Artist: R.V. Monroe (Robert & Venice Monroe)
Medium: Laser engraving on natural wood, mounted on hand-painted wood panels within a custom wood frame
Dimensions: 12 inch X 12 inch
 
Description:
 
Cemi is a spiritual invocation. In the tradition of the Taino people—ancestors of today’s Boricua community of Puerto Rico—a cemi is not a symbol of worship, but a living force: an embodiment of spirit, nature, and ancestral memory.
 
This piece stands in that tradition. The central figure is engraved in natural wood, surrounded by light and lifted hands. They do not arrive. They return. Their presence is firm, their power unspoken but absolute. Around them, red radiates like ceremony—a color of fire, bloodline, and cultural survival.
 
Created by R.V. Monroe, the collaborative practice of Robert and Venice Monroe, Cemi is both personal and political. Robert, whose lineage includes Boricua heritage through his grandmother born in Puerto Rico, brings the energy of return, reconnection, and honoring through fire. Venice contributes sacred balance, maternal strength, and emotional grounding, drawing from her life’s work in mental health and generational healing.
 
Cemi is a tribute to the Boricua people—not just the Taino ancestors who resisted colonization, but their descendants who still walk with memory in their blood and power in their silence. This is not a relic. This is presence made permanent.