Week 2: Claudia Zapata Reading

 Q: How do artists themselves benefit from engaging in digital art?

Graphic artists continue to make art that protests injustice and shows solidarity for oppressed communities as it did in the early Chicano Movement.  The technological practices developed in the digital age are recognized as making art more accessible and spreading knowledge more efficiently and effectively. However, I wanted to highlight how digital art has also had a positive impact on the artist. 

Like all great artists, Chicanx artists have to go through a life long journey of individual experimentation. In class last week we discussed the reading by Linda Nochlin and identified many answers to the question "Why there have been no great women artists?" Not only do institutions condition and discourage certain individuals from engaging in the art world. Various forces contribute to this problem as well. Artists coming from working class backgrounds are not likely to have the time or resources allowing for them to have a long period of individual experimentation. In the reading "Where at the Chicana Printmakers?" Sanchez points out that many female artists are absent due to family responsibilities, full-time jobs, and their access to materials. However, with digital art, artists may find other ways to make meaningful and impactful art in ways that can possibly be done anywhere at anytime. I think there are also ways for them to gain support that can sustain their work. For example, through social media, artists can acquire followers and there is also potential for them to sell there work on there. In my head I'm thinking of printmaking pieces like event posters, calendars, and fine art prints, like we saw in our readings from last week.