Week 10 Reflection

Through these ten weeks of being enrolled in Chicana Art & Artist class, I have learned so much about so many wonderful women artists of color and about the definition of art itself. So many of these women artists challenge gender, race/ethnic, and socioeconomic stereotypes. SO much of art is modern and Eurocentric, it hasn’t allowed women and especially women of color to be at the forefront of art. This class has shown me that there are so many women out there doing what they love without the means of going to school and having formal training. It is inspiring to see that these women are highlighted because it shows those of color that it's OK to challenge male/ gender norms of art. 

I came into this class nervous because I never  have considered myself an artist. I grew up playing soccer and never really explored art as a medium. When I saw on the syllabus that we were required to obtain a sketchbook, I was like “oh no what did I get myself into.” But through the weeks of drawing, shading, stenciling, I have surprised myself, showing myself that I can actually draw. The practice of drawing has also been extremely therapeutic, and a practice that I would like to continue to practice throughout my life. This class has shown me that you don't have to go to school to learn techniques and many artists don't, they are self taught. Thank you for showing me that I too can be an artist.

Week 9: Barbara Carrasco

Barbara Carrasco is a Chicana muralist, born in El Paso, Texas, in 1955. She grew up in Mar Vista, Los Angeles which at the time was predominantly Mexican American and African American community. She received her associates degree from West Los Angeles College, then transferred to UCLA, where she received her Bacheors in Fine Arts. She was the first women editor of the UCLA newspaper La Gente. At age nineteen she met Cesar Chavez which began her association with the organization of United Farm Workers of America. She created banners and flyers for the organization. Much of her art is dedicated to Chicano civil rights movement and it critiques dominant cultural stereotypes. Her art is exhibited nationally and internationally. 

In 1981 she was commissioned by the Community Redevelopment Agency to create a sixteen-by-eighty-foot portable mural. It is titled LA History: A Mexican Perspective, it is on display at the Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. It deptics 51 scenes/ events that are relevant to the history of Los Angeles. The events are woven into the hair of a Latina women, and it's a timeline beginning with indigenous people, it also displays internment of Japanese American and Japanese people in the Western states during WWII, and Zoot Suit Riots. This mural was supposed to hang above a McDonald’s on Broadway in downtown L.A., but the CRA criticized this image telling her that she would need to remove events from the image because some were negative". Carrasco being the rebillious feminist that she is decided to not change her hardwork. So instead of having it displayed outside it now it hangs inside Union Station. She challenges the norms of what society wants her to do/ paint which makes her work even more inspiring.

Week 8: Santa Barraza

It was so interesting getting introduced to all the different Chicana Artists that exist on this planet. Everyone has a story to tell and it was so interesting hearing about each artist. Before taking this class, I only knew of a handful of Latina Artists, but just after eight presentations I have gained so much new knowledge on some incredible women. Even though it was just painters that presented on Friday all the artists had such a range of art exhibited due to their education and background. This class has offered me so much knowledge into the world of art and its inspiring hearing stories of others. 

I took particular interest in the artist Santa Barraza. Born in 1951, she is a mixed media painter that is known for her colorful work, and a prominent artist of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. Barraza's inspiration comes from her mestiza ancestry and from pre-Colombian art. She is currently a Professor at Texas A&M University. The image that stood out to me the most was called Selena. You see Selena behind a little yellow adobe/house, with blue skies in the background. This image stood out to me because of the bright colors used. Also there's so much detail to it that I could stare at it for hours and still find something new. Her skills are incredible, she paints Selena with such a clear face & she is peering into the audience with your chin and head tilted just a little bit to the right- expressing fierceness.

Week 7: Sonya Fe

All of the women she paints are wrapped in their own brown skin, they are beautiful for both their interior struggle and exterior unselfishness. Sonya Fe explores the many emotions expressed by the female body. I enjoy how Fe explores and focuses on the female body, especially with women of color. These women often go unnoticed in popular art, yet with the presence of women of color, there becomes more of a civic culture/ gathering community of the ways in which we can embrace and pay homage. 

The faces she paints are the center of attention in her work with the majority of the background blur. The image, An everyday saint you don't recognize we see a woman with a dark one hand over her right eye, the other hand is holding a bouquet of flowers. There is a mix of red, green, orange, and pink flowers. The background of the image is blurry and dark blue which plays a role in how Sonya Fe wants the audience to feel. The blue with the white of the flowers, is supposed to place the viewer out of their comfort zone, forcing them to feel discomfort. She states, “You can leave the room--- but when you return, the discomfort of the blue and stark white will still be there… and so like some words, there is no comfort. This image is dark and full of meaning. Exploring this type of medium has been interesting for me. It presents itself as very modern/ eurocentric art, which Sonya received from her training through art school.

WK 6: Sketchbook Cover

For the cover of my sketchbook I will be placing a skencil of a chili pepper. Growing up I never would have considered myself artistic, and if I ask my mom if she was artistic she would start to explain how bad at art and drawing she is. Growing up I thought I wasn't a good artist, but one form of artistry that I learned from her is cooking. The word "culinary" is defined as something related to, or connected with, cooking or kitchens. Cooking is the process of preparing food and meals that will be eaten or the food served to other people. Food can stimulate not just your eyes, but also your taste. My mom seven days a week, usually two meals a day would always have food prepared. It was never frozen or processed, yet always delicious. I remember all the salsas, moles, enchiladas, tortillas etc. that she would all make from scratch. I would watch her in awe as she would dance through the kitchen, perfectly crafting a recipe. This then got passed down to me. I love to cook and make up random recipes, it has been my type of art. The chili pepper signifies the heat that was placed in many of my moms recipes subsequently, I can never eat any food without it being spicy. While neither my mom or I would consider ourselves artists, you can find the art in anything, and for us that is cooking and eating and sharing this beautiful ritual.

Blog Post WK 5: Garza's Art

Art has dialogue. Garza’s art conveys many messages about her beautiful culture and community. Despite the numerous years of suffering, oppression, and violence experienced by the Latino community, Garza’s art challenges stereotypes and invokes grace. In addition, her art is visible to all audiences bridging the gap between the mainstream community and museum industry.

 La Feria en Reynosa (1987, pg.4) the image is about a trip she took to a Mexican border town located across the Rio Grande called Reynosa. I chose this image because it reminded me of the pulga/flea market that I go to on the weekends with my family. Barbed wire and two trees present in the back of the image representing borderlands. There are vendors selling tacos, pots, and pans, and clothing a mix of goods brought from Mexico. These are items that can be bought and taken home to remember one's cultural ties to Mexico. A sign on the refreshment booth states, “Sodas. Coca Cola, Fresa, Limon: $5.00 pesos” exhibits the cultural hybridity of the community living in the states, while still speaking Spanish. It highlights growing up in two cultures and two places. The image also is filled with bright colors reflecting the happiness of the culture. I believe this image answers my question because it shows that Latinos from a young age are raised to not forget their past. Through visiting these spaces one is shown that despite growing up in a different country they can still visit the space which reminds them of home.

WK 4: Rasquachismo y Domesticana

Rasquachismo is neither an idea nor a style but more of an attitude or a taste. The term has been associated with vulgarity and bad taste in the United States and Mexico, which infers a negative connotation. It encompasses the working class and Chicano communities. It was reinvigorated with the 1960s Chicano movement. It got associated with rejecting the whiteness of an experience. During this time visual arts such as murals and posters were significant. The art reflected everyday traditions, and paid homage to sensibility by restating its premises. It was a response to lived reality, along with having a “underdog perspective”, such as a lower class/ view from the bottom. The Intention was to provoke the accepted “superior” norms of the Anglo- American with everyday reality of Chicano cultural practices. The art associated with the term uses the most basic, simplest, and quickest means necessary to create the desired expression, in essence, creating the most from the least. It is stated that things are held together with spit, grit, and movidas. The term can also be used to reference the bicultural inspiration from which these artists draw inspiration. The attitude of rasquachismo is best exemplified in everyday life and forms of popular culture. Some examples presented at the end of the chapter were chanclas, shopping at JCPenney, Born in East L.A movie. It states that, “To be resquache is to be unfettered and unrestrained, to favor the elaborate over the simple, the flamboyant over severe”.

The term domesticana emerged due to an attempt to theorize the critical nature of domestic material. Cultural influences related to home, community, and their church all fed into the work of Chicana artists. The day-to-day experience of working class Chicanas was represented through home embellishments, home altar maintenance, healing traditions, and personal feminine pose or style. The home altar is most prominent, which is established through continuities of spiritual belief and challenging male -dominated rituals within Catholicism. It is often located in the bedroom which is considered a private place some examples of this are decorative elements such as-flowers, family photos, candles and offerings, along with memorabilia, saints, and icons. Domesticana comes as a spirit of Chicana emancipation grounded in advanced education and to some degree Anglo- American expectations in a more open society. A characteristic of domesticana are techniques of subversion through play with traditional imagery and cultural material. Through this term, Chicanas were able to challenge existing community restrictions regarding the role of women. Since many Chicanas are raised in houses that praises male over female, and old over young, this expression of art is important and powerful for women to see because it challenges these superior norms. 

WK 3: Margret F. Stewart: Our Lady Guadalupe series, 1978

Yolanda Loez the Chicana artist is best known for her controversial series of paintings on the Virgen de Guadalupe, where she transformed the icon, to pay homage to what Lopez calls the “ordinary women” who are vibrant and hardworking Chicanas. By confronting stereotypes about Latin Americans and challenging U.S. immigration policy Lopez represents the experiences of Mexican American women in the United States. She brings up many interesting questions through her art, which showcase her ability/willingness to challenge societal gender roles.

Lopez depicts her mother at work, in the image titled Margaret F. Stewart: Our Lady Guadalupe series, 1978. She is seated behind a sewing machine, where she is sewing a cloak. Although the mother's body is round, Lopez praises the beauty by surrounding her with the brightest mandorla. The portrait is intended to portray her mom’s beauty in terms of sacrifice and hard work, not in terms of Eurocentric beauty standards. This piece addresses my question, because patriarchy and male have placed so many expectations on women and Lopez highlights that women don’t need to be light skinned, skinny, and have straight hair to be beautiful. Through, Yolanda M. Lopez’s’ art she challenges gender roles along with the notion of what it means to be Latina, and a woman in our current society. In addition, she confronts notions of whiteness and beauty, and the patriarchy that occurs in the Catholic Church. Many of the portraits can be interpreted as honoring working class Chicanas, young and old. 

WK 2: Sonya Fe

For my artist I chose to do Sonya Fe. Sonya Fe was born in East Los Angeles on September 26, 1952 in a poor neighborhood known as “dogtown”. She is one of eight children born to a Jewish-American mother and a Mexican-American Father. Fe learned to draw before she could walk and even talk. From a young age she was encouraged to draw on the cement floors of their home with chalk, and at night her parents would mop up the drawings (this was much like Picasso’s art on the beach). She describes her childhood as a very upbeat and happy one despite the grit she experienced in her neighborhood. Her father would take her on outings where she drew trees, people, buildings and animals.She is a painter that focuses on fine art prints, painter, author, muralist, etc. At age thirteen, she won her first scholarship and was invited to participate in a summer program at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. She received her formal art education from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Her work has been in museums and galleries all over California, and in New York, Japan, and Mexico for thirty years. I have no prior knowledge of this artist. The reason I chose her was because her name stuck out to me. She doesn't have a particularly Latina last name, so I was curious to learn more. I am excited to learn more about her life and explore all of her paintings.

WK 1: Introduction post

Hello everyone, my name is Olivia Ortega-Cooney, I am a Chicano & Chicana Studies major, minoring in Food Studies. I am in my fourth year, and I transferred to UCLA last year from Berkeley City College. My preferred pronouns are she/her/hers. I haven't participated in any research, besides papers I have done for other classes. I am looking forward to researching Chicana artists, who I know many I have not heard of. In addition, I do not consider myself as an artist but, I have never questioned why I am not. Cant anyone be? I beleive that there is no parameters of art/ their shouldn't be. I am excited to explore this area especially related to dope Chicana Women. 

I thought the article by Sybil Venegas “Conditions for producing Chicana Art”, gave an interesting perspective on economic conditions of the emerging Chicana artists in the 1970s. She states that, Chicana artists are overlooked. Within a culture the artist can only exist once the culture has achieved the social and economic stability necessary to produce artists. Thus, socio-economic conditions are crucial elements in the appearance of specific art movements and/or classes of artists. I believe art has always been associated with those of the elite and upper class. It makes complete sense that artists of lower class, gender, and race are so often overlooked. The dominant Anglo-American society has placed women in general in lower class which has impacted every aspect of our society. Is there a way that we can change the current narrative for these artists?