Maciel, Sarah

 

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah Maciel and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am majoring in American Literature & Culture in the UCLA English department. As a Chicana woman, I have always been eager to connect with and learn more about the history, art, and activism of the Chicanx culture. This is what has pulled me towards any courses that shed light of Chicanx voices, which is what brought me to professor López's course entitled "Art on Trial" during the last school year. After that course, I wanted to learn more about specifically Chicana artists, which we had got a glimpse of in the class. I am familiar with many Chicana artworks, but I unfortunately know very little about their origins and the identities of the women who created them. I hope to gain greater insight into the significance of these artists and their creative expression, so I may have a deeper connection to my own culture. I plan to take this knowledge and hopefully apply it to my own research in K-12 education within Los Angeles, which hosts strong Chicanx roots. I want to carry any knowledge that I gain from this course and use it to educate and enrich any students that I connect with in the future.

While reading "Why Have There Been No Great Female Artists", I found Nochlin's insight and analysis about the definition of "great" artists very profound, since she deconstructs the Western mainstream understanding of what "great art" is (or rather how it has been defined). Specifically, I appreciated her argument that gendered classifications of artists are restrictive and confine female artists to definitive boundaries to their success within the limits of the status quo. This system is built to otherize women and place them outside the realm of consideration for artistic "genius". Therefore, the question, as the author suggests, is not questioning the greatness of women, but instead is questioning the validity and fairness of the system. This main point was very inspiring, as it reminds the audience to truly evaluate the conditions in which women have been intentionally placed within a grander hierarchal framework, in order to cultivate real progress in overcoming the gendered and racial struggle.

While reading "Conditions For Producing Chicana Art", I related to Venegas's analysis of the expansive Chicana art movement and its more historical origins, as she accounts for the changing status quo that greatly shifted in the . Similar to her observations, I have personally experienced and witnessed how Chicana women have been stereotyped and expected to act as obedient, domestic, and "pure" servers of Chicano men. This is especially clear within the older generation of the Chicanx community. It is then clear why they have historically experienced subjugation and isolation from artistic recognition. Though this problem has existed and still exists, the writer also recognizes the change made by the evolving Chicanx community as Chicanas continue to envision their lives beyond social expectation. I also give credit to the Chicanx youth that has made strides in promoting inclusion, autonomy, and independence since the 60s. If art can act as a reflection of reality, then it is no wonder that the challenging of social norms and conditions has greatly influenced and ignited the growth in Chicana art after being belittled or ignored for far too long. In 2021, I'm sure growing social revolution will continue to inspire inclusivity and equity in radical artistic ways.

While reading "Where Are The Chicana Printmakers", Venegas's ideas are reflected, as the author details and analyzes the specific effects of a Chicana community that strove to expand creatively beyond a male-centered framework and touch other communities as well. The most interesting aspect of the reading was Barnet-Sanchez's discussion of presence and absence in Chicana art, which comes up through the text. I found her analysis insightful as it exemplifies art as a medium that is much deeper than what is present on the surface. For instance, Lucero's print, though portraying a sense of sisterhood, implies that there is force that is stifling the strength of this connection, through the absence of direct eye contact. It then suggests that Chicana art can do much more than say something, but also call upon the audience to learn and analyze a deeper truth that would then build more empathetic connections to Chicana legacy and gendered issues in the greater Chicanx community.