Robles, Harlow

The presentation that I liked the most was from Martha Ramirez. It caught my attention because her paintings was titled " Mother Earth" and it was a depiction of the head of a woman buried under dirt who was looking up and blowing life into the world above. The is a reminder to me of how women in general are seen as life giver because they are able to carry a living being inside of them and give birth. Martha used that fact to remind her viewers that Earth is giving us the opportunity to live by breathing life into humanity. A lot of her paintings show that women are important in the life giving process of the world. When Hector was explaining how her paintings are grounded on culture and nature it caught my attention because not many people today think about how their actions are affecting the world we live in. We act as if we have somewhere else to go if we destroy this world. When I went on her website, she has a lot of other depictions of women playing a central role in the world. They play the parts of the elements. For example, the "Four Corners" is another depiction of four elderly lady's heads blowing down on earth from the four corners of the world. Martha also is in tune with her culture as she continues to speak the tradition Nahuatl language. This is a language the certain tribes in Mexico still use to communicate with. To me her art is a call for action/ activism for us to do what we can to help the planet heal so that our future does not end with us. I am inspired by her art to do my part and become part of the solution and not the problem. Hector did a great job in presenting her to us.