Wiki Draft, 11/20/21 - Avril Rincon

11/20/21

Wikipedia: Celeste De Luna

[Celeste De Luna] is a printmaker artist known for her works depicting themes of motherhood, globalization, and migration. She aims for her art to validate Latino culture and serve as contributor to the dialogue about art, culture, and politics [2]. Her work integrates personal and collective experiences in the material, spiritual, and supernatural world [3].

Biography (or Early Life and Education)

Celeste De Luna was born in Aurora, Illinois, 40 miles southwest Chicago, where her parents met. She grew up there until she was 8 years old, when she moved to the Valle [1]. She now currently lives in Brownsville and San Antonio, Texas [2], where she works out of her home studio, Metztli Press. De Luna is a self-taught printmaker whose work includes woodcut prints, fabric prints, installations, and press prints [3]. Her work seeks to tease out the intricacies of living in and along the borderlands in her art. However, some of the struggles she has had in conveying her messages are that sometimes nobody cares about her work, but herself and close relatives; so she believes as an artist, most of the joy comes from the process of making the art, which includes the experience [1].

She explores the geo-political aspects of post-911 militarization of her environment [4]. This is portrayed boldly in her pieces Our Lady of the Checkpoint and Chupacabra at Boca Chica Beach. Her use of barbed wire fences, drones, border walls, numerous surveillance cameras, and her play with fantastical creatures as an outlook of anti-colonial sentiments, allow viewers to understand the experiences of women, children, and families [2].

In addition to her artwork, Celeste De Luna is an accomplished home cook, cultural advocate and professor – she teaches Mexican-American studies for Northwest Vista College [3].

Art (or Notable Works or Selected Works. Also Exhibitions, Projects, Collections)

• “Necrocitizen” print was featured on the cover book Fencing in Democracy by Miguel Diaz-Barriga and Margaret Dorsey, published by Duke Press 2020

• Co-founder of Las Imaginistas, a social engaged art collective

• A June 2020 Vermont Studio artist in residence

• Las Imaginistas: recipients of 2017 ArtPlace America Creative Placemaking Grant

  and 2018 A Blade of Grass Fellows

References

1. ^ [Trevino, Gabriel. “The Art of Brownsville Interviews: Celeste De Luna.” The Art of Brownsville Interviews, 28 Jan. 2009, brownsvilleart.blogspot.com/2009/01/art-of-brownsville-interviews-celeste.html.]

2. ^ [COEHD, UTSA. “Celeste De Luna.” Chicana/Latina Studies, 4 Feb. 2021, journal.malcs.org/artistas/celeste-de-luna/.

3. ^ [De Luna, Celeste. “Artist's Statement/Bio.” Celeste De Luna, Jan. 2021, www.celestedeluna.com/about-ba/.]

4. Sanchez, Graciela. “Celeste De Luna Art.” Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Apr. 2018, esperanzacenter.org/artists/celeste-de-luna-art/.

Further reading

• Exhibition Catalogue of De Luna’s Art Works: https://wsworkshop.org/event- artists/celeste-de-luna/

• C/LS MALCS Extensive Art Journal for De Luna: https://journal.malcs.org/artistas/celeste-de-luna/

  External links

• Celeste De Luna, City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture,https://events.getcreativesanantonio.com/artist/celeste-de-luna/

• Day of the Dead, San Antonino, https://dayofthedeadsa.com/celeste-de-luna/

• Santa Fe Art Institute, Alumni: Celeste De Luna, https://sfai.org/alumni/celeste-de-

  luna/

November 29, 2021: Reflection - Avril Rincon

Upon reflection of this past quarter, I realize a tremendous amount of material that I have learned. Being able to bring awareness about these amazing Chicano artists, via Wikipedia, was an experience I was proud of being a part of. Reflecting back to my own artist, Celeste De Luna, her artwork displayed lots of immigrant sentiments that I never realized I was so passionate about until I saw her work. I related to a lot of her family displacement and identity crisis works due to the immigration system. My parents being from Mexico and me my siblings growing up in the US, I have always felt this missing part of my identity since I have never been able to go to Mexico, due to my parents not being able to travel abroad. Because of this, it felt as if I never really was able to connect to my Mexican roots, as I have never met my grandparents, cousins, or really any of my family members besides my immediate family. Through Celeste’s work, I learned the importance of expressing these feelings through art. It was nice knowing that I am not the only one going through this and that we have the Chicano community as support. I think this is why one of my favorite pieces of her is the “My Body is A Border” print. Not only does it celebrate Chicano feminism, but it also brings up important themes such as borderlands, immigration, and the strength of family. Overall, I am very happy I took this class and learned about a growing sector within our Chicano community - art! It’s nice to know that little by little, people that look like me are being better represented in such fields. Being able to be a part of this movement by helping publish an article is an honor that I am humbled to be a part of.

November 22, 2021: Presentations - Sand One

Sand One is an artist who is known for her paintings of dolls with extra long eye lashes. She grew up in East Los Angeles, California and has been featured in TV networks featuring her work such. She has had the opportunity to paint not only all over California, but also in Mexico, Guatmela, and Puerto Rico. She works mainly with watercolor and spray paint. She grew up with single mother and started painting in her garage at the age of 8. Her inspiration was seeing her mom put on makeup and loads of mascara, which she highlighted brilliantly in her art. Although she was criticized for not going to college, she emphasized that she created this art for the people that the chicano community usually turn their backs on. People like single mothers, uneducated folks, and strippers. One of her paintings named Cake displayed a doll, representative of all the women that have daddy issues. In the image she held a teddy bear, and One likes to think that boys are toys, so she draws them as teddy bears, instead of the actual men. Each teddy bear has its own personality, an example being the drug dealer teddy bear. Her murals are representative of One getting input from her community into the mural, where she can paint the mural according to what people would recommend her. Like this, her artwork really are building pieces of their own. In another painting she depicts a female solider named Sanchez that symbolizes female empowerment, where she still looks cute, but is able to show, from her stance, confidence. This one was one of my favorite pieces because it shows the duality a chicano woman, or really and woman, can have. Through her work she is able to fight stereotypes that women face on a daily basis. This painting was also very special in the way that it reminded me of the lost solider Vanessa Guillen.

November 15, 2021: Presentations - Ruby Chacon

Ruby Chacon worked with youth trying tor express the first generation experience of pursing higher education, which she has expressed through her art and community events. She attainted her bachelor of fine arts from the University of Utah. She used her family as her basis of her work, which she is really close to. Her mom and dad are from Mexico, but they moved to Utah very early on, which caused and identity crisis for her. She later was able to intertwine both identities by labeling herself as Utana, combining Utah native and Chicana. She was allowed creative freedom through her uncle as he also painted, and would let her draw on his walls. After he was murdered, she became more adamant on painting her family in ways that she could highlight their positive traits. Her artwork mostly consists of murals which are found in Utah, Wyoming, California, Thailand and Morocco. She seeked to humanize her work by drawing people from Utah, as many Utah paintings are mainly just landscapes. She wanted her art to be put in public spaces so it could be accessible to people, as she remembered that when she was young she couldn’t go to museums and see typical art due to it not being free. In one of her pieces, Chacon highlights the liveliness of her community by displaying what it means to be a Chicano person in Utah. She painted all the Abuelitas, someone playing a saxophone, kids playing, and even a rooster. She also drew a normal person as the Virgin of Guadalupe, her take on showing how Catholicism was a normal part of her community. To wrap up her mural, she drew mountain landscapes in the background, representative of her Utah identity. In such a clever way, Ruby was able to combine both sides of her cultural world.

November 8, 2021: Claudia Zapata - Avril Rincon

I thought Claudia Zapata’s essay on The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics was very eye-opening. It reminded me of the importance of technology and the implications it had on Chicano art. For many years, Chicano art has been known to be displayed as 2-dimensional: work on paper like print making and paining. However, the downside to this is that its not as easy to mainstream to the community compared to a virtual piece. In addition, Chicano art has been a hallmark for fighting against injustices and being a symbol for resilience in underserved communities. Because it is such a central role to this, it makes sense why so much of our art is on paper; it is much easier to carry around a poster than to be carrying your computer monitor around. Zapata does bring up a good point in saying that new forms of art don’t, or shouldn’t at least, replace old art. With the brink of the 21st century, digital art allowed us to reach more people and in turn, Chicano art was able to have a bigger, lasting impact not only within the Chicano community, but also for the general public. For example, Chicano artist Barbara Carrasco’s work being portrayed on the Spectacolor light board in New York was a big achievement. At that time it was not common for work like hers to be featured on such stages that even Cesar Chavez himself couldn’t believe it. The next big thing was the web. This was a major technological trade for art, because now not only was Chicano art being able to be spread throughout the communities, but so were the artist’s stories. Their background, who they were, and what they represented was only a click away. Through these mediums, including media, Chicano artwork was transformed and evolved into a vessel that more people could relate to.

November 1, 2021: Chicana Futurism - Avril Rincon

One of Xandra Ibarra’s work that really stood out to me was a photography series called Lo Norteño, 2008. The series consisted of three photographs. The first one depicted a man inside an empty pool seeming to be resealing or flooring the bottom of the pool.The second picture was something that looked like a construction site within a very urbanized city. These orange metal bars that looked like ladders, were spread out in the opening of the site. The last picture was a woman on her front yard, behind her fence that guarded her home. However, the woman’s face didn’t really seem like she was happy, rather the way that she was grabbing the fence bar made it seem almost as she felt trapped. Throughout all these pictures, a common theme that I picked from all of them was the struggle of being Chicano on this side of the border. Since the title of this piece is called Lo Norteño, I automatically thought of it as the North of Mexico, meaning the US. In all the pictures, it is demonstrated that life can be hard and often feel as we are trapped despite living in the land of the free. In the second picture, this can be the depiction of someone’s neighborhood, where they are surrounded by polluting companies and other industrialized features. It is in these conditions that many of the working-class live in. Besides the poor built-in-environment, the man in the first picture is seen working under the hot sun, doing some work on the floor pool. While this does demonstrate the resilience and hard work ethic that many Chicanos have upon coming to this country, it also shows that sometimes the working conditions of many can be unfair. Life is hard though, and sometimes by being immigrants to a country, one has to suffer more sacrifices to allow for the next generation to succeed. Sometimes even within our homes, one can feel out of place, prisoners to a capitalist society - putting it in symbolic terms to the women behind her home’s fence. A question I have of her work is, what inspired her to pick up on sculpture work, specifically the pieces where she shows workers’ clothes in vacuum air-tight bags?

October 25, 2021: Papel Picado - Avril Rincon

Carmen Lopez Garza was a very interesting artist in the way that she portrayed alternative visions of Chicano familial, communal, and cultural practices. As an intermediary between the art world and the community, she established a commitment to always remember her community despite the institutional and societal forces that had a violent and burdening affect in her histories. She does this in her image called La Feria en Reynoso, 1987. This image really stood out to me not for its colors but also because of how relatable it is in a symbolic way.  Although I don’t really live in a borderline town like her image recounts, I do feel as my life is a spilt between Mexican and American lifestyles. In her image, she presents what she remembers when she would go to a fair in a Mexican border town. She drew three booths each which contain their own variety of goods from Mexico. There is also this sense of a duality and mixing of cultures by the way she writes her signs: “Sodas, Coca Cola”, “Fresh, Limon”. The frequent switch between English and Spanish displays the close relations between both sides despite this bringing its conflict of its own. In my life, such coexistence of cultures was something that I was always proud of, but I didn’t really see the implications it had until I grew up. Just like that old saying, “ni de aqua, ni de aya”, where one is never American nor Mexican enough to fit in, this was an identity crisis I had to overcome. But in Garza’s image, she is able to celebrate not only our differences, but also our hybridity in culture, by showing lots of color and people smiling as they are shopping. I really like how she incorporated all different types of factors such as food, clothing, music, and craftsmanships like vases.

October 18, 2021: Rasquaschismo - Avril Rincon

Rasquachismo is quite literally when we repurpose used or old materials into something new that can be of use. It’s a strategy formed by the working-class to do the most of what they have. This “making do with what is at hand” mentality does not only highlight what Rasquachismo is, but it also comes with this “underdog” hindsight. Besides its physical attributes, it also represents the codification of Chicano culture, where we could be fregados pero no jodidos - be down but not out. It’s symbolic for using it as a form of cultural and political resistance, where we incorporate strategies of appropriation, reversal, and inversion, as told by Gonzalez. He presents it as the artistic process of selection and combination of materials. This is because many of these things are found in within our homes and community, which in turn creates objects imbued with new meaning. This can partially be an explanation as to why some people, not matter how old or beaten up an object is, will never throw them out for new, “better” ones because of the ties and memories they have bound to the object. Through Rasquachismo we are able to display our culture and and an attitude rooted in resourcefulness and adaptability. An example of this in my own family is that we reuse yogurt family size cups for salsas. There are so many times that I go into the fridge thinking that I am about to eat yogurt, only to be disappointed, but not surprised, that there is salsa in it instead. At its heart, Rasquachismo is our way of displaying our own cultural wealth. Like this we are able to pass down the traditions and stories that come with reusing everyday objects. In my example, I have been able to learn more about my Grandma, because she used to also use yogurt cups for salsa, and every time we do this, it reminds us of her and her story. In essence, it’s a way to keep our culture alive through the cleverness and resourcefulness of our raza.

Calderon, Juliana: Extra Credit (MCASD)

     The extra credit assignment provided me the opportunity to view artwork up close at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. I was able to see the extent of Yolanda Lopez's work and how it seems to translate to modernity. During the lecture, we engaged in dialect concerning her notorious painting of the Virgen de Guadalupe running while holding the piece of dress that she is typically clothed with, while holding the snake in her hand. To me this has always stood out because it demonstrated the concept of mobility and freedom. Not only does she have the power to take hold of the snake, which is representative of all the evil and toxicity of the world, but she also appears to run over the baby or male figure. This was something that I had not really paid attention to before because I had always focused on the hand lifted up with the snake and the act of her running. But focusing on the child, it implied to me a sense of dependency. The child is not seen uplifting her or guarding her as typically seen in most images of the Virgen. Instead, she almost tramples over him because she is quite capable on her own. She no longer needs him to hold the train of her dress because she is not conforming or aligning with the standards. 

A second image that stood out to me because of its modern take was titled, Runner: On My Own. This image was of a Chicana running almost off the page as well. To me it was also indicative of the Virgen or a form of her. Here in the image she was dressed in the same colors of pink and green. In the typical image, Virgen has a green tunic and pink dress. While here, the woman is in a pink top and green shorts. It shows a different era where women are more free and aren’t confined to a set expectation. Additionally, because I thought of her as a representative of a more modern Virgen, it also stood out to me that here she is not accompanied by an angel or any other symbol. The focus is set to be on her. I also thought it represented the Virgen in a way because all the colors were still incorporated. For example, the green and yellowish color usually exuding from the background of the Virgen, is now seen as the backdrop of the runner image. But here she is running from that backdrop, almost as though she is leaving that conformity behind.

Overall, the exhibition helped me to learn more about Yolanda Lopez’s ideas and I was able to take notice of more that I had previously glossed over.

Robles, Harlow (Reflection)

As I reflect on when this class started, I remember thinking that I was going to learn about art and how to interpret it. I thought it wasn’t going to be that challenging or even life changing. Instead, when the class was asked to write a blog to introduce ourselves and to write about the article we read "why aren't there more female artist" the class became more interesting to me. Then when we were asked to make a Wikipedia page for an unknown Chicana artist, I thought to myself," What did I get into!" How am I going to make a wiki page, I’m not that good at using a computer! So as the class progressed and I did the readings, I realized a lot of things that I didn't know before about Chicano culture. I used to think that a Chicano was a Mexican born in America. I now know it's a Latino who does not have an Anglo-Saxon image of themselves. In addition, it's more than that. It's an attitude and way of life. Through the readings in the Yolanda and Carmen books. I saw both side: The activist side and the family side from a Chicana point of view. I didn't even know that Chicana's were not being recognized like their male counterparts. The reading really made me think about women rights and the struggles that Latinos have gone through to get where we are today, Chicana art is exactly what that represents. I am glad that I took this class because it helps me to understand that Chicana women have a voice too. I can hear them through their art. In the beginning of class, I also wondered why “There aren’t many female artist”. I think that now I know why. Thankfully with the wiki project, that question won’t have any significance.

Gavazza, Emmalee (Extra Credit)

I enjoyed learning about Dr. Judy Baca and her work in the world of art. My artist for my Wikipedia project was Pilar Agüero-Esparza, another Chicana artists who uses her education and experience as a professional artist to help young artists find their voice and take pride in their identities. The work Dr. Baca is doing in schools strikes me as absolutely vital. There is a lot of negative messaging and representation of all people of color right now in America, but as usual, Chicanx kids are particularly exposed to negative stereotypes and portrayals of “people who look like me” as unwanted or underappreciated members of society. When Dr. Baca said that she always starts her primary school art lessons by helping students “find a color that reminds them of them, and then… tell them over and over that it’s beautiful, that it’s beauty,” I found that to be a profound statement. Her activist art education will undeniably play a role in helping the young people she teaches reimagine their skin color, their features, their cultural backgrounds, and their ethnic identities as something to be celebrated rather than as a source of shame or exclusion. I also appreciated Dr. Baca’s comments on the nature of different art media, for instance, her thoughts on the nature of murals. When she said that a mural was “not simply decorative art,” but a piece that was “integrated into the architecture, not an easel painting made large but a work integrated into the place, into the moment in time that it’s painted,” I was reminded of some of the critical scholarship provided by Claudia Zapata and others we’ve studied in this class. The emphasis on place, moment, and representing “the people” as they exist in a specific point in time seems to be an important theme for many contemporary Chicana artists. Learning about Dr. Baca provided me with another important point of reference for how that tradition is being played out, both in schools and throughout U.S. cities, today.

maxwell, charlina week 9 presentations

 For the weekly presentations, many were very interesting and informative. It was different to see the course content delivered by my classmates, and their well researched topics added to the notability of their presentations. An artist who’s presentation really stuck with me was Sand One. her art was quite different from a lot of what I have seen, as an Art History major I have studied a lot of visual art from many different time periods and regions. This had a very modern feel, almost camp. Her creations having names and backstories, including their zodiac signs was a really unique touch to me. I can tell her passion for art through looking at her images, she is living in this world of characters she has created. 

I also like that she is a local artist, and I had unknowingly seen some of her doll paintings while spending time downtown. I enjoy the fact that she doesn’t paint men, and additionally her dolls are representative of the underrepresented minority and underprivileged women. These dolls are taking a stand against racism and classism, something the artist recognizes. Another fact about the artist I found interesting was that she didn’t go to college and many people don’t respect her art as the real deal. She is proving people wrong and doing notable work despite her setbacks. 

maxwell, charlina week 10

 I chose this class to fill a requirement, it sounded interesting though I didn’t know what to expect. Maybe something more similar to the art history courses that I take for my major. However this class ended up being like no class I have taken at Ucla so far. Because of this I found a lot of difficulty in the organization of the class, though it was clear that we should post on blogger each week and do our two page papers on certain dates, it was very unclear to me when to do my modules and how. It seemed that no matter how I tried to keep organized there was always a surprise assignment that I somehow missed. The content for this course is undeniably important, chicana art and artists is such a new field and so essential to add to the postcolonial narrative. Which is why I would have benefitted from much more clear cut course requirements. I really enjoyed the artists that I was introduced to in this course, and I was introduced to so many incredible artists, maybe more than in any other art class. I just wish everything had been more organized, and I think future students would benefit greatly from a revised course structure. Besides that an honorable mention to my classmates who are just great people, and have stepped in to assist me with every question I have had immediately.

Week 6: Chicana Futurism

 Xandra Ibarra’s work resonated heavily with me. Whether this is because her Bay Area education resonates with my point of view or for other reasons, I found that her work puts abstract concepts I’ve discussed with friends and for which I’ve not been able to find words into visual form. Her installation, “Ashes of Five Feminist of Color Texts,” particularly struck a chord with me. The installation was exhibited in the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 2020. I grew up in Berkeley and spent many hours in this museum throughout high school looking at art, studying, and spending time with friends. Although I feel a personal connection to the installation because of the location, what really stuck out to me was the explanation of Ibarra’s intent behind the exhibit. Her statement that the installation was meant to highlight how femenist of color texts have been used by those in power to “facilitate performances of ‘consciousness’ which affirm ‘diversity’ without accounting for power” stuck out to me as exceptionally true. As someone who grew up in Berkeley, I’ve witnessed these types of performances many times. Ibarra’s statement that by using these writers for this use their works had been “misinterpreted and vacuumed of their significance.” The way in which the intellectualism and experience of feminist intellectuals of color has been co-opted by corporations and institutions to alleviate their own guilt and influence their public image is one of my biggest pet peeves, which Ibarra put into words perfectly, and expressed perfectly through this exhbit. I did not complete this blog post before her visit to our class, but if I had I would have wanted to ask her how her education in the Bay Area affected the subject matter she chose to focus on throughout her career as an artist.

Avila Andrew

 For this week’s post I wanted to focus on fellow classmate Tadeo Spencer, and the artist he introduced to the class, Joanna Toruno. Joanna Toruno is a Salvadoran born, and community/self taught visual artist. She utilizes the ‘streets’ and other public spaces as a platform/gallery in which she displays and debuts her different artworks.Joanna has noted herself as being “inspired by the people that exist in public spaces. The  working class & immigrant Black & Brown communities are the beat of the heart of the streets”. She considers herself and her journey within art to be led by those who came before her, largely the ancestors, and elders from within her community. She believes, much like Nina Simone has stated, that the duty of an artist is to reflect the times. However, Toruno believes that its important to reflect the times and situations in which she finds herself in. 

Much of her art is influenced by being a product of displacement from Salvador at the age of ten. Growing up and witnessing the aftermath of the civil war in Salvador has not only influenced her sense and style of art, but also her identity as well. She has described her art as existing within the political public art sphere, but  also notes that she is not a voice for anyone, as no one is truly voiceless. Possibly hailing from her queer migrant lens, Toruno also believes in the possibility of reimagining new possibilities outside of the patriarchy (specifically, white cishetero) in which we can all collectively exist within our own set of truths and privileges. Joanna’s work seeks to inspire these notions for her viewers, by not only holding them in public spaces with readily available access, but also within the content of her work. 

Madrigal, Stephanie (Extra Credit: The Cheech @ RAM Exhibition)

 This extra credit assignment gave me the opportunity to learn about artist Sonya Fe and even hear from Sonya Fe herself with the Son Cuatro: In Conversation podcast. One of Sonya Fe's most notable work is La llorona which were 6 panels where she told the whole story of how La llorona came to be. She has been complimented on her ability to vividly tell a story visually and the viewer is not simply expected to know who la llorona is and why she killed her children. Sonya Fe talked about how she has been told before to not let her work be political, the issue is that her work includes standing up for her community such as when she made a black and white mural to protest against putting the children at the border in cages. Fe refuses to let herself be silenced so in an effort to make it seem like the mural was not a political piece she called it chickens and children do not belong in cages. Fe does not shy away from making statements through her work about present day issues at the border.  Fe makes a powerful statement when addressing why it is Chicana artist who make art to standup for the community. She says, "Women give life, all children are their children", this too is the reason why she has made numerous projects to shed light on the children being put into cages, and brought on over by coyotes and then separated from their families where they are put into detention centers with horrible living conditions. She has been told before that her d drawings and paintings look like they were done by different people, but Fe believes that of course her work will look distinct because different materials are meant to give a different effect. Fe prioritizes the public having access to her art over being interested with solely making profits. I think it is also important to note how Fe does not speak Spanish but is learning, I think this can be used against her by the public because there are some individuals who think that if a person does not speak Spanish then they are not a true Chicana/o. Despite the fact that some feel she is not a true chicana, she still advocates for the children at the border more than other artist who are considered "real" chicanos just because they speak Spanish. 

 

Gavazza, Emmalee (Reflections)

When I reflect on this course, I feel really grateful. I genuinely enjoyed taking this class, and feel like I gained a lot of knowledge that will be valuable and useful to me for a long time. I have taken Chicana-centered classes before, but have never taken one that was specifically dedicated to discussing Chicana artists, which was especially cool since I’m an Art History major. The constant thread of activism that runs through so much of the art and artists we viewed was really important to me. As I’m sure everyone in this class recognizes, although there have been some gains in female visibility, women artists are still often mentioned after men. I thought this class was a wonderful chance to focus on what Chicanas are doing in the art world and how they continue to influence its shape (as they have always done, but have not always been recognized for). Another topic that I found fascinating was the intersection of Chicana art and artists with issues of technology, modernism, and digital media & materials. Claudia Zapata’s (and co-editors’) discussion in the compilation, “Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now” exposed me to a lot of important information that changed the way I think about the relationship of technology to art production in general, and the specific role Chicanx artists have played in advancing & exploring new ways to take advantage of that relationship. I enjoyed learning about how issues of activism, feminism, labor advocacy and Chicanx identity translated so seamlessly from handmade artworks to digitally mediated forms. It’s not necessarily what you always think of when you hear “Chicana art,” but it’s definitely a part of the story that deserves more attention. Within this realm, I was particularly struck by the art of Marion C. Martinez. The way she salvages pieces of digital hardware that society would otherwise discard as mere trash, and turns them into these transformative works that invoke themes of divinity, protection, and the natural world is just amazing to me. It’s a process of reclamation that imagines a different perspective on technology, when so many critics and artists have traditionally used things like circuit boards or computer chips as symbols of anxiety and societal dread. To me Martinez’ work challenges our ideas about what technology can mean in our lives in a way that is both refreshing and eye-catching. Learning about artists like her is one of the things I’m most appreciative for as this course comes to an end.

Reflections

 

This class far exceeded my expectations. I am so happy I took this class! This was probably one of my favorite WAC classes I've taken. I also really liked the activism part of it. I feel like a lot of WAC classes teach you about arts activism, but you do not actually get to do it or participate. But with this class the Wiki page was a huge form of activism, and something that really needed to be done, especially for certain artists. My favorite artist we learned about was probably Camen Lomas Garza and Xandra Ibarra. Their work was very different from each other but I loved both. When I get my own place I definitely plan to put some of Garza's paintings on my walls. The Wikipedia article was very challenging, but useful to learn. The technical part of it was probably the hardest, but also because my artist did not have a lot of information on her, so it was hard to piece everything together. 

Monica Aissa Martinez

The presentation on the artist Monica Aissa Martinez was absolutely stunning. Her work is so complex and visceral. She creates torsos, pelvises, brains, arteries, veins, cells within the body and spiritual energy of the torso. She essentially makes maps of the body. And within her art she combines two different things such as science and spirituality. Her work is made with organic materials like egg shells, casein, etc. 

Artwork of hers takes over a year or more, because as she paints she learns more about herself and her body. I’ve always thought that art shouldn’t take so long and I would get frustrated with myself if I didn’t finish a piece in a couple of hours. It’s essential to know about artists and their practices because then we will feel validated or hear another perspective.

Take of a Hawk Moth: She saw a Hawk moth outside of her house window one day and told the moth,” You landed on my screen door to get photographed and drawn, didn’t you?  I think there’s a certain charm to that because an artist's inspiration can come from various things others might find odd or mundane. This piece is absolutely beautiful. She wanted to focus on the external and internal parts of the moth in her piece. The body turns out to be furry with electrical wires to make it look like an electric moth. 

On top of a map: Her artwork is connected to maps. 

In the piece she shows a map of Phoenix Arizona. She says that communities can be seen biologically as well. Compares microorganism to macro. Community is the same in that we are all bodies with cells. Nucleus of the cell in the map of Phoenix. 

Week 10 Reflection

Having taken and thoroughly enjoyed Professor Lopez's Spring 2021 'Censored!Art on Trial', I knew that this class would provide equal interest and learning opportunity.  As an artist myself, the general subject was of interest.  I've always enjoyed different mediums and styles but have no been exposed to much diversity.  In school, we primarily studied the works of white males as they were irrationally and wrongly  held as the standard of excellence.  By providing so many opportunities to learn about chicana art and artists my conceptions and perceptions of art and culture and people have been changed and expanded so broadly.  

The readings about Carmen Lomas Garza and Yolanda Lopez felt like cultural ethnographies, taking me deep into the understanding of a world so foreign to mine. Garza's themes of family, community and culture and concepts of shared experience and memories  helped me to understand the importance of historical culture and the power and strength that community brings. Through Yolanda Lopez I learned about the old, new, and continuing struggles that face chicana artists and the Latino community at large and how art can be used to create dialogue, stir emotions, and affect change, 

The presentations were amazing,  It is an incredible gift to have been exposed to so many talented and diverse artists in such a short period of time.  The live presentations were informatively engaging and have given me to opportunity to follow so. many new artists that I have never known about!

The wikipedia was challenging for me (the technical part) but I think I figured it out...lol and am proud of myself for pushing through and learning something new and while doing so promoting and providing exposure for a deserving artist.