Chicana Artists

            I learned about many different women artist, in my class. I did not even expect to learn about so many different types of ways people can use to create art, ways like printmaking which Professor Lopez works with, or using a laser along with a computer to create an image on a sheet of metal, like Carmen Lomas Garza. Art is something that I have been attracted to; I enjoy art because it challenges me in different levels. Art challenges my creativity along with me taking action to actually create a work of art. I first took this class because I knew it was going to be art related, and then I discovered that it was going to be about Chicanas only it made it even more interesting. It made it more interesting because in most of main stream media we learn about male artist; it does not matter if they are Chicanos or European. Furthermore learning about female Chicana artist made this class even more interesting and exciting to be in. I learned that Chicana artist have really worked hard against all the gender and racial oppression's that are in place against them, to defeat this oppression's Chicanas have worked hard. I also learned that a considerable of the Chicana artists are getting of age, and getting ready to retire or simply can no longer continue, on creating art due to their age and health issues. I know that more Chicanas are being educated as I write, but Chicanas need to be more involved in psychological work just like the Chicana artist I learned from in this class. I really enjoyed this class because it was challenging, it challenged my creativity and my critical thinking. 

Chicana,Linda Lucero and Printmaking

                        

 Printmaking has been within the Chicano community since the beginning of the Chicano movement in the 1960’s. Since before the Chicano/a movement became a big event in Los Angeles, Printmaking was being practiced by Chicanos and Chicanas. After the East Los Angeles walk outs in 1968 more Chicanos/as became familiar with the process of printmaking, they became introduced to printmaking in their schools, community studios or by friends and family. Much of the printmaking that Chicanos/as were creating represented works of art that had messages based on the struggles that Chicanos/as had to endure. Many of the prints that the Chicanos and Chicanas had created had messages of racism, oppressions, and acceptance. Linda Lucero is a Chicana artist that created a print which showcased a Puerto Rican by the name of Lolita Lebron, Lolita Lebron was a civil activist leader from Puerto Rico. In Linda Lucero’s’ print she creates Lolita Lebrans face looking strong and concerned with her eyes closed on the bottom of Lolita is the Puerto Rican flag, with the words “VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE.” Linda Lucero is one of the few Chicanas that have become known for their art and for their efforts towards the Chicano/a movement. I think that is important for Chicanos/as to be able to express all the ideas and creations that they feel are important for the Chicano/a movement, and to try to further enhance the Chicano/a community to better living conditions. Art needs to continue to flourish within our community, so that we can have just another way to express ourselves.

Cleaning Nopalitos

     I wanted to write about Carmen Lomas Garza and her painting called Cleaning Nopalitos. I love all the wonderful lines and curves that Garza uses for her art, along with all the different colors she fills her entire frame with. I wanted to write about this painting for it displays to me Garza’s character and her style. This painting also reminds me of my ancestry and the Mesoamerican culture. I identify with the Mayans, Olmecs, and Aztecs due to fact that they inhabited America for thousands of years before Columbus or any sort of European influences. I know that eating nopales is a Native American cuisine. I also identify with Garza’s painting because in my family we eat nopales and they are really healthy and eatable good too. My mother still has some nopales in her back yard and when they are ready to harvest she or I harvests them and we take all the prickles off and we prepare them fresh to eat, it is in our culture and an honor to grow our own food. I also liked this painting because it displays an adult man and a young girl, and the man is showing her how to clean the nopales so they can be cooked, and the young child is observing curiously. This painting goes against the gender roles and it represents the Latino family, contradicting the stereo type of machismo. It is vital for us to represent our culture and show the community that we do have values and that we do have a long ancestral past to this land also. 

Letter to Judy Vaca

Dear, Judy Vaca

                I would like to write a few words of appreciation towards your person and your beautiful art.  Your art is truly one of the best in the world, being made in the Chicano community is even a greater admiration for me; you are not only reaching my Chicano imagination but my artistic imagination in general. I believe that you are one of the best artists around in the world not just here in the US.  I love the colors you use and the shades you create, I also love the art and how it brings my thought out to imagine and see the picture come to live. You have created some of the most marvelous murals around in the Los Angeles area; I look up to you not only as a Chicana but also as a master muralist. I want to start doing some murals myself and I think that you are definitely one of my aspirations,  For me I look up to you just like I look up to Diego Rivera. You are just good at what you do, and it looks like you enjoy it very much, it makes me enjoy watching your art.  I hope that you show others how to create art like you and keep your talent alive, through other people. As an aspiring muralist I hope one day I can meet you and learn some techniques from you, so I can create my own images and share them with the community. 

Self Help Graphics Dia De Los Muertos Novemeber 10, 2014 Kim Soriano blog promt

                I will like to write a bit about Kim Soriano’s post, on her trip to the Dia de los Muertos at the Self Help Graphics and Arts in East Los Angeles, and her visit to the Grand Park’s exhibition of the altars for Dia de los Muertos. I did not have a chance to go see the exhibitions, through her blog I at least accomplished to read, and see pictures about the events that took place to memorize this world wide holiday. I also read about her own experiences with her family and how she remembers those unforgettable moments. Dia de los Muertos has been about blood family and friends that are considered family, it is also to remember your ancestors from the past. Kim also went to the exhibition on Grand Park and she mentions that many of the altars where dedicated to the children that migrated by themselves from Central America to the U.S. Altares (Altars) have always represented something that you cherished and wanted to remember in El Dia de los Muertos. I believe that the children immigrating from faraway lands and through some of the most dangerous territories definitely needed to be remembered and cherished for all of their bravery and dedication to come here to the U.S. in search of a better life. Dia de los Muertos will always continue to be a holiday for everyone to remember their ancestors internationally and to cherish those events or memories. 

Artist Blog For The Week

            This week really had a considerable amount of interesting artist; I did not know who to write about. I decided to write my blog about Shizu Saldamando, not because she graduated from UCLA, but because she is experimenting with a form of art that is not too common. I am talking about the “Looking at Art, The Reception” project I see that potential that she has on her art and her imagination. I like how she draws what she feels, by drawing her art observers, is one way of her telling us that she notices (her viewers) us. I also enjoy how she likes to capture the youth in their everyday life styles, It is important for us to capture moments like the once she is capturing with her artwork. It also shows how we as a society are living in these times, and how the way of life in the community is. The project by her titled “Stay Gold” is also very interesting how she is exhibiting the gay community, we are living in a time that the gay community is finally gaining their rights and their place in society, and I feel she is further strengthening the gay community’s struggle for rights. She is doing this by implementing the gay community in her art projects, for viewers to see and appreciate the beauty that is in all humans regardless of who we decide to love. 

Nahuatl

Martha Ramirez Oropeza is truly an icon for my inspirations, and she definitely meets my standards to be a true artist, and scholar. I wanted to write a blog about her because she inspired me in various ways, one of the main impacts that she had on me was that she helped develop an entire university, in a developing country like Mexico. That is a huge achievement in my eyes, which I could just not pass by; helping to educate the young in a developing country is greatly desirable. I wanted to write about her achievement in developing the Nahuatl University pyramid campus in Ocotepec, Morelos, Mexico; because this particular university focuses in the entire survival of the ancient Nahuatl language and the future of the language, a subject that is not being researched widely. As my own origins come from the Mesoamerican region, and I am a student it is greatly appreciated that she is helping to develop this type of research, I also like her art, as an aspiring artist myself I enjoy looking at her art and the different shades and colors she injects in them, murals are one of my favorite styles in the art world. Nahuatl is something I am interested and would like to learn about it more in the future, I believe with Martha Ramirez Oropeza’s work can help me and other students further understand the Nahuatl language and its people. I hope I can meet her one day in person and try to learn more from her in person, I think that would be awesome. 

Stencil Art Project

Ana Mendieta is truly an art innovator to modern art, and visual art. Considering I will be presenting about her, I had to choose an art master piece done by her, I selected a silhouette. Furthermore I selected this master piece because it displayed some of the symbols, and characteristics that really inspires my imagination to a challenge, to try to make sense to the art piece significance, some of the symbols that challenge my imagination include:  sand were water and earth meet, a woman’s body shape, a heart, a body laying on the ground, a body inside a heart, sand in general and the earth with creation from humans, a body berried in the ground, independence, solidarity, love, etc. At first I did not know, how I would go about making the stencil, and at the same time preventing the silhouette from falling apart. I had to make some adjustments, and add some characteristics, like rivers, and bridges in order to keep the authenticity of the silhouette while converting it into a stencil. Nevertheless after concentrating on my art work project and putting some cerebration on what I was doing, along with some love for art, it became simple, just like taking a step forward, I felt confident doing the art project. When I was done with my project I felt good about the outcome and I know that I did my best on it, and used a considerable amount of effort into the art piece. Here is the original and my stencil I hope I did not perpetrate Ana Mendietas’ silhouette in any way, and instead further recognize her art and creativity.        

                                            

                                           

La Virgen de Guadalupe

 Growing up with a family that has strong beliefs in the catholic religion, more important we are from Mexico, where La Virgen de Guadalupe appeared. It was almost mandatory to have an image of “La Virgen de Guadalupe” in our altares or hanged on the wall, sometimes I remember even carrying her on a calendar inside my wallet. All the culture that my family has and thought me while growing up build  a strong faith in me, even today I still have a picture of La  Virgen in my room, for me it represents a great deal of things. Just like the artist painting about her they have different meanings and different styles of interpreting her. La Virgen to me represents for example: feminism, motherhood, nurture, faithfulness, protection, I can continue on and on. While I am learning more, and getting more educated I discover that not everything has to remain the same, in terms of my beliefs according to La Virgen de Guadalupe, and my catholic religion. Things change, and we need to adapt to them, for example since I’m finding out that the whole story of La Virgen de Guadalupe is not backed by books or written testimonies of people in that era I tend to question the story itself and even the image of La Virgen. Even though that we will never know if it is a made up story 100%, La Virgen de Guadalupe will continue on being a miracle for the catholic religion and most important for the Mexican believers. 

Luis Mota Flores

                Hello everyone,

My name is Luis Mota Flores, I am a transferred to UCLA and my major is Chicana/o studies. In my free time I like to stay active, I enjoy things like playing sports or going out to discover new places. I am supper excited about this quarter and this class.

 After I read the article “Out of the House, the Halo and the Whore’s Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo” from the book titled Chicano Art Inside/Outside the Master’s House: Cultural Politics and CARA Exhibition by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, a great number of ideas, emotions, and feelings came to my mind, along with some questions. I would like to ask Professor Gaspar de Alba; Chicanas have a strong social thought, awareness and take action through art like murals, sculptures, paintings, and even community gatherings etc. Looking ahead are they also paying close attention into, and are becoming aware of the health of Latino families, and how they are thriving?  Is much needed that a couple performs their parts as parents, and  raise healthy children, I see the Latino family changing and sometimes it is not for the good, for example according to the “National Healthy Marriage Resource Center” Hispanics have the highest rates of never marrying.

 In the article “There’s No Place Like Aztlan: Embodied Aesthetic in Chicana Art” Aztlan is mentioned as the Southwestern part of the United States of America it also explains views on how the culture of the Chicanas and Chicanos is changing, I would like to ask if the change might be due to continued oppression on the Mexican/Chicano/a culture, making way for an entire culture to diminish in the present decade? Just like in the Hernan Cortez-era when the goal was to make the native people learn Christianity and become so called civilized through oppression and murder. “Now is the problem of the oppression to eliminate the culture and language of the Chicanas and Chicanos?” It is frighten to me to see how some Chicanas and Chicanos are falling for the diminishing of their ancestors culture, It is almost like they do not want to be part of history they want to be history.

Ana Mendieta

       

                                       I really liked her unique style of art, she inspired me in some                                                                                        way that I just could not ignore.