas through intimate performance, creating photo references that become the foundation for each piece. The resulting images are abstract self-portraits: my body holding both my spirit and the story.
I work in large-scale pastel, acrylic, and paper, using color, gesture, and texture to capture movement. My process begins with a concept, then I identify symbols from my traditions (plants, animals, quantum particles) that carry a similar meaning. In the studio, I embody these ideas through intimate performance, creating photo references that become the foundation for each piece. The resulting images are abstract self-portraits: my body holding both my spirit and the story.
Artist Bio
LUSMERLIN is a multidisciplinary artist working between Greater Baltimore and Philadelphia, and exhibiting internationally. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and specialized in cement manufacturing, bringing public speaking, leadership, and extensive project experience into her artistic practice. LUSMERLIN's heritage spans four continents: she traces her lineage generations to one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic, to the Levantine of 200 AD, to Native Tainos in the ceramic era of 800 BC, and, most influential in her upbringing, strong African heritage in her town of Villa Mella. She is a 2025 Janet & Walter Sondheim Semifinalist, a 2024 Mural Arts Philadelphia Fellow, and has received multiple state-level grants. Her work has appeared at The Peale Museum, Attleboro Arts Museum, the Hillstead Museum, El Museo del Barrio, and over 20 juried exhibitions.