Judith F. Baca

        Judith F. Baca is a Chicana artist who was a pioneer in creating public art, specifically here in Los Angeles. She is most recognized for her 2,740 mural in North Hollywood that aims to tell an alternative history of California focusing on marginalized and underrepresented communities. This mural is representative of Baca’s work as an artist and presents many themes that her other pieces are centralized around. Unlike other Chicana/o and Feminist artists of her time, Baca focused on tactics that are oppositional to shared cultural values, social harmony, and consensus. She does this to emphasize the importance of dissension and opposing views because to her, history is only understood when accounting for both sides of the story. 
        The World Wall: A Vision of the Future without Fear by Judith F. Baca is a portable mural that she created to circulate her ideas and messages more broadly. She constantly challenged the cultural nationalism of the Chicano movement in order to attract new audiences and experiment with new forms and formats. Nonviolent Resistance (1989)  is one of the four panels of the The World Wall. In this panel, Baca depicts activists linking arms to halt the tide of the Gulf War and an addiction to fossil fuels. Behind the 5 activists is a dual-toned wave of tanks, gas masks, and oil and blood that bleeds into, and disturbs the peace of the green meadows that the activists stand on. The activists themselves represent marginalized groups and their hope to fight back against dominant power structures.  Overall Judith F. Baca believed that although the Chicano Movement was small and insular, it was one that had repercussions beyond the Southwest, which is why she intended her art to reach more than just those already familiar with the Mexican culture.

Carmen Lomas Garza

In the times of the Chicano movement,  this artist was inspired to create images that would resonate with her Mexican-American audiences, and her name is Carmen Lomas Garza. She depicted her childhood in South Texas and the daily activities and traditions that it entails. She worked with all types of materials, gouache and alkyd paintings, prints, cutouts, and books for children, so her art was reaching many audiences. Apart from the inspiration from her interpersonal relationships, she also tried to reveal the hope and tenacity that anchored the Chicano community in that era.

A piece of Garza ’s that really resonated with me is Lotería-Primera Tabla,1972. In this artwork, she depicts elements/characters of her life that she grew up with, in the style of the Mexican bingo game, Lotería. I grew up playing this game at the end of most parties and hangouts with my family.  We bonded so much over this game and sometimes took it too seriously, we played with money too. It was an honor to lay the cards face up because as a little boy with broken Spanish, it felt good to be able to correctly, and loudly, pronounce the words that read on the card. Seeing Loteria-Primera Table in the book brought back so much nostalgia because of how much being able to hang out with my family means to me, and especially my grandma. Loteria is one of those things that I greatly correlate with her,  which is why this piece especially resonated with me. My grandma is my greatest influence in terms of exposure to my Mexican culture, and she also played a pivotal role in shaping who I am today.

Presentation: Shizu Saldamando

The artist I have chosen to present is: Shizu Saldamando

Shizu Saldamando is a Los Angeles based artist who received her B.A from UCLA's School of Arts and Architecture and her Master's degree in art from California Institute of the Arts. She is of Japanese and Mexican descent and pays tribute these identities through her art. Her art is focused on suggesting that race, gender, and ethnicity act as white noise to the scene at hand. She uses her friends as her subjects to capture the energy of youthful experimentation and the freedom of malleable categories for identity.

I've chosen to do a presentation on Shizu Saldamando because of the focus of her portraits, which is to emphasize individual identity and capture the mood of her subjects. Since her goal is to capture moments in the time they happen, some of her art takes inspiration in Panno art. Panno Art is believed to originate in the 1940s by Chicano prisoners, who would create intricate drawings with the materials at hand, this includes panós or pieces of bed sheets in which they would be limited to using pens or colored pencils.

The specific piece that I have attached is titled “Embrace” which depicts two characters embracing, and more so comforting one another. This piece is done on floral bed sheets that in themselves are representative of Shizu’s Mexican-American through the multicolored roses imprinted on the sheets. This especially resonated with me because I have seen some Panno Art in person, growing up I had a cousin who would send his kid drawings from jail and it was very similar to what I’ve seen exploring Shizu’s art. The bed sheets also spoke to me because growing up a Mexican-American I would see these floral prints everywhere from bed sheets and pillowcases to curtains and placemats. I’m excited to present the information I have learned about Shizu Saldamando and the information I will continue to unveil, and I hope the rest of you are just as enthused.