Week 10 Reflection

For this weeks post, I want to highlight the wide variety of artists that we have seen throughout the quarter. I really enjoyed seeing how each artist told their own stories in a different manner yet they all shared something in common, a desire for justice and awareness. Something that I noticed was that a large bunch of the Chicana artists that were presented were from Texas, more specifically, from El Paso Texas. I just thought this was a fun random point because I found it funny since my presentation artist was also from there. It makes sense since many were daughters of immigrant parents who had crossed the border prior to their birth or even after their birth. 

What surprised me the most was the amount of Chicana artists that we covered and discussed and the variety of work that was created. One of the most interesting parts of this class for me was when we discussed murals and the process of making them. There’s actually a mural at one of the middle schools back home and I never really paid much attention to it until I realized how much hard work was put into that work. A little story about our middle school, it was going through some really big changes to shift the overall “image” into a more educational one. So the school changed colors, mascots, even the name, but the mural stayed. The mural says that it was directed and designed by Laura M. Tyson which was our HS art teacher. There are several other signatures because some of the students helped to paint it. My interpretation of it is that it signifies how our small community comes together and supports each other, it represents the community as a whole in every section of the mural. It has culture and symbolizes the diversity in our very small community and I think it didn't get removed because it represents more than just the school but rather the whole community. Similar to the purpose of many artists in general, to convey a message that impacts and speaks to the whole community by evoking different (or similar) thoughts and emotions.

    

Presentation 2: Stephanie Mercado

One artist that really stood out to me was Stephanie Mercado. The initial image that caught my attention from the presentation was the one with the woman in the black and white maid uniform that was staring at what appeared to be a castle in the very far distance. The reason why this image stood out to me was because of that castle and the very enchanted vibe that the image gave off. I looked up some more of her work and stumbled upon this image that I have included and it’s ironic in how it resembles a sort of twisted version of Cinderella. In the image we see a castle and a young girl running away from that castle, (with a third leg?) which is painted in a way to represent a poster flyer that is advertising some sort of house cleaning service. When looking further at the image, we see the bottom of the image that has little phone tabs that people can pull off if they are interested in whatever it is that is being advertised, in this case being someone who cleans homes. During the presentation, it was explained how Mercado has a whole series that is dedicated to maids and housekeepers and this image is part of that series. This series was explained to show the power and class disparities between different races while also showing human relationships. Mercado explains her work merges fashion, paintings, printmaking and historical European imagery regarding identity construction. She uses her art work to show wealth, imperialism, and what she explains as the pursuit of the American Dream and the struggle that follows that “dream.” Mercado explains that each image in this collection has a character that seems to be caught between reality and a mystical or deformed world which is misshapen due to the people who are constantly controlling their environment. 

Presentation: Camille Rose Garica

I really enjoyed the presentation on Camille Rose Garcia, the work presented was so interesting and unique to what we have been seeing in class. I searched up Camille Rose Garcia and saw some of her books that were mentioned in the presentation and I absolutely loved them. Her depictions of some classic Disney tales are different than what you expect to see from other artists. Her Alice in Wonderland images are especially intriguing, the story is already compelling on its own but these images give an image to better align the story. One book that I caught my attention was the one titled “Tragic Kingdom: The Art of Camille Rose Garcia,” this appears to be a playful twist on Disney’s the Magic Kingdom. Garcia's light-hearted paintings and drawings of the classic cartoon-like characters that we see in Disney tales are designed to depict dark tales of violence, corruption, and greed. The images that stood out to me the most were those representing Snow White. Even the smallest most innocent bunnies or birds had an evil yet endearing tone to them. The seven dwarfs were also shown in many of her depictions of Snow White. The twisted depiction of the evil queen shows her true and malicious intentions within the story itself. What I really liked about Rose Garcia’s images was that even though they were a little gruesome or evil, her color palette seemed to stay within light pastels or just light colors in general. She balances the images by providing them with several colors that are light. Her work is especially relatable in a sense that many of us grew up watching these fairytales or listening to the stories, but I would assume never in this manner, she took something that many people would know and be familiar with and twisted it to her own interest to create a contrast of worlds. Overall I would definitely love to look more into her art and maybe even purchase a book of my own. 

Judith F. Baca: Killed by a Placa

In this book by Anna Indych-López, we are able to see how Judith F. Baca centers her work around issues of race, class, and gender and the hierarchy within these categories. As I was going through her work, one piece that really stood out to me was the one titled Killed by a Placa, a wood stain piece done in 1974. As I was going through this book, there were a lot of pieces that had the same initial theme of cultural and social awareness through an alternative perceptive. As we see in this piece one thing that is evidently different is that the colors used, are a lot darker and it makes sense as she is representing the death of a very young boy, Jerry Fernandez, who was a part of her mural crew. The message in this image extends past informing the public of an occurrence but rather Baca is able to express her grief and thought of injustice. On the curb of which Jerry is laying, there is a white stenciled drawing of the words “17 yrs” to represent Jerry’s age at his death. A placa is a tag or barrio calligraphy and we can see that the young boy has a placa over his face that makes it seem as if Baca’s work were graffitied on or written over. The message behind this is expressed to represent the masculinity of these young men by showing larger arms in the image, while also maintaining a sense of vulnerability by showing twisted lines over his body. Baca began to explore the concept of male violence and the destructive actions that come along with it, with an emphasis on gang violence. 

Carmen Lomas Garza: Cakewalk

As I was reading through Carmen Lomas Garza’s book, one image that I really enjoyed was the one titled Cakewalk. This image was created in 1987 as an acrylic on canvas piece. One aspect that I really enjoy about Lomas Garza’s work, in general, is that she really focuses on the concept of family while representing the realities of a Mexican American community; she does this by having her work revolve around unity and culture. In many of her art pieces, we see her resemble her childhood memories or experiences and this image is a perfect depiction of this. Lomas Garza is in this particular image and uses it to represent how all the kids are participating in an activity that will ensure their own futures, and of course, Lomas Garza is seen drawing on the sidewalk with a twig. I really enjoyed this piece because it shows the interactions within a community. In this image, you can see shop owners, members of the American GI forum, parents, friends, and even pets. 

This image represents a community fundraiser, raising money to send Mexican Americans to the university. The game being played is called cakewalk, and sort of parallels the game of musical chairs. Each person would pay 25 cents to play and they would stand on a number. They would then walk around as music played and when it stopped, so did they and then someone would call out a random number and the person standing on this number won a cake and this is how they raised funds. I like the message of the community gathering to support the youth and this image portrays the involvement and care that people have for one another. When there is a cause that needs to be supported, everyone will do their best to get involved to help whoever is in need. The unity of the community proves to be important in social movements by creating this encouraging support needed to spark a change.

Celia Alvarez Muñoz - Roberto Tejada

In Roberto Tejada’s Celia Alvarez Muñoz (A Ver) book, we are able to see the various art pieces by Celia Alvarez Muñoz. From the section titled “Geography,” there are several art pieces that reflect twentieth-century geometric abstraction as well as conceptual and earthwork practices. On page ten, we see a photograph of a mixed media installation from the Dallas Museum of Art made in 1991. Alvarez Muñoz created an octagonal wooden structure that was made of timbers that suggested the ties of railroad construction. There are vertical beams that are attached by metal joints to form this large structure that is halfway over a rectangular pool which is in the courtyard of the Dallas Museum of Art. Two of the beams are in the water and because of this, we are able to see a reflection in the water. To finish it off there are neon beams forming an ‘X’ in the center of the sculpture. This sculpture was influenced by the Mogollon structures and served to represent the collusions between the industrial façade as well as the colonizing enterprise of U.S. cultural expansion. I thought it was interesting to see this structure that was created around the preexisting sculpture of Ellsworth Kelly from 1984 and around the Dallas skyline. In the photograph taken it seems to have a sunset theme and the colors appear very vivid and stand out because of the contrasts.

Alvarez Muñoz seems to always relate her artwork to Mexican and Mexican American experience and we see this through this particular work. This section of Abriendo Tierra represents storylines that pertain to oral histories and contemporary practices while also leaving an open translation for her audience to interpret the image on their own which seemed to be the main purpose of  Alvarez Muñoz’s work in general.

Alicia Gaspar de Alba: Cultural Politics and the CARA Exhibition

        In Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s essay on cultural politics and the CARA exhibition, I thought it was very interesting to read about how there was this expectation for women and how this expectation carried along with women and literally held them back from doing anything that was out of their designed roles, which were to be wives and mothers. Our guest lecturer explained how women were expected to be the support when they were never supported themselves. She also mentioned that there is a problem with the narrative which is completely true. Classifying women as inferior is no way to establish an equality within societies. During class, we also discussed how there are more pieces by male artists in the exhibition than by female artists, and we see this carry out in the broader scope of art in general. I am not really familiar with art and the only few names that I do find familiar with any artists, are male. I don't know if this plays out in the fact that there is a lack of recognition for female artists or that I just haven't been introduced to female artists or probably both, but it's frustrating to read that women are creating various forms of art and there continues to be a lack of recognition due to gender. 

Debra Blake’s Chicana Sexuality and Gender: Quote

“I use ‘‘cultural refiguring’’ to imply agency, a conscious choice to think and act for oneself or in the interests of a community. Cultural refiguring identifies deficiencies and destructive images, ideas, symbols, and practices directed toward women and disenfranchised peoples.” 

This quote is from page 5 of the introduction in Debra Blake’s Chicana Sexuality and Gender: Cultural Refiguring in Literature, Oral History and Art. The reason I decided to focus on this quote was that I enjoyed reading on how Blake uses a term to give meaning to her arguments. Throughout the rest of the chapters, Blake discusses how her main goal is to refigure gender roles for Chicana and Mexican women. This term of “cultural refiguring” helps support her arguments and gives a different perspective to understanding the misjudgments that have been previously established by a hegemonic society that many individuals have gotten accustomed to living in. Throughout history, it has been seen that gender groups often times are segregated into different groups with different rights and opportunities. This segregation has regularly limited the perspectives of individuals who wish to progress and succeed in whatever professional or semiprofessional carrier they wish to pursue. Blake uses this term as a signal for political and historical awareness of racism, colonialism, and classism. This idea of shifting perspectives is empowering in allowing individuals to create their own positions on a particular matter, in this situation specifically to gender.

Presentation: Barbara Carrasco

For my presentation, I have chosen the artist Barbara Carrasco to further research her work in public art. I was completely amazed by her work and fell in love with her determination and strong persona. Carrasco uses her art to advocate change in the treatment of women.

Barbara Carrasco was born in 1955 in El Paso, Texas and later moved to Los Angeles where she was later commissioned to create a mural on the history of Los Angeles which became a highly controversial piece. Carrasco felt it was necessary to “show a diverse reflection of Los Angeles,” the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) later wanted to cut some historical representations that she wanted to incorporate. Carrasco stood her ground and refused to paint over her work until she was much later able to display her large mural in Union Station. 

Carrasco’s mother admired Japanese art and decorated the house with it. Carrasco felt that growing up with Japanese images influenced her involvement in art. This was interesting to read because as we discussed in class, many successful artists were able to succeed as artists because they had some sort of introduction to the idea of creating.

As a Chicana activist, Carrasco largely focuses her art on critiquing dominant cultural stereotypes involving socioeconomics, race, gender, and sexuality. She also has several art pieces that help celebrate influential women, like Dolores Huerta. She has a very iconic piece of Dolores Huerta that has a pop art approach. She uses her position as a public artist to bring attention to issues that would otherwise remain invisible to a large audience. This is something that I truly admire about public artists, to see how their artwork is displayed for millions of people to interpret, allowing people to generate their own personal and universal meanings behind the artwork.

Perez, Amy (Amy)

Hi class,

My name is Amy, I am a third-year Biology major, and Chican@ Studies minor. My preferred pronouns are she/her/hers. I hope to pursue a career in the medical field as a pediatrician in the future. I am super excited to be in this class and get to know a new spectrum of Chicana art to better understand and appreciate art. I don’t really have experience with art so this should be a learning experience for me and as for research interest, I currently work for three wonderful ladies who work with kids who have epileptic seizures and kids with TSC, there are many topics that spark an interest for me in regards to research. I commute from Palmdale, CA and I am super family oriented, I have learned to appreciate what I have and who I have in my life. I look forward to making new friends in this class!!

For this week’s readings, I was able to see how the activity we did in class related to Chicana art and how the lack of exposure to Chicana artists prevailed as time progressed until the 1970’s. In the article by Sybil Venegas, she discusses the merge between Chicanas and art. Chicana women were getting involved with art because they had their own jobs so they used their own economic empowerment to have and get supplies. Due to the feminist movement, they were moving away from traditional roles which is empowering and encouraging for women in general. In the article by Alma López, she explains how her introduction to art began with La Virgen de Guadalupe and how this image stood for a culture and as a symbol of unity within different communities. She explains how an image can signify or in her case, evoke an image of a revolutionary cultural icon. I completely agree with this concept of how one image can represent different emotions or images for different people.