Jeaneen Carlino

Jeaneen Carlino's artwork caught my attention during the student presentations. I am attracted to desert biomes and scenery as well as sci-fi action thus, Carlino's piece The Invasion of Narth was a perfect combination of those two interests of mine. At first sight this piece does not look as if it has a message of social justice or empowerment, to some it may just seem like a scene of amazonian-like women fighting off antagonizing giant bugs. But to me, this piece (and Carlino's work as a whole) is an expansion of Latina/Latinx or "Brown" representation into the realm of sci-fi. As a long-time sci-fi/comic book/fantasy enthusiast I have noticed that the characters from the stories I read tend to always be white with occasional People of Color representation and Latino representation being a rare occurrence.  Thus the images of powerful Brown women attacking giant evil bugs satisfies me due to the fact that Latinx representation in sci-fi has alway been lacking. 

Other pieces of Carlinos artwork besides The Invasion of Narth caught my attention because of her use of such vibrant colors textures and patterns in them. The images she depicts also tend to be odd arrangements of objects/animals that capture my curiosity and spike my interest. An example being her piece The Nefarious Lizard in which there is a women with grey and red gymnastics clothing wearing the skin of a giant lizard while balancing on tree branches above a sea of green blue brown and pink zig-zap patterns. I enjoyed Carlino's work so much that I find myself upset behind I didn't present on her and The Invasion of Narth  is now my background cover.