For the past two years, La Cuna Center has been engaged in a prairie restoration project at our center. This work has provided a firsthand understanding of the native plants and the complex challenges facing the Texas Hill Country, including the effects of overgrazing and the delicate balance needed to sustain healthy ecosystems. Living in the region during this time, we observed how extreme weather and climate cycles profoundly shape both the environment and the people who depend on it. This understanding led to the creation of Enduring Forces, La Cuna Center’s first exhibition, which invited artists to respond to these forces and foster conversations about the region’s unique challenges. The show opened a dialogue rooted in curiosity and respect, revealing that water shortages and the future of ranching are a foremost concern for locals, who are deeply attuned to the cycles of drought and floods that define the Hill Country. Diego Miró-Rivera joined us as La Cuna Center’s first artist-in-residence to create a site- specific work, Hay Poncho. Prompted by conversations leading up to and during his brief but impactful residency, Diego embraced the opportunity to connect with locals, sharing meals and informal exchanges that enriched his understanding of the land. His empathetic approach aligned with La Cuna Center’s mission to listen first—honoring generational knowledge and respecting local ranching traditions while opening pathways for creative solutions to new problems. Hay Poncho offers a thoughtful exploration of the relationship between humans, the land, and the natural world. Made from locally sourced hay, sticks, and wrapped in Little Bluestem grass—once dominant in the Hill Country but now less common due to grazing pressures—the sculpture evokes the region’s ecological context. Its form occupies a compelling space between figuration and abstraction, balancing the recognizable and the enigmatic. At first glance, its sinuous, undulating silhouette suggests a playful, almost mythical creature— perhaps a dragon woven from grasses—yet this impression gives way to a subtler, more sophisticated reading. The sculpture’s flowing, organic curves mirror the gentle rise and fall of the Hill Country landscape, while the Little Bluestem grass lends a textured, tactile quality that invites closer inspection. The grasses cascade and ripple, mimicking the movement of wind through a prairie, reinforcing a sense of motion and vitality. This interplay between form and material situates Hay Poncho within a liminal space: a work that simultaneously conjures the whimsical and the monumental. Its abstracted lines and rhythmic structure recall minimalist principles—an elevated, reductive beauty—while resisting the sterility sometimes associated with minimalism. The piece remains approachable, its tactile and organic qualities grounding it firmly in the natural world. It invites viewers to engage with its form and materiality with curiosity and reverence, evoking both the playful and the profound without ever slipping into kitsch. In this way, Hay Poncho embodies the delicate balance between imagination and restraint, much like the ecosystems it seeks to honor. Through Hay Poncho, Diego subtly draws attention to the absence of Little Bluestem grass— once abundant but now rare—while encouraging reflection and appreciation for the region’s ecological complexity. It is a work of art that has initiated conversations and laid the foundation for future, more complex projects at La Cuna Center.