W6: Response to Laura Aguilar post by Hector Prado

My peer Hector Prado discussed the photographic artwork of Chicana artist Laura Aguilar. He pointed out the layers of her intersectionality; being a women, overweight, a Chicana (minority), and a lesbian. The fact that her art is "unorthodox" was an additional key element that he emphasized in his reflection.

Her images are statements that expose a different perspective on what is beautiful, while at the same time providing Laura with a thearaputic experience throughout the process. Her art and its influence has been a vehicle for awareness on the healing power of art; in her case it has functioned to soothe her depression and insecurities. Her art speaks to many marginalized women who share wholly or partially in her intersectionality. Images are powerful and art that is visual has long been utilized by marketing and advertising in order to convey certain images, commodities, and ideas of what is physically beautiful, tasteful, and "worthy of aspiring". She uses the same approach to do the same but in an unexpected way that is actually revealing of the truth; everyone has something beautiful about them without the need of material enhancements or strict definitions of beauty. With her choice of nude bodies laid out, comfortably in nature, she portrays just that.