Blog Post Week 7: Presentations- Kenia Gutierrez and Bell Diaz

It is week seven and we have gone through three days of presentations. The presentations have covered artists of the following media: photography, performance and public art. The presentations covered thus far have been very informative, but the artist or shall I say artists that I have chosen is the duo of Kenia Gutierrez and Bell Diaz presented by Miguel Angel Flores. What I found interesting about this presentation was Miguel's opening sentence about how these women were not included in the list that we were given to choose from. I found this interesting because it is admirable to hear that there artists out there that continue to represent the Chicano population. Not only do they represent the Chicano population, but they own a gallery in Los Angeles that they run which results in being the only gallery ran by females. What I enjoyed learning the most about this duo is that they have their own subspecialties. Based on the presentation I learned that Kenia is more film and photography oriented and Bell focuses more on sculptural and illustrative pieces. Their paintings mainly consist of traditional paintings and sculpture, to screen printing and altering clothing. Kenia and Bell participate in rescuing animals and promoting areas of space where individual can express themselves along with advocating art as a form of healing.

The image that I liked most done by them is a photograph captured by Kenia that caught my attention because her main focus is to capture those who are camera shy. Her images are described as "bizarre" because the models are in random settings and the images are unusual. In the photograph, there are four females who seem to be in an underground tunnel holding what it appears to be fireworks. The style these women have is of a punk rockers/grundge look. There are taggings on the walls of the tunnel and the women appear to be expressing themselves by their face expressions and the way they hold the fireworks. This image might be seen as bizarre for the reasons that the women are in a tunnel, their facial expressions, holding lit up fireworks in their hands, based on their make-up, hair and what they are wearing.