Final Blog Post

I had previously heard good things about this class so I decided to give it a shot, even though I am not a big fan of art. The best part of the course was my realization that I like to draw. Before, I used to hate drawing, mostly because I have never been good at it except for drawing faces. But after all the sign language hand exercises, I felt I improved over time. So I learned that I like to draw. I found it therapeutic to draw whenever I was stressing out about school or money. I would just think, "maybe I should just start drawing my mango or my hands so that I can feel better" and I did end up feeling better. Most importantly, I learned about Xicana art. This was very rewarding to me. We grow up with a very Eurocentric view on art and this is "required" for graduating high school and whatnot. The rest of the art classes such as Latin American art history, Japanese art history etc, get relegated to "electives",so students don't have to take them in order to graduate. Being in a class where the topic was strictly Xicana artists was very nurturing as a Xicana feminist. I got to see the world of these artists through their lens. They used art as a mode to deconstruct linear forms of teaching and expose the counter-hegemonic narratives that were excluded from US history. I always looked forward to seeing artist presentations and learn about the experiences that influenced their art. It was overall a very enriching class with talented people.

Xicana Printmakers

For this week's reading, Where are the Chicana Printmakers?, art historian Holly Barnet-Sanchez explains how Xicana artists used art as a medium of expressing their commonalities. These commonalities included "their struggles against racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnocentrism" (118). Through their printmaking, these artists exhibited their agency as subjugated women which consequently granted them a space for other women of color to relate and see themselves as the women in the prints. In our class presentations, we saw examples of the issues that Barnet-Sanchez brought to light. One of the notable prints that was presented in class and in the reading was by Barbara Carrasco with Pregnant Woman in a Ball of Yarn from 1978. Barnet-Sanchez comments how this print shows the "restrictive roles of sexuality" (130) by having the woman's hair wrap around her mouth and eyes. I personally felt very drawn to the calendar art of Patricia Rodriguez for the very reasons that Barnet-Sanchez mentions. We are immediately told that the women in Rodriguez's calendar art are not portrayed in the typical seductive "pin-up" manner that most people are used to seeing. Rodriguez's Josefa-Juanita series illustrates the life of a physically and emotionally abused woman. She is described as "looking down, lost in thought, oblivious to her surroundings" (128) with very obvious bruising on her face. Although, these are very difficult subjects to talk about, we must critically engage in dialogue about it instead of simply observing at the artwork and feeling sad for the woman in the art. The women in the art suffer from double subjugation for being women and  women of color. This double subjugation is the reason for their silence in the home and their invisibility in society. The article is significant because it allows us to have a dialogue when there was no dialogue before.

Carmen Lomas Garza

In Carmen Lomas Garza's Quincenera, we see the traditional Mexican rite of passage for females. Since many of Garza's paintings deal with family as a theme, this painting is no exception. Other than a wedding, a girl's quincenera is probably the second most important moment in her life where family from all over joins together. For me, the most notable aspect of the painting is the obvious color choice of the damas' dresses. They are very emblematic of a quincenera in the vibrant fushia tone dress. Most quincenera dresses tend to be very "out there", fun, and bold in color. A second important feature that I see in the painting is the variance in the characters. In looking at each group of people or person in the painting, you get the impression that each one tells a different story. There is a girl in the middle, running barefoot, almost as if she forgot something and she must get it before she has to get ready to get inside the church. In the upper, right corner, there is a group of boys who are relaxing, "chilling" in a way that might indicate that they might be conversating about a girl. I appreciate the realism behind this painting because it almost feels like a photograph. It feels like this painting could be a part of the photo album that the photographer puts together for the event. Overall, not only is this a memory of Garza, but also a memory that most of us can recall because of how important this rite of passage is for Mexican and Latino families.

letter to Laura Molina

Dear Laura Molina,

                            I fell in love with your Naked Dave series instantly. I think it was a clever and sassy idea  to depict Dave as various incarnations. I understand that these paintings were a result of a relationship that really affected you. In that sense, I can greatly relate to you. My question to you is, what were you emotionally feeling when you painted the series? I think that there is a common misconception where after a breakup, the woman is always the one that cries right after, sits all day at home, watches sad romantic films, and eats her emotions away. Maybe for you, the paintings were a form of liberating yourself, kind of like poking fun of the situation. In some of the paintings, I find a touch of humor which I really like. But the piece I love the most is Amor Alien. One of the first things I noticed about this painting is that Dave is not directly looking at you; he is looking towards space. I was wondering if you did this on purpose and wanted to tell the audience about a dynamic of the relationship. I interpret this as Dave was involved in the relationship with you, but he was not showing signs of affection or he did not show enough signs that he really wanted this relationship. I am also very curious as to why you decided to depict yourself as the alien and had Dave be the human. Why weren't you the human and Dave the alien? I interpreted this also as a way to tell your audience that maybe you felt like the two of you had very different personalities, interests, devotions etc. I am very glad that you used your talent to express and show your emotions about a man that affected your life so much. I think many women fall prey to that idea that we cannot move on without the man who broke our hearts. The fact that you used comedic relief in your paintings lets us know that you are not feeling sad and melancholic about it anymore. It is more like, now you feel comfortable enough to make fun of certain aspects of the relationship and that is what makes your series very awesome.
                                                                                               sincerely, Masia M.

Response to Maria Delgado on Camille Rose Garcia

I too, like many other people, grew up visiting Disneyland; when it was much cheaper also. While the real stories that The Brothers Grimm (authors of Snow White) and Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland) were much darker than the Disney interpretation, Disney films much like the actual theme park, is very Eurocentric. The films that Disney tends to produce tend to feature Princesses of European descent. Most recently, the successful Frozen franchise demonstrates how quickly people fall in love with characters without realizing that most of the Disney films and princesses are not diverse. Frozen was based on the Danish story of The Snow Queen by Hans Christen Andersen. Similarly, The Little Mermaid is also based on a story by Danish author Hans Christen Andersen. Disney does not typically derail from the hegemonic narrative of European princesses and when it does, these princesses are not considered "real" princesses. For example, Mulan from the self-titled film and Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog are not the first princesses that pop up into our head when we are asked to name a Disney princess. I am not saying that it is bad that this narrative is being perpetuated but simply pointing out the fact that Disney has not yet developed a film where there is a princess of Latin American or indigenous descent. Even if Disney did make such a film, would the Latin American and indigenous community be offended by Disney's interpretation of such a princess?

Week 5 artist: Laura Aguilar

One of this week's artist, Laura Aguilar, really impressed me. Through her photographs she narrates her story of self-acceptance and self-empowerment in a society where being "fat" is not deemed beautiful. As someone who was always self conscious about her body, Aguilar had a hard time feeling beautiful. She appears nude in mostly all her photographs as a way of expressing her love towards her body; it is her accepting herself and feeling beautiful. She explained that the one thing that she does not get a lot is "touch". This was really saddening to hear. It was evident through her photographs that the feeling of "touch" is very important to her. She always appeared to be in touch with nature in an intimate way. Her body seemed to be one with nature. I admire her bravery by displaying herself naked because that is never something easy. Not even I would feel comfortable being naked in front of a camera and display it as art. The fact that she also has a disability makes her artwork more admirable. Obviously, her photographs do not indicate her disability, but it has not stopped her from pursuing her artwork. I appreciated that the Professor played the video in class because suddenly her photographs made more sense. I actually felt like I was understanding her pain and her struggle which evoked compassion in me. She reappropriated something deemed as negative and spread the idea that being big is not a requirement for beauty. I can clearly see the peace within herself about her body through her pictures which is the best part of these pictures.

Margarita Cuaron

There were multiple Chicana artists that stuck out to me and I found it hard to choose. I think what I found so compelling about Cuaron at the end of the day was that her interest in art was more about the material. Sure, a painting can tell a story, but do its materials narrate a story as well? The fact that Cuaron emphasized the materials in her sculptures into such a way that they became a part of the story, is truly remarkable. We often too much think of art as being so eurocentric with sculptures such as Michaelangelo's David and become so fascinated with it that we lose touch with the simplicity of reality. Cuaron takes a common household item like the sowing machine and turns it into a sculpture with a story. I find just as much beauty in the commonality of Cuaron's sculptures as I do with European sculptures. She sheds light on the simplicity of the household through other means of "fine-art". Although her work is not considered "fine-art", what is more important is that she is bring her work to the podium. It should not be considered less valued or less important but sadly because the way the education system has made students look at art, we tend to shy away from such meaningful work such as Cuaron's.

Stencil

For my cover stencil I chose a heart. Although the final product turned out extremely crappy, I was more satisfied with the fact that I know how to create a stencil now. I think what happened was that I was not applying enough pressure with the x-acto knife so I had to manually tear off the stencil in some areas. I chose the heart as the cover art because I did not want make my first stencil to be something complicated. It was my first time learning about the whole idea of "bridges" and "rivers" so I was very confused. I did not want to have a hard time in class, so I picked something very basic in order to help myself in understanding the technique first before I tried anything more intricate. I saw some students chose designs that looked very detailed and big and although their final work turned out to be tremendously beautiful, I felt that I was not ready to tackle on such complicated designs. I chose to color the stencil in with gold because I feel that gold is the type of color that practically screams for attention since it is bright and alluring. However, once I rolled the color on my sketchbook, the design did not give justice to the attractiveness of the color. If I was more familiar and felt braver, then I would have chosen something more meaningful. So I do not feel very proud of my design but I do feel proud that now I am familiar with the process and I would be more willing to choose something that is not as basic as a heart.

La Virgen

Growing up in a Catholic family, the icon of the Virgencita was always omnipresent. I was very familiar with the story of Guadalupe because she was someone that was heavily emphasized as a figure of unconditional love in my catechism classes. Even though I knew about her, I did not really care for her, mostly because she was mentioned all the time and because I was not interested. Now that I am older and have studied her more in depth, I feel that she represents the atypical woman of modern times simply because she was deemed to be the epitome of perfection. By today's standards, this type of woman does not exists. This is why, I believe, that Chicana artists interpret La Virgen in their own way, so that she becomes more relatable. Also, I think that this reinterpretation of La Virgen serves as a means to deconstruct the legacy of patriarchy in social and family circles.I really enjoy seeing La Virgen as something other than "holy" because I can actually envision the more modern woman and average mother in her. Instead of seeing her as saintly and divine, the reinterpretation by Chicana artists help me to see the hardworking mother or the mother in leisure. The only time where I feel a bit awkward is when I see La Virgen being depicted as a lesbian because that is not how I grew up knowing her. So in seeing her as a lesbian, I do feel shocked.

artist for presentation: Tatiana Luboski Acosta

montes, masia

My name is Masia (pronounced ma-see-ahh) and I am a 4th year transfer student majoring in Political Science and minoring in Chican@ Studies. I was raised in Long Beach by immigrant parents who came in their teenage years. I describe myself simply as a Chicana feminist because those are the identities that define me as a whole. I am not creative at all, I lack any artistic talent, but I do enjoy art history. Sadly, however, I have only been exposed to European artists such as Raphael, Van Eyck, and Da Vinci and not Chican@ or Latin American artists.

I found Professor Gaspar de Alba's "Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo" to be very thought provoking. Up to this point, I had never seen Chicana Art, let alone hear about the CARA traveling exhibition. I was not aware that aside from being ostracized in the Chicano Movement from the 1960's, Chicanas were also "not 'meant' to create murals" (121). In regards to the CARA traveling exhibition, I started to think that the majority of the audience that the artist was trying to reach out to was a Mexican American audience. Then, I thought, well we already know that these are struggles the Latin American community face, so how can Chicana artists make these struggles more understandable in order for an Anglo woman to see the world through a chicana lens?

In "There's No Place like Aztlan: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana Art", I found it a bit harder to understand what Aztlan is since I am not familiar with it. However, I thought it was clever for Professor Gaspar de Alba to relate it back to The Wizard of Oz, which I am somewhat familiar with. I can definitely understand why some believed and felt that Chicana feminists were traitors, however, I do not agree with this thought. So, What type of approach or methods could they have used instead so that it did not appear as if they were breaking apart the familia but rather bringing to the podium the hijas de Cuauhtemoc as well?