Week 8 Blog Post

 One artist I enjoyed listening to from the exhibition was Malaquias Montoya. I enjoyed learning about his life and how he began to understand and gain a sense of pride when the term Chicano was beginning to be implemented. Something that stood out to me that he said was when he mentioned as a child he used to be embarrassed of his mother because she was a farm worker. Then him realizing with the help of Cesar Chavez his mother was contributing to this country's wealth. I found this to be something that is a common issue seen through all walks of life. I have heard some friends and classmates explain before how they used to be embarrassed of their parent's professions. Which is sad because we live in a society that has groomed us into thinking this type of work is an embarrassment. Other artists that stood out to me was Moses Ros Suarez and Favianna Rodriguez. Moses Ros Suarez graffiti especially stood out to me especially since I just read that piece "Graffiti Is Art" for this class. The first graffiti image he showed us that was in homage of his brother Sal and it was beautiful. Given that he is from New York I think it would be interesting to see the differences in graffiti from Los Angeles to New York. Favianna's first art piece that she showed was a butterfly that said "migration is beautiful." She explained she used this to protest President Obama's record breaking deportation and represents the future. I love butterflies so this was especially one of my favorite pieces and hearing the meaning behind it made it so much prettier. In the end, it was also cool to hear all the artists discuss print making and their experiences with it. Most people do not understand how painstaking creating artwork can be. Malaquias especially discussed this when mentioning the pain in his hands.