For Carmen Oliver, art has been a through line, cultivating 50 years of connection. From her studio in Mexico City, where her children did homework while she painted, to her flower shop, Floralki, that became the subject of conversation—and eventually, the subject of her work—flowers have woven through her life and practice.
Her daughter Daniela Oliver de Portillo carries that thread forward: an artist working in cyanotype and ceramics, a mother of two, and the creator behind Hidden Blooms, a project that transforms Pearl into a treasure hunt of handmade art and encouragement.
We sat down with both of them to talk about lineage, labor, and what it means to create beauty during the seasons of motherhood.
The Flower Shop Effect
Daniela didn’t set out to paint flowers. Growing up, her mother owned a flower shop, and one of her earliest core memories is the smell—that particular green-and-sweet smell of a flower shop when you walk through the door. She didn’t think she’d make flowers her subject of focus. Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she decided to return to art-making after years in PR and marketing, she bought a botanical line-drawing book. The premise was simple: one plant drawing a day, no more, no less.
“I think the fact that my mom owned a flower shop when I was young influenced it in a way I didn’t anticipate,” Daniela says. “I was always surrounded by flowers and creative floral arrangements. Even after she left the shop, every celebration at my house had flowers.”
For Carmen, the influence runs deeper and started even earlier. Her mother—Daniela’s great grandmother—was passionate about gardening, and Carmen would watch her arrange flowers with care. Inspired by these moments, Carmen and her sister began creating their own floral arrangements. Their beautiful work attracted attention, and soon the family opened Floralki, their flower shop on the first floor of the grandmother’s home.
“I love flowers,” Carmen says simply. “That’s why my sister and I started to make flowers, arrange the flowers, and people are interested in our work, and that’s the way to make a flower shop.”
Botanical Sensations and the Pandemic Pivot
During COVID, both Carmen and Daniela were making flowers—but in different ways, and without seeing each other.
Daniela was working through those botanical line drawings. But then her children found them and scribbled all over them. Her first instinct was frustration. Then she realized what she was seeing: a visual translation of the anguish parents everywhere were experiencing, where everything they did was invaded by an endless sense of responsibility.
The series became Invasive Species.
Meanwhile, Carmen was teaching community art workshops for elderly people via Zoom at Bihl Haus Arts—something she learned entirely on her own, with a little help from her son Bernardo. She was also painting flowers.
“During the pandemic, I had already realized I wanted to leave my marketing and PR career and go back to art making,” Daniela says. “But it was a very difficult time. I had no inspiration or ideas. I just knew I wanted to be making something with my hands.”
The two of them had the opportunity to exhibit together at Bihl Haus Arts in a show called Botanical Sensations—years of being surrounded by flowers, all of it seeping into their work at once.
The Mother-Daughter Art Practice
Ask them about conflict in their artistic relationship, and they’ll tell you: there isn’t any. They take workshops together (ceramics, mixed media at what used to be the Southwest School of Art). They critique each other’s work with honesty tempered by love. Carmen sends her mom photos of paintings. Daniela texts back feedback.
“She’s my boss,” Carmen laughs. “I send a text, she critiques. And sometimes I change my work because she advised me.”
What they do fight about, they’ll tell you, is normal stuff—the dogs, everyday life. And they make up 30 minutes later, the way many Latino families do.
But in their art, they’re respectful of each other’s path. Carmen approaches art as something for herself, for her soul, for the joy of it. Daniela, by her own admission, takes it more seriously—thinking about shows, commissions, the gallery life, and growing in her art practice and career.
“My mom really does her art just for her own enjoyment,” Daniela says. “And that’s something I need to learn from—to relax and just enjoy the process.”
Hidden Blooms: Art That Finds You
During the pandemic, Daniela took a virtual ceramics class (try to imagine that). She loved it. Later, she took in-person classes. She started making bowls and plates. And then, inspired by the painted rocks you see in parks, she started leaving them in random places with notes of encouragement: We are never going to meet each other, but we’re in this together. Hang on tight. We’ll get through this.
The idea stayed with her. Why isn’t that public art?
Public art, she realized, is usually something you see passing by—an installation, a sculpture. You take it in, maybe take a photo. But what if the art was yours to take home? What if it were free, and you just found it?
In summer 2025, she proposed Hidden Blooms to the San Antonio River Foundation’s Art in the Open program. They said yes. In August, Daniela left handmade ceramic vessels with paper cyanotype flowers hidden along the Mission Reach Trail. People found them. It was, she says, a moment of real connection—the transaction removed, art given freely, and the joy of discovery for strangers.
“In giving, I received so much more,” she says. “Interactions with people, wonderful experiences. And I was like, man, I have to do this again.”
Hidden Blooms II: A Mother’s Day Gift
This May, Hidden Blooms returns—and it’s coming to Pearl.
Daniela proposed it to Pearl because it’s the place where she first felt comfortable taking her newborn. The parking was easy. Everything was accessible. If a diaper explosion happened, you could leave. If things went well, there was the splash pad, restaurants, and stores. Now that her kids are eight and ten, Pearl is still the place where she sees every stage of motherhood at once: the exhausted mom with the melting ice cream, the serene mom with the perfect moment, the grandmother enjoying the space the way Daniela will someday enjoy it.
“I want to do it at Pearl, and I want to do it for Mother’s Day,” she says. “I hope that when people find these, they feel what I feel. That we’re going through the same thing. That we can take a little break and just enjoy the beauty of life.”
The blooms are intended for mothers to find—or for people to give to their moms.
The Hidden Blooms II scavenger hunt begins on Monday, May 4 leading through Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 10! Check our Instagram daily for surprise drop times for a chance to grab this handmade pieces of art to give to that mother figure in your life.
The Labor of Love
Daniela’s process is deliberately labor-intensive. Ceramics require two firings and glazing. Cyanotype requires planning, cutting, matrix-making, printing, and rinsing. She could simplify. She could make a mold, stamp it, and do two versions.
She doesn’t.
“I like the idea of working for it,” she says. “There’s a parallel there with motherhood, where we put so many self-imposed goals and standards. My mom’s generation, maybe it was more organic. In my generation, there’s this tension between all the labor we have to do and not completely abandoning ourselves to that process.”
When she rinses a cyanotype and reveals the image, she might be surprised, enchanted, or disappointed. But then she comes back the next day and sees it differently. She forgives herself. She works with what she has.
“I earned the right to like it,” she says. “I worked through that process. So it’s a parallel of what life is and the process of it.”
Free Mother’s Day Art Workshop
Bring your mom to Pearl this Mother’s Day for a free art workshop under the Cellars Pavilion near Pearl Park! Led by San Antonio artist Daniela Oliver de Portillo herself, participants will get hands on instruction on how to make their own cyanotype flowers!
Spots are limited, so arrive early to guarantee your time slot and learn how to make beautiful art pieces celebrating moms this Mother’s Day. It’s happening on Sunday, May 10 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
At Pearl
Ask them what they love about Pearl, and Carmen lights up: the people, the food, the buildings, the dogs. Everything.
Daniela remembers chasing her son Rodrigo around the splash pad when he was young—”as fast as a roadrunner,” she laughs, watching her mom nod in recognition of that particular exhaustion. Now she sees mothers in all their stages at Pearl: the beautiful moments and the explosions, all of it real, all of it worth witnessing.
“When you go to Pearl, you see the range of what motherhood is,” she says. “From the very beautiful moment where the sun is shining, and everything is perfect, to when it all explodes, and you just need to get back to your car as soon as you can.”
Hidden Blooms 2 launches this May at Pearl, made special for Mother’s Day. Handmade ceramic brooches with paper cyanotype flowers will be hidden throughout the district for mothers—and the people who love them—to discover. Each piece is a gift wrapped in the labor and love of Daniela Oliver de Portillo’s hands. Keep an eye on Pearl’s social channels and join our email list for updates on when and where to find them.
Daniela Oliver de Portillo is available for commission inquiries. You can find more about her work and upcoming projects here.