Curandera II by Carmen Lomas Garza

Curandera II (1979) focuses on the relationship between the healer and the patient by selectively using color and composition to direct the eye toward the two women. The gouache painting shows a healer brushing a ruda plant over a woman lying in bed, making eye contact with her and heightening the feeling of intimacy in the piece. The artist has chosen to color the women’s skin, but not their clothes or hair, perhaps to draw attention to the representation of brown skin in art. The flowers around the edge of the patient’s bedspread are deep pink and green, and the same colors are used to illustrate a bouquet of flowers on her dresser. The flowers on the bedspread create a visual border that directs the eye back toward the two women. Religious Chicanx imagery is also pervasive in the piece, as representations of the Virgin, Jesus, and the cross are visible. Like Lomas Garza’s other work, Curandera II explores the everyday lives of Mexican Americans and, in doing so through the medium of painting, elevates that subject matter. Its focus on exclusively Chicana subjects is also significant in the context of the art associated with the Chicano Movement, which, like the movement itself, often excluded women.