Carmen Lomas Garza: Sandia/Watermelon

Sandia/Watermelon by Carmen Lomas Garza is a gouache painting that she made in 1987.  This painting is from her Pedacito De Mi Corazon series.  This painting shows Garza’s family being united outside of their porch while eating watermelon.  This piece conveys that watermelon brings the family together.  The phrase “pedacito de mi corazon” refers to the slice of watermelon that Carmen Lomas Garza’s father is slicing, is a piece of his heart.  Placed at the center of the painting is the watermelon, which infers it’s the most important part of the painting.  Similar to the human heart, the most important organ of the body, thus a slice of watermelon is a “pedacito de mi corazon”.  This term as mentioned in the book was used by Garza’s parents to express their love towards their children.  Also mentioned in the book was that the sweetest part of the watermelon is the core, so the center of the heart is the sweetest, thus the act of giving their children a slice of the center of the watermelon infers that the parents are expressing their sweetest and purest form of love towards their children, or it could be that their children are the sweetest form of love that their parents feel in their heart.

I liked this piece simply because it was focussed on watermelon rather than the whole family.  I like how there are two parts of this painting, the family painting, and the single watermelon painting.  I like how appetizing the watermelon looks.