Week 10 - Art Concept (Rossini-Hein, Amanda Lara)

One of the artistic concepts this class opened my eyes to was art as a way to build a community which is intent on fighting its oppressors. Many of the artists we learned about went further than creating art to unify-- their art rallied a group of people to feel inspired to fight back and make their voices heard. 

Types of Western art reflecting community building that comes to mind includes The Ballet Class by Edgar Degas, or The Card Players series by Paul Cezanne. Unfortunately, great as these may be, they do not go past the idea of community in the same way a great majority of the art by the Chicana artists we studied in class do. Sure, they speak to comraderie, a shared interest, competition, and leisure time that are all essential components to depicting a community, but they are incapable of moving the viewers to take action. As a child who danced, I always loved Degas's dancers, but they did not encourage me to continue dancing. It wasn't until years later when I learned what they were actually representing that I felt more for the girls depicted in his paintings. In comparison, many of the artworks produces by the Chicana artists we discussed are catalyzing pieces, which encourage the audience to start or continue fighting for change. 

But, paintings like Unite, by Barbara Jones-Hogu, are directly in conversation with the type of art we studied in this course. Bringing attention to a group of historically marginalized people and celebrating their art as well as their strides in equity and equality is a great advancement to viewing Chicanas as more than perseveres. First, we see them as fighters because the title Chicana is reminiscent of woman, immigrant, a part of a whole. But, by focusing on their art, we add back the base human drive to be creative and expressive. For Chicanas, one of the best ways to be artistic and political, is to do it at the same time, taking up space in both spheres of conversation. 

Week 9 Presentation Review: Jeaneen Carlino

 Jeaneen Carlino was presented to us in class by Angela Sabanero. We learned that both the artist and the student lived in Whittier, CA, which seemed to have connected the student to their artist of choice. Carlino is a visual artist who specializes in paintings, logos, murals, buttons, stickers, and cards. She uses a wide array of materials to create her pieces. Presently, she is an entrepreneur who sells her art. In the past, she has sold art for different art galleries and for Trader Joe's. She worked at Trader Joe's for 8 years as a creative before feeling confident and established in her art enough to start her own business. She is inspired by other women, which is reflected in her works of art. In her Produce Goddess mural, my personal favorite out of all the pieces we were introduced to, Carlino painted an elephant holding a massive piece of broccoli. The elephant sports a blanket with "Trader Joe's" written on it, paying homage to the artist's past. It was painted in 2017, using acrylic on a wall.

Rossini-Hein, Amanda Lara -- Ruby Chacon (Week 8)

One of the artists I liked learning about was Ruby Chacon. She identifies as an Utah Native and a Chicana. She refers to this as "Utana.". She is a descendant of the Pueblo Indians. 

As a first generation student, Chacon got her Bachelors of Fine Arts at the University of Utah, further settling her into her community. She has won several awards for her artistry. 

Although she is known for being a muralist, Chacon also does prints and traditional paintings. All forms of her work have been exhibited in a rather global manner, reaching as far as Morocco and making its mark throughout the United States. She reclaimed traditional Utah art, which is typically comprised of landscapes featuring Utah's extensive biomes, by painting the residents. In paintings of people close to her, her admirers saw their own kin. Her paintings are meant to make a person feel connected to their family and Utah background. 

One of the reasons I really enjoyed learning about her and her work is that she is able to synthesize community and a place through visual art. Immediately upon looking at her art, people from Utah know that she made art about them. She rekindles memories of one's neighbors and connects these feelings to the land. 

I like that she makes public art because it takes away from the prestige of who can and who can't admire art. She welcomes everyone to enjoy her talent and feel connected to it. Her work uses soft, gentle colors, as seen in her temporary mural of her grandfather, titled Grandpa Cosme Chacon. The temporality of it is almost a reminder for us to be more in community with those we love, and appreciate them while we have them here. Although, as an outsider, I would never know of this man's connection to Utah, I can appreciate how kind he looks in this mural. It is that which ignites happiness, 

Rossini-Hein, Amanda Lara - Wikipedia Draft

 Personal Life:

Sienna Gonzales describes herself as a queer, multi-racial artist who uses bright colors and an abstract form of illustration in her works. She has been honing her craft since she was one year old, when she would mark her grandmother’s driveway with creative chalk drawings. Also a writer, Gonzalez finds inspiration in written works and visual arts she sees put forth by her contemporaries. 

Education:

Sienna Gonzales earned her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020. 

Published Work:

In the online magazine, Junior High Los Angeles, several of Sienna’s works having to do with how she felt about the COVID-19 crisis were featured, under the theme of “Inbox Full.” The May issue gives readers a brief paragraph written by the artist that precedes her artwork. In this, her audience is given more insight to how the artist responded to quarantine. Sienna Gonzales has also contributed to ​​the publication of She Votes: How U.S. Women Won Suffrage, and What Happened Next. This book features her art and gives a brief synopsis of who she is. Starting in January 2020, Sienna Gonzales began illustrating for an independent news magazine known as High Country News. The images stand out, inlaid with text written by another member of the High Country News team. 

Exhibitions:

In January 2019, Sienna’s work was showcased by CMMND x Afrikan Arts Ensemble in the Kerckhoff Pop-Up Art Show. 

Alongside her graduating class, Sienna Gonzales’s work was exhibited in UCLA’s Senior Art Exhibition in the year 2020. This permanent online exhibition features 10 of the artist’s works. 

Sienna Gonzales’s work has been exhibited at Rio Records by River LA in January 2021. 

Career:

Sienna Gonzales is an independent illustrator whose services can be contracted out for hire.

References:

“The Artists.” Rio Reveals, https://www.rioreveals.com/artists.

Behance. “Sienna Gonzales on Behance.” Behance, https://www.behance.net/siennagonzales.

Gonzales, Sienna. “Somewhere in June.” Somewhere In June, https://www.somewhereinjune.com/about.

Ishaya, Kristin. “4 Artists Discuss Their Art & Share the Meaning behind Their Work: Her Campus.” Her Campus, 9 Mar. 2020, https://www.hercampus.com/school/ucla/4-artists-discuss-their-art-share-meaning-behind-their-work/.

Kylie Mohr, 2021, et al. “High Country News – Know the West.” High Country News – Know the West, 21 Oct. 2021, https://www.hcn.org/.

Orlove, Faye. “Inbox Full.” Junior High, Junior High, 4 Jan. 2021, http://juniorhighlosangeles.com/xgirl/siennagonzales.

“The Pop-Up Art Show.” ASUCLA, 10 Jan. 2019, https://asucla.ucla.edu/event/the-pop-up-art-show/.

“Sienna Gonzales.” UCLA Department of Art, https://sites.google.com/view/unfrayed/unfrayed/Sienna-Gonzales?authuser=0. 

Rossini-Hein, Amanda Lara (Week 5 - Carmen Lomas Garza)

 

Looking through Carmen Lomas Garza's artwork, I became really fascinated by the one pictured above, Sandia. It immediately gave me the feeling of familial connection that is oftentimes forced in other paintings. 

The moon and the singular lightbulb are the only sources of light we are aware of, but the whole image is illuminated despite it being nighttime. To me, this signifies that the family doesn't need more than moonlight and the light of the lightbulb to bring brightness to their lives. The next interesting detail I noticed were the shoes. The grandmother's bare feet insinuate a sense of comfortability around her company. This is gentle to me. The little girls' matching sandals and the little boys' matching sneakers tie them together in a darling way. We see children copy each other when they like another person's behavior and in this family, they like each others' outfits and sense of style so much that most of the children have adopted a similar way of dressing themselves. This unity really ties the image back to family. 

I love the watermelon. It is plentiful and shared with all members of the family. The red of the watermelon is symbolic of the red we use to convey love. The watermelon seeds that litter the ground are evocative of the generations to come. They will grow into their own fruit after a time of togetherness and expand the family. The three generations harmoniously spending time together eating the watermelon makes viewers think that this tradition is one that the children will carry when they are the oldest members of their families. The floral accents on the pillars holding up the ceiling and the flower beds that guard the entrance to the home make me think of growth and ongoing support. To me, flowers mean growth and rebirth, but seeing them as pillars that hold up the family shows that the growth and birth of the family is ongoing and supported by the continuation of this family sharing moments like these that strengthen their bonds to each other. 

Rossini-Hein, Amanda Lara (Week 4 - Rasquachismo)

Rasquachismo is the underdog perspective seen in the Chicana and Latina community (with which it is associated). It is a form of empowerment for the lower classes. With this attitude, families tend to make old items into usable new ones, often thinking outside the box, so that they don't have to spend money on seemingly unnecessary items. 

Domesticana is a strictly Chicana version of rasquachismo. Domesticanas remove themselves from the traditional, machismo ways of living, in which they are expected to fulfill traditional gender roles. They put their own lives and careers first. Domesticanas remind me of my mom. Brazilian women (especially from her generation and those before her) are expected to know how to cook, clean, take care of children, and a husband. My mom looked those gender roles in the eye and said hell no. She put her career ahead of learning how to be a master chef. She has always been her own person outside of her family. 

Before this class, I didn't know there was a term for this type of lifestyle. Growing up in a lower-class family, rasquachismo was the name of the game. We bought baking pans that had fitted lids, so we didn't have to buy a separate container to carry the goods in. We used grocery store plastic bags to line bathroom trash cans with. Old jam jars were used to pack fruit for lunches, eliminating plastic waste in the process. Wine bottles were turned into vases. This was the norm for me, and I never saw it as us having less than our neighbors. I grew up thinking that we were taking the "reuse, reduce, recycle" lessons I had learned at school very seriously.  I still try to buy as little as I can because I hate clutter and I like repurposing things. I don't think I will ever let go of the domesticana style of living (like my mother, I put an education ahead of homesteading), regardless of my financial status. 

Rossini-Hein, Amanda Lara (Abstract for Sienna Gonzales)

 ​​https://www.somewhereinjune.com/about

The About page on the artist’s website introduces the reader to the artist and the origin story for her brand’s name. The artist describes how she views her own art— it is essentially a visual diary of her aspirations and lived experiences. She shares its personal meaning to her, cluing readers in on the notion that her works begins as a form of self-reflection before transforming into its own thing.

https://www.hercampus.com/school/ucla/4-artists-discuss-their-art-share-meaning-behind-their-work/

In this interview, Gonzales introduces herself as a queer, multi-racial, multi-medium visual artist whose inspiration comes from her hardships and successes in life. She discusses her influencers, and how they shaped her style. She shares her favorite piece with readers, showing a connection between her art and her personal life.

Rossini-hein, Amanda Lara (Week 3)

Before this assignment, I did not know that the symbol I am familiar with is known as the Virgin of Guadalupe. Until first grade, I was loosely raised Catholic, though we were never the most devoutly practicing family. Truly, I think I am only familiar with this image because of how iconic it is, and not because of my upbringing. Growing up in Brazil, it was expected that almost everyone in my community was Catholic, either by association or belief. After moving and becoming more familiarized with my Protestant, American family, I stopped seeing Catholic icons, as they weren't included in our nondenominational church. Thus began one of my first steps toward Americanization.

One of my earliest memories of the Virgin Mary, as I have always known her to be called, in America was when I was watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame, when Esmeralda sings "God Help the Outcasts," asking the Virgin Mary to protect her, as she has just taken sanctuary in the cathedral. I have seen icons representing the Virgin Mary in missions throughout California and in the Met Cloisters in New York. She is familiar to me because of my interest in art history and the compulsory education in California which teaches all the impressionable 4th graders that the early missions were places of refuge and not institutions of slave labor. I always thought that if she were watching the missionaries, as a mother, she would not like how they behaved with their "brethren" very much. 

The part of Southern California I grew up in does not have a very large Latina or Catholic population (I was one of two Latinas in my senior class), so my familiarization with this image does not bring back memories of my community, but rather memories of places I visited (and in the case of Brazil, memories of the home I returned to). I asked my mother if we refer to the Virgin Mary as the Virgin of Guadalupe in Brazil, too, and will update this blog post when she replies to me. 

I have attached an image of  The Virgin of Guadalupe with the Four Apparitions by Nicolás Enríquez (1773). 

Rossini-Hein, Amanda Lara

 1. Sienna Gonzalez

2. Annette Martinez

Rossini-Hein, Amanda Lara

Hi, everyone!

My name is Amanda Lara Rossini-Hein (she/her/hers) and I am a third year majoring in English. However, this is my first year at UCLA as I just transferred from a community college in Orange County. Although I love big cities, I don't feel as though Los Angeles is ever truly going to be home. After graduation, I want to go to grad school for a Master's in Global Fashion Marketing, so I can work in the buying and merchandising aspect of the business. There are no guarantees, and I may find myself in New York or Paris or wherever else my heartstrings draw me nearer to for a completely different reason. 

My mother immigrated to the United States from Brazil in her mid-twenties and her fantastical stories about reinventing herself in a foreign country with a language she barely knew five words in inspired me to never get too comfortable with the idea of one place being home. Growing up in a multicultural way made me curious about other cultures, and my mother's career in teaching Spanish to high schoolers brought my attention to Chicanx and Latinx histories. Through serendipity, I find myself here and I am thrilled to learn about Chicana artists. Perhaps if I like this class enough, I will pursue a minor in or related to Chicano Studies. 

I love art. I grew up performing ballet and singing in a choir. I spent hours-- and still do-- painting and drawing in my leisure time and when I was cooped up in a classroom, I would doodle scenic little cartoons in the margins of my classwork or give my left wrist a classic marker tattoo. Being immersed in art made by people who belong to a culture I am interested in learning more about seems like a lovely way to kick off my first quarter.