Week 8: On Carmen Lomas Garza

The Carmen Lomas Garza piece that most resonated with me was The Bed for Two Dreams. I think this piece carries the a lot of complexity and should be analyzed from multiple angles. For one thing I do want to comment on the concept of framing. I think it is interesting the the mother figure is framed with the windows, while she is performing domestic work. I think that speaks to the restrictions that are placed on Chicanas, that the home serves as a prison based on race, gender, and class. Meanwhile the two girls that are on the roof are not bound dream of the infinite opportunities not bound by anything and dreaming of everything. Although I do want to comment that domestic work is not bad or worthless than any other kind of labor, I do want to relate this to my experiences in pursuing art and a career in creative fields.
Being the son of immigrants art is never encouraged as a viable career option. We are always pushed towards more practical careers like in the medical or law fields respectively. So I understand this dissonance between our dreams and the expectations our parents have on us. My parents were concerned with putting food and a roof over heads, so there was no time or space to be thinking about impractical things like art.
So that is why I really appreciate this piece, It is telling me that despite what my trajectory in life might be, I am allowed to dream and to be whoever I want to.

Week 6 Response: On Judithe Hernandez

This week the artist whose work most resonated with me was Judithe Hernandez specifically her work on the subject of the Luchadoras, or female wrestlers. I had the opportunity to experience her work when the Fowler was exhibiting it for their Saints and Sinners show. I really appreciate the themes that the the Luchadora series made me think about, especially within the context of the show.

The first thing that I experienced with this work was the color choices. I appreciate her choice in painting the subjects skin in a completely different and experimental manner, opting for a muted blue, as opposed to brown skin. What I think this does it moves the work from being representational, to presenting it as being more propagandist. As to say this painting is relatable because it uses cultural symbols as a point of access as opposed to a racialized one. In essence the blue skin makes it more symbolic.

Additionally the composition of the work recalls images of crucifixion and by extension Christ and Christianity, ultimately things that most Chicana/os can relate with. So i believe this work really does communicate a positive message of feminism and strength in a responsible way.

Also the work centers on a female figure with a mask and to me the mask signifies an ambiguity. As this could be any woman. I believe that to be a very powerful symbol to use because it opens the possibility of the subject even being a trans women. Feminism usually abandons trans women, and because of this figures ambiguity I believe it even extends the message to them.

Post Chicanx and Laura Aguilar | Week 5

A point of discussion that really stuck out to me was the idea of art produced in an era of post-machismo. I believe this term does have validity because when I hear the term Chicano art, it evokes very specific images and motifs and themes that it would be necessary to classify the contemporary era of production as post that.

When I hear Chicano I think works, usually paintings, that speak in a similar visual language. Murals that follow a similar template to that of Diego Rivera, and feminist pieces usually centered around Frida Kahlo, La Virgen de Guadalupe, and female reproductive organs. Additionally it needs to be activist inherently. As a Latino in an art department I feel that all the work I have to do has to revolve around this aesthetic, in addition to being revolutionary in some sense. Although not explicitly stated, I do feel that it is heavily implied that I do work that follows that artistic logic.

In the way I have defined Chicanismo and post Chicanismo I feel that Laura Aguilar's work would fall under this definition. To me it seems completely novel and I love the theoretical baking behind her to work. To create images of herself that she finds beautiful, to find beauty in herself in a world hat tells her not to is completely revolutionary without completely following the Chicano aesthetic.

Margarita Cabrera | Soft Sculptures

The body of work that most resonated with me is the work of Margarita Cabrera, specifically her series Soft Sculptures, as presented by Kaelyn Rodriguez. These pieces mimic daily household objects through form and color but also have exposed to remind us of the labor involved in creating these objects. The way I interpret it is, the exposed threads remind me of the difficulty and focus that I associate with sewing, then applying that reference to the mundane household objects that the structures resemble.

Immigrant labor, even labor that is done by a non-white and educated person is often devalued and seen as less important than other occupations. So to show the complexity and the amount of labor that goes into objects (through the exposed threads) that we take for granted was a profound message, one that I can relate to as both my parents are immigrants and by American terms "uneducated".

Additionally, Cabrera creates a dialogue between fine art and craft in this series. Usually most art created by people of color gets condensed and simplified into folk or "ethnic" art, and usually to mean work centered around a stereotypical notion of what we perceive to be the artist's culture. In this series Cabrera presents with a complex idea relating to her/our community, but subverts it by presenting us with a work of craft with the added layer of social commentary, which is also reflective of Cabrera's work as a whole.