Week 5: Carmen Lomas Garza

 The Carmen Lomas Garza artwork I chose to write about for this week was “Tamalada.” The painting depicts Carmen Lomas Garza’s family in the kitchen preparing tamales. In the upper left quadrant of the painting, members of her family fill masa with fillings. Above them, garlic, artwork, and a painting of the last supper hangs on the wall. Gomez’s choice to include the painting of the last supper subtly shows off her family’s Christian religion, while also drawing connection between the ritual of the last supper and her family’s ritual of preparing tamales. In the bottom left quadrant, childrens toys lie abandoned on the kitchen floor under the table under which Garza’s family prepares tamales. A young child sits on the floor, playing with some of the tamale wrappers. By painting both elderly and young members of her family participating in the tamale making, Garza allows the viewer to gain an understanding of the intergenerationality of this tradition. In the bottom right quadrant, three of Garza’s family members are painted standing around a tub, dipping the tamale wrappers in water. Beneath them, bags full of the wrappers spill outward onto the floor. In the upper righthand corner, a young member of Garza’s family is painted standing on her fathers’ feet observing the tamale making from the doorway. In contrast to the cool-tone colors Garza uses for the majority of the kitchen scene, the doorway features warm colors, pink and orange, which create a sense of warmth and invitation leading into the rest of the house. The vivid colors Garza uses to paint her family members pop against the dull blue and grey hues she uses for the wall and floor of the kitchen, giving the viewer insight to her vibrant view of her family members. From the painting, it is clear how important both family and food are to the artist.