Week 10 Reflection

As this quarter comes to a close, I am grateful to have learned about such a wide range of Chicana artists, especially within the artist presentations in the last few weeks. This class gave a brief overview of many artists, including emerging young artists from social media and artists who work and reside in Los Angeles. The artist visits were particularly interesting, especially hearing how Chicana art has been a critical part in community outreach with groups like Self Help Graphics. 

This class demonstrated how Chicana artists shape their artwork around their shared and individual experiences with traditions like Catholicism and family gender roles. From depicting rituals of the Chicanx community like Carmen Lomas Garza, to making feminist commentary on gender norms within Catholic Chicanx communities like Yolanda M. Lopez, there is such a variety of approaches within Chicana art. I would be interested in learning more about the social and historical context behind more Chicana artists’ work, since the history we covered was limited to a brief 10-week quarter. I think that knowing more of the overall context would supplement the formal investigations of the artwork we have in class. Historical and social context would especially be helpful in learning about public art (i.e. learning more about the public that the art is speaking to). 

Much of the artwork focused on in class was traditional in that it was usually painting, drawing, installation, printmaking, and photography. It would be useful to learn more about Chicana artists working in different mediums, such as digital art, time-based art, or performance. Overall, thank you for a great quarter, and can’t wait to continue learning more about Chicana art and artists in the future!