Week 10: Something I Learned/Suprised/Found Interesting

I enjoyed many things about this course. Some of the most valuable is the amount of Chicana artists we learned about. I found the amount of artists and variety of artwork to be extremely surprising. When I initially signed up for the course I thought I would learn in depth about a few Chicana artists, and learn more about a Chicana/o aesthetic. After viewing all the individual artists what stands out is that there is no one Chicana/o aesthetic, yet most of the artists demonstrated some kind of personal engagement with society. Even Carlee Fernandez, although she doesn't primarily focus on Chicana identity, had the self-portrait of her father. Artists like Patssi Valdez or Judithe Hernandez who were involved in artist collectives during the Chicano movement, later developed their own style of artwork that branched out.
The section of the course I enjoyed the most was the readings assigned. Especially with the bell hooks and Amalia Mesa-Bains text, we got to hear a perspective that is rarely listened to or acknowledged in an academic setting. I found the other texts to be surprising as well because Chicana/o artists are so rarely talked about in art history courses, despite being part of "American" art history. With more familiarity of Chicana/o artists, the artwork will hopefully become more a part of mainstream culture and media to the American public. Hopefully, one day names like Yolanda Lopez or Carmen Lomas Garza will be as recognizable as Andy Warhol or Jasper Johns.