Conde, Daniela - Artist Presentations

 

I really appreciated learning about Josie Del Castillo and her work. Josie Del Castillo was born and lives in Brownsville, Texas. I’ve come across her art on social media and think that the portraiture and self-portrait work she does is really beautiful/powerful. Our peer that presented on Josie Del Castillo mentioned that some of her self-portraits have a lot to do with her mental health journey and the ways she is healing and navigating and working through some of her insecurities. I actually didn’t know that about her work. I think its powerful that she paints her Brown body, I think its the first artist in a while that I’ve seen paint the beauty of the Brown femme body in a simple yet bold way. I suppose in some ways I feel seen, and I think her paintings undeniably defies dominant discourses and neocolonial conceptions of the Brown body. The Brown femme body is not necessarily sexualized, rather I see claiming space in the public imaginaries that are so inundated with white/European ideas of beauty that can be harmful to communities of color. I think her self-portraits also defy whiteness while also acknowledging some of the pain and turmoil that comes with mental health. In this photo we see Josie del Castillo hanging some of her work in the Rusteberg Art Gallery. In an article that interviewed Josie Del Castillo she shares a bit about her self portrait painting process and the psychological process behind it as well: “Psychologically, I try to break past those barriers with my work. Then I still struggle with the idea behind ‘real women have curves’ or ‘curves are beautiful’ because I still don’t identify with most of the ‘full’ or ‘round’ women in mainstream media. I go back and forth between feeling confident and insecure. Recently, I started to experiment with saturated colors and using them as different skin tones. I want women with different skin tones, complexions, and sizes to learn how to appreciate their bodies, even if they don’t fit within the standards of what is considered beautiful by the masses.” (2018, New Houston Music Outlet)