Lopez, Alma (Prof. Lopez)

My name is Alma Lopez. I am a visual artist and the professor of this Chicana/x Latina/x Art & Artists course offered by UCLA's Cesar E. Chaves Department of Chicanx and  Central American Studies (cross listed with Art and WL Arts). My preferred pronouns are she/her, and I prefer to be addressed as Professor Lopez.

I am a Mexican-born Queer Chicana visual artist. I think of myself as a visual storyteller. Using digital media, as well as painting, photography, public art and silkscreen, I take culturally familiar icons and filter them through my own feminist lesbian lens. The result is something that may look vaguely culturally familiar to some but totally different and sometimes even controversial to others.

I have to admit that I have low-level anxiety about being in person, and yet, I am so excited about teaching this course that allows me to share with you some of my favorite Chicana/Latina artists. Also, I am looking forward to being introduced to new artists through student presentations.

The purpose of this blog is to serve as additional discussion space. Class lecture time affords us a limited time for discussion. Therefore, it is important to have a space to stay connected to the course material throughout the quarter. On this blog via short posts, each of us will be able to continue discussions on art, artists, reading materials, and our activist Wikipedia research project. 

Posts are due every week on or before noon on Mondays. The first introductory blog post is due by/before Friday, September 30. The reason for this early deadline is so that we can make sure we can write 10 posts during the teaching quarter as well as making sure we can resolve any issues during the first few weeks of the quarter.

After accepting Blogger invitation, write a new post. Below is the New Post writing area. 

1. Title your posts every week. Title the first post as follows: Last Name, First Name (preferred Name). Email me at alma@ucla.edu to let me know if names on title or label are different from class roster/gradebook so that you receive credit for your posts.
2. Label every post! Create label as follows: 2022LastNameFirstName. Use same label every week.
3. Write approximately a 300 word post (this post is almost 500 words). This first post is your introduction to our class. Therefore, introduce yourself (name, preferred name and pronoun, program, research interest, interest in course, etc), include a photo of yourself, and any thoughts or questions on the readings. Double check your spelling and grammar.
4. After you titled your post, written your post, included a photo, and labeled, click the orange "Publish" button in order to submit your post to the blog. See sample post below.

Please see video below to learn/review on how to accept Blogger invitation and post your first blog. The video was made for another class (Art on Trial: Art Censorship) but blogging basics are the same.