Ryan, Skylar

Hi! My name is Skylar, and I'm a junior transfer student currently studying Gender Studies and Art History. I am gathering information about creating my own major centered around diversity, so if you have any experience creating your own major at UCLA, or want to talk to me about my idea, please let me know! I have lived all over California, and recently moved to LA to attend school. My parents and siblings live in New Zealand. I am also a multimedia artist and creative writer, and I am particularly interested in the therapeutic potential of art--both for individuals dealing with any kind of pain, sickness or trauma, and as a mode of expression and communication within social movements and in advocacy of social justice.   

In reading Gaspar de Alba's "Out of the House" I was interested to learn that Chicana feminists have been considered anti-Chicano. As an outsider to Chicana/a culture, I was immediately curious if there has been more inclusion for Chicana feminism in the 21st century, or is feminism still considered derisive and threatening? The inclusion of Frida Kahlo imagery by the male artists in the show made me curious why she was a popular image to evoke. As a woman who was disabled, bisexual, and an artist who repeatedly exposed her complex inner world and physical imperfections, I would find her difficult to categorize within a patriarchal stereotype. Is there a mythology and symbolism behind Frida's life? What does she represent to Chicanos and Chicanas today? 

I was fascinated by the descriptions of all the different place aesthetics in, "There's No Place like Aztlan". The concept of physical land being gendered was also fascinating to me. Within the las tres Marias archetype, I thought it was interesting that the examples of land could be seen as either a virgin or a mother, but never a whore. Is it because virgin and mother is passive, while whore is active? I was curious if it was possible for the archetype of the whore be projected on something equivalent/similar to the idea of projecting the mother onto "homeland" or the virgin onto "The New World".