Week 8: Presentation- Lilibeth Chavez on Ruby Chacon

One presentation that I found very insightful and interesting was Lilibeth’s presentation about Ruby Chacon. She provided thorough background information about the artists, which helped contextualize the meaning and intention of her art. This information was relevant and established her mission to honor her family and community. This made the analysis portion of the presentation much easier to comprehend, which I appreciated. Her examination of Chacon’s murals was very detailed, since she looked at precise elements and symbols. For instance, her analysis of “Cihuacoatl and the Golden Rule of Outdoor Murals” valuably noted the depiction of normal people as possessing vibrant potential. The young woman at the forefront of the mural has a luminous light around her, which symbolizes the aureole that the Virgin of Guadalupe radiates in many paintings of her. As Lilibeth effectively notes, this similarity in depiction suggests that any woman can hold the power of hope. She proposes that mankind has profound capabilities and perseverance, without the help of any special right. She celebrates the everyday lives and roles of people, in order to pay homage to their hard work. Lilibeth connects this theme to two other artworks, which presents a more comprehensive interpretation of Chacon’s work. For instance, the chalk painting entitled “Grandpa Cosme Chacon” visualizes a personal homage to her own family, thus underscoring the importance of ancestry and familial legacy. Lilibeth does a great job connecting this image to the Chacon’s interest in honoring regular people whose stories are often excluded. The artist uses their medium to showcase not herself, but other people whose lives or image deserve to be recognized. She uses detail to make the subject’s identity and livelihood more vivid to the viewer, which Lilibeth successfully point to in her presentation. Overall, I think she chose distinct paintings that all related to each other, thus offering a better understanding of Chacon’s focus as an artist.