Week 8: Carmen Lomas Garza, Tito's Gig on the Moon

  One work of Carmen Lomas Garza that I love is Tito's Gig on the Moon. Although the image appears in the text assigned in class, I first saw this image at an open artist's studio event in San Francisco. She told me and my family about how she created the work in memory of Tito Puente after he died. The work transfers the club where he often played onto the moon so he can keep performing even when he is no longer around. The gold archways demonstrate the indoor space. I found that even in this work, that may not be specifically about her family and traditions, Lomas Garza achieves a feeling of happy nostalgia, that my classmate, Renata Herrera mentioned in her post this week as well. The sense of a story so present in Lomas Garza's En Mi Familia series is visible here in the detail of the setting and characters.
  Another detail Lomas Garza shared is that the musical notes coming from the musician's instruments become the pattern in each dancer's clothing. The musician's notes become the dance moves and character of the partners. This detail seems so whimsical to me, and brings a liveliness that so few artists present and still stand as "respected" in the art world. Lomas Garza is an example of an artist that thrives on humor, and character, yet does so through a formal use of color and pattern. This work specifically shows it, but throughout her body of prints and paintings, she uses pattern so exquisitely to demonstrate that sense of home. In many of her works, the patterns seem as though from an old blouse, tablecloth, or papel picado, and add to the familial feeling in her images. Seeing the work in person helps bring those details out, but even in the text, Tito's Gig on the Moon stands out because of the bright color, and lively scene she depicts.