Alcala, Helena (Week 10)

 

    Overall I did not know many Chicana artists, I stuck to the general mainstream artists that were more well known. Throughout this class, I was able to learn about so many wonderful Chicana artists through the readings and numerous presentations. Focusing on a specific artist, the one who was very interesting to me was Yolanda M. Lopez. It was great that she has a book written about her that goes over her early life and the development she went through to be the well-known artist that she was. I really enjoyed a large majority of her pieces but the ones I found to be the best were the ones that transformed the Virgin de Guadalupe in some way. A lot of Lopez’s work covers a concept about what it means to be a Chicana and what a Chicana can look like. One piece is of course the cover of the book Portrait of Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe and there is also Margaret F. Stewart: Our Lady of Guadalupe and Guadalupe: Victoria F. Franco all from the Guadalupe Series. These three exemplify real-life women performing tasks outside the “norm” of the image of a Chicana replacing the icons with a new image to inspire new thoughts and actions of what makes a Chicana. This can all be traced back to her childhood and her being surrounded by women that did not necessarily fit into the traditional role and look of a Chicana as presented by the image of the Virgin de Guadalupe. What I took from learning about all these artists is looking beyond the art to really see the person behind the drawing, painting, sculpture, etc. After reading about Yolanda M. Lopez and hearing the presentations it has become prevalent that knowing about the artist's background and upbringing is important because it is a major part of their artwork. It is not necessarily that the art would be less appreciated without knowing much about the artist but adding that knowledge to the piece makes it that much more enriching.