Presentation: Stephanie Mercado

The artist I’ve chosen to do my presentation on is Stephanie Mercado. Although Professor Lopez provided us with a vast list of potential artists to present, the artist I’ve chosen is not one that was on the list but one I discovered while researching Chicana artists. Stephanie Mercado is a first generation Mexican-American artist from Boyle Heights, a neighborhood East Los Angeles. Her work includes painting, printmaking and dress sculptures.

Mercado first started painting when she was 16 years old, and one of the things that inspired her to become an artist was watching Bob Ross on PBS. At sixteen she knew she wanted to be a professional artist, that being said, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from California State University Long Beach in 2007. Mercado founded an independent creative art studio called Paperdoll Press which is located in Highland Park, and she is also team member of the Self-Help Graphics and Art organization, which is a program that is focuses on promoting and creating art by Chicano and Latino artists primarily through printmaking and other visual forms. I chose this artist because I like her aesthetic and her art stands out to me because it has surrealist vibes, which is usually the type of art that I gravitate to. The most prevalent themes in her art are associated with the pursuit of the American dream with a mix of historic European imagery.