Runner: On My Own! (1997) by Yolanda López

A reoccurring motif across the work of Yolanda López is the figure of a woman running. Sometimes that woman is López herself, other times it is not. In the painting Runner: On My Own!, López is depicted running up a hill away from her school the University of California, San Diego. López's figure is leaping off the image and into uncharted territory. The painting is the last in the series A Donde Vas, Chicana?, an autobiographical series that documents her journey through college. The image is bright, with earth tones in the background and López donning a running outfit that has colors mirroring Guadalupe's classic color scheme (pink and blue-green). The look on her face is determined and fierce, and her body exudes strength. Like many of López's other pieces, Runner: On My Own! challenges common narratives about women by offering images of empowered women existing outside of the male gaze and agenda. Unlike her other self-portraits, López's gaze does not meet the viewers but instead is focused forward, self-contained. The painting also serves as a criticism of the brute modernism of UCSD by painting the buildings as an unnatural eyesore. López struggled with the school's way of valuing soulless modernism over passionate conceptual art. The buildings are tiny in the background, in a shadowy gray, while the figure is bright and full of life. López seemingly escapes and conquers the campus, moving into the future with grace and determination.