Blog 10: Reflection

Carmen Lomas Garza

During the first day of class, we tried to come up with as many Chicana artists as we could think of. Although the majority of the class came up with a great sized list, I did not know a single name of a Chicana artist. Now today, I can name many Chicana artists, as well as their amazing artwork. Over the course of the quarter, I also learned about the elements that influenced these artists, such as their personal lives, personal experiences, the Chicano movement, feminism, and indigenous roots. At this moment at the top of my head, the Chicana artists names that come to my mind are, Carmen Lomas Garza, Yolanda M. Lopez, Laura Alvarez, Laura Aguilar, Favianna Rodriguez, Isis Rodriguez, Marion C. Martinez, Delilah Montoya, Carlee Fernandez, Barbara Carrasco, Judy Baca, Margarita Cabrerra, Laura Molina, and Patssi Valdez. One of the artists that I really enjoyed learning about in class was Carmen Lomas Garza. The incident that really opened my eyes to the issues prevalent during the 50’s and 60’s was when Carmen was a teacher at Robstown High School. All Carmen was trying to do was help the Mexican-American students who couldn't speak English to succeed. That fact that she was later fired for speaking Spanish to these students is flat out ridiculous. I really liked how after this incident she decided to become a full-time Chicana artist. I also enjoyed doing research on Patssi Valdez, and presenting to the class her story, and paintings. The Chicano Studies Research Center was extremely helpful in offering me assistance with researching Patssi Valdez. What I also learned about Chicana art is that, it’s not all necessarily about the political issues that were prevalent during the Chicano movement, or the internal struggle the Chicanas faced within the movement, but about the artists themselves. Each Chicana artist stood for different causes, expressed their arts differently, and is each very unique.

Patssi Valdez ASCO

Blog 9: Thanksgiving

Every year I go to two separate thanksgivings, one with my Dad’s side of the family, and the other, my Mom’s side of the family. I decided to draw thanksgiving on my Mom’s side. The drawing takes place at my Uncle’s house in mid-city Los Angeles. The drawing is in the dining room, where you can see the living room in the distance. In the living room, my Grandfather, and my great Grandmother are sitting on the couch, and relaxing. Next to them is my Aunt Jackie standing up, and playing with my little cousin Alivia. Since most of my family goes to multiple thanksgivings, we typically eat different food, and this year we had Italian food. In the dining room, my Uncle George is laying out the meatballs, and on the right, my Aunt-in-law Edy is laying out the plates. Next to her, I am laying out the forks, spoons, and knives. In the front is my Mom, and stepdad just hanging out in the dining room, and on the floor next to them is my cousin Anthony on his phone.  On the table, there are meatballs, pasta, bread, and apple pie. On the right side of my main drawing is La Virgen de Guadalupe. I decided to incorporate her into my drawing to show that she is blessing us, as we celebrate coming together, and being with family.

Blog 8: Presentations - Favianna Rodriguez

The Chicana artist that stood out to me the most during presentations this week was Favianna Rodriguez. I admire how Favianna’s prints represent her standing on the many political issues that surrounds us, even until this day. The image that I liked the most was Favianna’s Migration is Beautiful print, which depicts a beautiful black and yellow butterfly that has a mirror effect and faces. The butterfly is known to migrate, and cross borders for survival during the changing seasons. Favianna is trying to convey that she supports migration, where as in the United States, migration is looked down on, and is essentially difficult to accomplish. Favianna’s print does a great job of cleverly conveying the beauty of migration, by utilizing the butterfly that migrates across borders along with her message. We can understand that Favianna wants a change in the restrictions on migration especially for people from Mexico. I like how Favianna supports different important political issues such as migration, women’s rights, immigration rights, and patriarchy, which make all her prints so powerful and meaningful. It’s great that Favianna chooses to express her activism towards many political issues through art, as art helps to create awareness in a creative and powerful way.

Blog 7: Presentations - Carlee Fernandez

The artist that stood out to me the most from the presentations we have seen so far has been Carlee Fernandez. I found her bear studies series to be exceptionally interesting. I like how Fernandez cleverly used real bearskins in her photography to express the unity of humans and animals. Fernandez’s photos from the bear studies present Fernandez half nude and half with a part of the bearskin. Fernandez being nude and with half of the bearskin on truly expresses how she wants to become the bear, yet she still represents the human side of her.  I found Fernandez’s work to be exceptionally different from the other artist’s we have been discussing in class. Fernandez’s photography art is raw, and has an interesting spin on animals. The fact that she incorporates a lot of animals into her photography sets her apart from other Chicana artists. A Chicana artist that has interesting, and similar work to Fernandez is Laura Aguilar. Both of these Chicana artists use photography to express themselves. Both Fernandez and Aguilar are not afraid to photograph themselves nude. Fernandez and Aguilar both incorporate elements of nature into their photography. What sets them apart in their photography is the meaning. Fernandez uses her photography to express unity with animals, while Aguilar uses nature to combat depression from her body.

Blog 6: Carmen Lomas Garza

The artwork that I am selecting for my blog post for this week is the black paper cut out image titled Haciendo Papel Picado/Making Paper Cutouts that was created in 1999 by Carmen Lomas Garza. In Constance Cortez’ book titled Carmen Lomas Garza, Cortez mentions towards the end of the book how later on in Garza’s career, she wanted to share with the youth her culture and art. Garza wanted kids to be able to express themselves with creativity. In the book we learn that Garza accomplishes this goal by creating and writing different types of books for the youth. The image shows a woman (most likely Garza) teaching three kids how to create art with paper cut outs. It is quite neat how Garza creates a paper cutout image that shows her teaching how to create cutout images. I feel that Garza wanting to teach kids her art and about culture is fully represented in this paper cutout. This cutout really stood out the most to me because throughout the book, Garza has always had a passion for kids, and teaching as well as for advocacy. The struggle that Garza went through while trying to help the Spanish-speaking students at Robstown High School and trying to compromise with the school, shows that she does not give up on her passions. Garza really tries her best to help the youth because she genuinely cares about them. These amazing qualities about Garza shines through in this cutout image as it can be interpreted as more than Garza teaching kids how to create art, but how she loves to teach and to inspire the youth.