week 1 intro

 Hi my name is Nieves Winslow. My pronouns are they/them/theirs, and I am currently a 4th year double majoring in art and sociology. I am from east bay area but currently living in LA. Most of my art and areas of interest are centered around visibility, race, queerness and disability and I choose most of my sociology and other upper-division art courses to help me gain more insight and do more research into those ideas. I'm taking this class because as a chicanx studying/making art I think it's important to see and learn from the work of other artists. 

I am a gemini, and i really enjoy re-watching shows on netflix, cooking and raising my hamster. I am currently applying to grad school, finishing my bachelors degree as well as working with some campus organizations! I'm really looking forward to this class and how it will inform not only my art-making but also how I understand the chicanx art world. 

The chicanx graphic art movement makes a lot of room for collaboration and far reach. In the reading it discusses the impacts of the graphic style, it was often affordable to make in comparison to more expensive traditional materials and many people could access it, print it and use it. I think the stylization of graphic art is inherently bold, unlike other mediums where that quality is developed with graphic styles, bright colors and high contrast, and large shapes it is bold, which I think lends itself to the ideals of protest, loud, bold, visible, strong. The works they show really represent that. I think the one downfall with graphic arts however is that I think sometimes the creators and their intentions get lost. For example, the gallery discusses the wide range of people who make these arts, cross-community connection, and various intentions, but as we spread graphic images they can become distant from their creator, and i think it is important to recognize what their original intention was, how it impacts art culture and also just recognition for the artists and leaders that have contributed their labor to community. 

Also, i think the idea of urgent images is really interesting. With memorable simple bold images that over time grow to carry the weight of an idea, a protest slogan, a face of a community leader etc. the works become even more accessible, to a point where the image may no longer need words to explain their meaning the image alone becomes chicanx iconography. 

Also looking at the article “why are there no great women artists' ' i think that the article is correct that the artworld is not a free easy to join place, like other constructed "worlds" there are warriors to entry founded on sexism and racism. I think that as I mentioned with graphic art there are women artists but their works are often decontextualized with themselves as the artists and also women are often pigeonholed into certain art forms which we then de-value as artworks (ex: textiles).