Laura Alvarez

    This week, I had the pleasure of listening to the artist Laura Alvarez speak on a personal level regarding topic like her parents, her childhood, to even her training in the arts in San Francisco and abroad. It was truly inspiring to listen to her speak because I felt like Laura was the total encapsulation of an artist both enthralled and intertwined in her work. I have never met a multi-media artist who worked with so many mediums (sketches, paintings, music, fashion, and film). Also, Laura Alvarez seemed to always be growing with her art, shaping and changing it with the of guidance of her life experiences. For example, when she was homesick abroad, she created work depicting her family members. One piece that I particularly was drawn to is her acrylic on paper “Clean Up at the Monsanto House of the Future” that she created in 2009. I feel like it is very reflective of her family life and her creative interests, while still being progressive and visually appealing. I think it is awesome how she took her mother’s occupation as a nanny as inspiration for the majority of her art. Since 1995, Laura Alvarez has been developing the story of her character Double Agent Sirvienta (DAS) that is a combination of both her mother’s job and aspects of her father’s stint in the war. This character really shows how personal Laura get with her art.  However, while some may think that depicting images of Chicana women as cleaners and service workers is not progressive, I believe it is the opposite. Since DAS is not really cleaning but actually doing a dangerous and adventurous task, Laura Alvarez is working to empower women through putting DAS in a position of power. In Blake’s Chicana Sexuality and Gender: Cultural Refiguring in Literature, Oral History, and Art, Blake describes how Chicana feminists create art to actively resist injustices surrounding gender and the oppression that has been historically, racially, and culturally perpetuated by the dominant society. I feel that Laura Alvarez displays feminist ideas in radical ways by her decision to show DAS in active roles that bring light to class differences. In the painting I selected, DAS is working for a presumably wealthy family but is still dressed up elegantly while she works. Not only that, but her double-role as both an agent and a nanny shows how women are intelligent and cunning enough to do anything and everything. DAS also remind me of the strong and smart women in my own life.

“Clean Up at the Monsanto House of the Future”, 4’ x 6’, acrylic on paper, 2009