Carmen Linares-Kalo (Week 9)

 

For week 9’s blog post, I decided to write about Helena Alcala’s presentation on Carmen Linares-Kalo. Everyone’s presentation was great, it has been great learning more about chicana artists. Many of these I did not know before. The representation of chicanas in art is beautiful, especially because they all have their unique ways of expressing their creativity. Out of all the presentations, I really enjoyed Helena’s and enjoyed witnessing the three images selected by Helena because of their meaning. I learned that Carmen is a muralist and has been one for a significant amount of time. She has had many popular artworks but one of her most relevant ones was the mural located on the pillars of an underpass. During the presentation, Helena informed us that these murals (the three she selected) were planned for about 26 years and it took about two weeks to complete. These murals incorporate Chicanx culture and also include Civil Rights leaders. The second mural honors the Kumeyaay people who are indigineous to San Diego, since that is where the mural is located. The detail in these three murals is amazing. It is clear that these took a lot of time and dedication. Carmen uses a lot of different colors to represent different moods, tones, etc. The first image contains a lot of things that may seem random and might seem like they don’t belong together; however, they all contribute to the story. In this mural, we learn that the animals all represent humans and they are all gathered around the blue heart which represents the creator. Overall I really enjoyed learning about Carmen’s art and her background. I had heard of her name before the presentation but I did not know much about her artwork. If I ever go to San Diego, I will definitely check these murals.