A painting that references b chehayeb’s love of her mother’s caldo—a Mexican chicken broth-based soup served with lime—as well as her struggles to follow the recipe and make a good dish. 'mexican dinner hero' (2024) offers warm, spicy reds and oranges at the edges of the composition populated by a caldo pot, green lime wedges, and a pink energetically brushed funnel of energy leading up to a yellow star. chehayeb suggests this shape “symbolizes ‘working to the top’ in some way, working to excel and working to be great! great at being a girl or mexican or american or anything…a strange and personal accomplishment culturally, domestically, familially” This balancing act between self-motivation and societal / familial pressures rendered as a spatial abstraction aligns with chehayeb’s interest in hole-punched blue-lined notebook paper—an expression of academic excellence (chehayeb loved to learn and to be in school) as well as a blank page (canvas) that symbolizes the artistic blossoming of an aspiring poet (painter).

gatorade sisters (2024) was created as b chehayeb sifted through summer memories of walking to get Gatorade during sports season. chehayeb unpacks her relationship to sports quite elegantly: "sports and sports imagery/references are a big part of my memories because softball was a secret world where i could exist with all the aspects of my identity openly: physical strength, competition and loudness, aggression and chaos, things that registered more as queerness on the outside. these were qualities in the south more associated with boyhood…" —b chehayeb

b chehayeb’s gordita summer (2024) features several recognizable symbols—chones, stars, a red and white cooler, a glass bottle, a cigarette—floating across a dusty tan landscape with the patchwork blue edges of a pool. According to the artist, it’s a painting about the “sights n smells of a texas summer: fast food, coolers, and smoke, grass always haunted by body anxiety of course.” "we went everywhere with the coolers: softball games, the horse races, a waterpark called NRH20 [featured in another painting from the tomboy tejano blues], six flags if we brought our own food, jarrito [a popular brand of Mexican carbonated fruit drinks], beer. the smell of a cigarette which was somehow always around." —b chehayeb

The painting titled los mercados (2024) has a rhythmic composition that reverberates with the voices of b chehayeb’s family, adding to a childhood memory of disorientation: LOST IN THE MEAT MARKET BUT YOU DON’T SPEAK ANY SPANISH?? YOUR ANCESTORS ROLLIN IN THEIR DAMN GRAVES MIJA! WE RODE ON HORSES!! WE WANDERED THE DESERT HEAT!! WE DON’T NEED COLLEGE BACK THEN The brushy, open landscape is partially covered by a white notebook page—a symbol of school where a curious young chehayeb thrived. A small tornado twists with chaotic energy, a visualization of the “forces of nature” in chehayeb’s life, while a white plastic bag with a red, illegible text comes from a mercado, Spanish for the market.

Fragments of b chehayeb’s childhood memories emerge and assemble in her painting 'puro tejano tomboy still life' (2024). Though still floating in the ether of her mental space, chehayeb considers this more of a still life format than her other paintings. Letters for passing notes, chones (Spanish for underwear), winnings, and other obscure objects appear throughout the painting, circling around the recurring motif of the young Texan tomboy archetype.