Nixie's Story
Nixie Icons are original reinterpretations of traditional images used to represent saints, spirits, lwa and orishas in the diverse spiritist traditions of Latin America. Many of these images will be familiar, long-lost friends to people who grew up in spiritual households, but for others- perhaps those who grew up apart from Latinx traditions- they are an entry point into relationship with these spirits.
Nixie (they/them) is a queer Latinx multimedia artist (painting, tattoo, music, animation and more) and espiritista who grew up without religion with two half-Hispanic hippie parents. Growing up, they experienced a strong drive to create art and a deep longing for spiritual connection. Their attraction to ritual and religious imagery led them to join the Catholic Church in their 20s, but its patriarchal rigidity eventually forced them to look beneath the surface. There, they discovered that much of the Catholic imagery that inspired them had been adopted and repurposed in Latin American spiritual practices unsanctioned by the church. For example, images of the Catholic Saints are used in Haitian, Dominican and Puerto Rican vodou and in Santeria as masks for spirit forces, and the santos and virgénes themselves are petitioned at home shrines throughout Latin America from the heart, outside the church, and sometimes inseparably from indigenous counterparts. Beneath the veil of Catholic imagery beats irrepressible heart of the divine creative force itself.
Nixie paints icons as a devotional practice. Each icon is a loving exploration of the spirit, often teasing the more elemental and magical, less orthodox qualities out of the original popular image. These icons are perfect for home altars and shrines, and are a point of contact for anyone wishing to get to know the spirits better.
