Thanksgiving Blogpost

 I drew this at the lines while black Friday shopping. I didn't have my sketchbook but I had a notebook, so I decided to post this instead because it was drawn in the moment. I didn't do anything for thanksgiving but my brother and I went holiday shopping together. For me, this was a lot of fun because we spent time together. I drew this picture while both him and I were waiting in line at a target after going to other stores. The Victoria's secret bag has kind of a funny story because I had never been there before black Friday shopping. Both my brother and I got to experience black Friday together and enjoy ourselves. The soda is there because we were thirsty and the stores had no water but they did have soda. Despite not having a traditional celebration for thanksgiving I had lots of fun.

Carmen Lomas Garza

Dia de los Muertos/Ofrenda para Antonio Lomas (Fig. 36) is an art piece from the years 1988-90 found in the third chapter called “A Tejana on the West Coast.” This chapter does the best in capturing the rise of Garza’s artistic career and her launch to creating art in a more mature light. Garza’s time on the West coast got her to expand on her artistic development, including having new forms of art like cut-out also known as papel picado and installation art. Dia de los Muertos/Ofrenda para Antonio Lomas is an installation that includes the cutout forms of her art, but also has the sense of her previous art in other chapters where it seems like it is a still of an everyday happening. A kitchen is visible and has strong likelihood to other kitchen of everyday like but the difference is that this kitchen is decorated with cutouts that represent the celebration of Day of the Dead, and in the background a tapestry-like cutout is displayed with a strong resemblance to Garza’s other artwork showing her everyday life occurrence for a gardener. While Garza’s artwork began with pencils, and charcoals as her materials, she expanded to painting and then to cutouts installations and close-ups in her art. This is a progress that Garza goes through by going into other mediums of art and making those mediums fit to her style of artwork in addition to making it unique.

Wolf Stencil

My stencil is a wolf. The reason I chose a wolf is because my dad's hometown in Mexico is known for having a huge population of wolves in the mountains where the poorest population of the town lives so he has seen wolves all the time. Since I have been to Mexico myself I have seen the wolves some behave more like dogs by falling people around and asking for food, others are a little more aggressive so they stay away from the village until after sundown. Similar to my dad, my mom comes from a different area in Mexico where they are also known for having wolves (in addition to mountain lions) that roam around once the sun goes down but these wolves are different from where my dad comes from, these wolves do not trust human populations at all. The fierceness of a wolf is also important because I also see the strength a wolf represents in my mom and dad as the heads of our family. That is why I chose that particular stencil with that particular expression. The stencil has its own meaning to me as well, as the first in my family to go to college, I hope to be a leader and be a good role model to my younger brothers like a leader to a wolf pack. It might be a little silly but its the best way to describe the significance of the stencil to me personally.

Laura Alvarez

For me, the most interesting work of art don't by Laura Alvarez as to be where the DAS is in a karate kick still. Like Ms. Alvarez had mentioned hen she was in lecture, a lot of her art seems to be a part of a movie. This one piece in particular is interesting to me because it places DAS showing off yet another one of her hidden skills and it is one I can relate to. It was mentioned in class earlier that not a lot of art is giving out the meaning by the actual artists but is rather interpreted by other individuals about the different meaning that it can have. For this particular piece, the DAS is still doing her job being a nanny for that baby in the stroller and seems to be protecting him from something by letting out her martial arts skills. Most likely the people that employed her don't even know that their sirvienta has martial arts skills and would be very surprised if they found out. The same goes for people outside of art and these people can have many hidden talents that others don't know about. The reason I relate to this so much is because a lot of people simply see me as a UCLA student or as a Mexican American woman but don't know that I know martial arts as well, and was a computer science competitor as well. DAS is very good at showing that although she is a sirvienta, which a skill she had to learn in order to continue being an effective spy, she nows how to do other things as well and these skills or talents make her all the more valuable as a spy.

Blog Post: Week 3

Shifra Goldman writes piece regarding how the Chicano culture has emerged and includes its history with colonialism. She goes into explaining how the Chicano culture has reclaimed their heritage by mentioning Aztlan and how the Chicano culture present in the Southwest are the efforts to demonstrate the power behind the Chicano community. Goldman further goes into explaining the types of racism that occurred to the Mexican American communities and how they tried to reclaim the identities through ethnicity and also explains how the majority of the time the Mexican community has been working class throughout the majority of history.
In Yolanda M. Lopez, the image that represents Lopez' Chicana self-determination the most to me would be her Self-Portrait because it shows some type of authority with the body language but it also conveys independence. This is extremely important because it is more effective in promoting Chicana art and power without falling into the romanticized images of Chicanas, which is something Lopez was very clear in trying to avoid.

Celina Hinojosa

I would like to present on Celina Hinojosa because the colors in her patients are vibrant. It gives them a warm feeling and makes it really nice. Not only that but she also has a cartoon-like aspect to her paintings that give it their own character.

Barrera, Valeria

Hello Everyone! My name is Valeria Barrera. I am a third year sociology major with a Chicano Studies minor here at UCLA. I am the first in my family to pursue higher education. After I complete my BA, I am hoping to become a flight attendant. Both of my parents are from Mexico with my mom being from Zacatecas and my dad from Hidalgo. I have a 14 year old brother and a 2 year old brother. I commute from Downtown L.A everyday so I get to enjoy my life on the freeway for quite a bit while listening to my favorite radio station Alt 98.7 "The Woody Show."
I decided to take this course because I don't know any Chicana artists or about any artists in general so I thought this course would be the best to take in order to expand my knowledge about art as a whole. I have never really been exposed to art or artists but also I have never thought I was capable of producing art in any way because I assumed art was only drawing and painting. That was until this past summer when I helped my dad with building a metal fence for his job and helping design it. I realized that my dad's job in itself was a form of art because you had to be creative with metal to make it something a customer will like. And to my discovery I was really good at tailoring to customers ideas so we could make it reality on fence designs. So I guess I have kind of touched the surface of what it is like to be an artist.
The Virgen of Guadalupe is very prominent in my family because we all identify as Catholic. So I have seen her image everywhere in our household and it is customary for use to carry her image in our wallets as well. For my family, more than anything she symbolizes protection for those you love.