Portada's work articulates her environment and immediate surroundings into patches and shafts of vibrant color, familiar organic forms and pattern. Boundaries between visual phenomena are blurred, as forms coalesce into flickering mystical imprints of nature, or the textures of the layered materials question the very surface of the painting. Her investment in mining form, flatness, texture and edge point to the influence of cubist collage, Hilma af Kilnt and the landscapes of Cézanne over her work. Portada recalls thinking -go to the plants- feeling a deep-seated desire to be with the green and the growing when these first Monstera series paintings were started. She describes the memory of her mother, who felt the same yearning upon immigrating from her lush native Cuba to the United States. Her recent paintings explore the worlds of miniature tide pools. The muse of the late conservationist, Rachel Carson, tide pools offer mysterious and vibrant ecosystems that echo humans trapped in quarantine-- reliant on outside forces and rhythms for survival.