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.