Laura Aguilar, Carlee Fernandez, and Isis Rodriguez

In this week's presentations, a common theme was the concept of identity and each artist's grasp of their own identity and how it influenced their art. Each artist also took a different approach to how their identity tied in with their art-it seemed that some were more open to integrating their identity with their work opposed to others. However, something that they all had in common was that their life experiences heavily influenced the work they put out. In this entry, I am choosing to focus on three different artists because I think that each woman's way of integrating their identity with their work showcases different ways that people connect with how they are branded and with how they brand themselves.

LAURA AGUILAR
I honestly feel so privileged to have seen the video in which Aguilar talks about her work. Although we come from different experiences with our bodies, I was able to relate to some of the things she was saying about her body and her initial disconnect with her physical self. The harmful she was received as a result of how she looks is despicable, and I admire her strength in reclaiming a beauty society has attempted to convince her is nonexistent. My favorite work of hers is the following:

With this image, I truly feel that Aguilar is reclaiming her space in the world, and recognizing her autonomy. Her declaration of herself as a fat lesbian is both reclaiming and brash. To me, this work reflects that notion in the sense that her action of taking space in an art world reserved for heterosexual and thin white people revolutionizes her existence and her art. By placing herself amongst nature I feel that she's declaring her place in the world and making her existence known when most would rather cast their eyes down upon meeting her. Her relationship with her identity is complex but potent, and I think that this complexity and strength shows in her work. I admire her greatly. 

CARLEE FERNANDEZ

I have a complex attitude towards Fernandez, her work, and what she says about her work. Something I've struggled with in the formation of my Chicana identity is that I sometimes don't fit what a Chicana is "supposed" to be. I always press the matter that the Chican@ experience is anything but homogenous, and I've always refrained from relating the experience to a stereotypical trope. I don't have anything against any lifestyle any Chican@ chooses to follow, and I embrace all of our different experiences. The fluidity of our identity is something to embrace. However, this isn't a notion that I'm recognizing in Fernandez, her work, or anything she says in regards to her identity. I understand her desire to distance herself from what mainstream art regards as "Chican@ art" but in doing so, I feel she is further perpetuating the limits of the label and failing to integrate fluidity in what Chican@ art is. 

ISIS RODRIGUEZ

I'm relatively new to Rodriguez' work, but I have an admiration for it and for her integration of her experience as a sex worker into it. I especially like how she pushes the viewer to recognize the damages that the sex industry perpetuate. I find that modern mainstream feminism tends to sometimes regard porn as empowering, when in fact the industry itself is extremely dangerous and abusive to the women who are in pornography and who do sex work. The damage that porn perpetuates is embedded in modern societal mentality, and the standard that it pushes is unrealistic and very damaging. Her assertion of this through her art reflects upon her life experience and her identity as a former sex worker. 

The image above is my favorite because it reflects her cartoon-inspired style and because I can see a concept that's been on my mind lately in the piece itself. Ironically, throughout Catholic high school, I experienced a falter in my faith and admiration in La Virgen. I grew up with the image and lived by it, but something about teen girl ponkera angst didn't leave room for it for me. In recent months, possibly due to a traumatic experience, my interest and faith in her has been reestablished. Lately I've been feeling like you could truly find La Virgen anywhere, and she is much more relatable than we think. The image above reminds me of all the girls I grew up admiring for their unapologetic sense of selves and for their aesthetic. I see it as a tribute to the girls often criminalized and stigmatized, and finds the beauty and reverence and general chingona-ness in who they are. 

Each of these artists present a narrative through their work, one that focuses on their embrace and neglect of certain identities. I find the difference in each person's work beautiful, and it further contributes to my assertion that our experience as Chican@s isn't homogenous, and anything that we put into the world will be different. And that's my favorite thing about our community - the fact that we could find harmony in our differences.