Monday, January 20, 2014


Katherine with Flowers- Shizu Saldamando


Shizu Saldamando
I had seen this artists’ artwork before and I assumed the artist was male. And of only Mexican descent. It reminds me of prison art- which sometimes it’s created on scarves or panos. “18 With a Bullet” is a good song. For some reason seeing these works on bed sheets makes the work more sensitive or emotional. The fabric of a bed sheet is very thin and delicate and comfortable. The subjects in the art are all embracing. The work is all done in pen, which also can be a very sensitive permanent mark. The arrangement or installation of the bed sheets remind me of childhood and how if there is no clothes dryer appliance, the sheets will hang in the backyard exposed and drifting delicately in the breeze. Her connection to Manzanar in a work she did, divides her into a different strong cultural attachment. She has made paper flowers and included them in her installations- and it connects to how in Japanese internment camps out in the desert, fresh flowers were not available so paper ones were used.


Betsabee Romero.
Cars Mexico city smog tires. Narcos. There are a lot of different things this artist uses to create her art and get her messages across using familiar things that one can relate to or be familiar with instead of being so obscure and alienating. Before reading about what her concepts were really about, I did grasp on most of her ideas. Anyone in my opinion can get an idea after learning that she’s from Mexico City that her artwork is related to her cultural environment. So many cars, tires, smog in the city- and she has found a way of turning these permanent things into something great and beautiful; in the case of the tires that can be rolled like stamps to create repetitive patterns. At first, I thought of the tires as a connection to the Mayan/Aztec ball game and it being its only connection. Also, the painted hoods of the cars that survived terrible accidents, remind me of Frida Kahlo and the story telling with words or images on the artwork itself- explaining. The star piñata- reminds me of Yoko Ono’s “wishing tree”. The hanging installations of stamped ribbons remind me of the streets in Mexico around Christmas holiday time when people in the street put up “composturas” and have posadas. The tequila installation and the double-edged sword agave plant is really interesting. Made of actual machete swords of silver? All connects different ways of how the country’s people can make an income. Silver mines, agriculture machete use, tequila process…The process of tequila and how its made, can ruin the environment but attracts so much money to the Mexican tequila companies. Betsabee also has concept cars that make the viewer look closer, and walk around and look further beyond the obvious. The “Narco” car concept is very much an unfortunate part of Mexico now. But, I like how the car has such a strong presence- you can walk around it, question it, touch it, and think about what it is doing looking how it is and its possible relationship or connection to the viewer.



Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas), 1939, oil on canvas, 67-11/16 x 67-11/16 inches

Frida Kahlo, “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair” (1940)
These three images, are my most favorite of all of the Frida artworks. I have only been physically impressed by a couple of works of art ever so far. “The Two Fridas” is one of those works. I saw the surrealist show at LACMA when they had this painting there.I had no idea of the dimensions and it literally made me want to start crying; but I didn’t- there was a lot of people there. It was almost as if I was standing in person with the two women watching them bleed and I felt a sadness toward these women who were attached by an artery and they couldn’t move. I like the bright colors in all of her art. It’s almost like a festive/happiness thing that is present in her work, even though the subject may be otherwise.The portrait of Frida with cropped hair, kept me with short hair for a long time. It’s so offensive. It’s so disappointing how the Mexican culture is so specific on how women should be to be more desirable. It reminds me of my mom and it kinda pisses me off. The last photograph of Frida, I really like. It’s very serene. She’s floating on water in what appears to be a canoe and is drifting while she puts her hands in the water…. I like that.



Carlee Fernandez 
Some things I liked of her artwork and some things not so much. I would like to try taking photos like my parents’ old photos too. It’s a direct reflection? I also find her undocumented drawings of interventions interesting. I don’t know if they are actually real findings, or just ideas that she’s had as far as crossing illegal immigrants. It shows a despair that people have to change their life and are willing to risk suffocation or arrests etc. I don’t like taxidermy- it makes me physically sick and dizzy, but only when I see it in person. If there is a lot of animals taxidermized (?) I get anxiety. “Room of death”. I don’t know how much her taxidermy work sells for, but I find it disrespectful to stretch and cut and sew an animals face and display it. But, here’s where I think I’m bull shitting because at my house, leather couches all around. And I think I have some real leather boots. So I’ll sit on a dead cows’ skin wearing fuzzy pajamas and stinky feet and step all over puddles and mud with what used to be a poor animals body. But still, just seeing the faces of the animals just sucks. Those poor little parakeets- as much as they annoy me, I don’t think it’s cool to taxidermy them for gallery display.


I’m still not quite clear on what exactly or how his concepts connect. I couldn’t find much information on his personal life, but I can see that in some artworks, the relationship with God or a higher being is expressed. Some of his artwork is very obvious and literal, but there are others that aren’t very clear. His neon work, not so clear. His posters with short phrases- some not so clear either. His statues of men in prayer or contemplation are creepy and I don’t understand them-so like anything people fear, There’s a lack of understanding. The work “redemption of the flesh, its just a little bruise; the politics of the future as urgent as the blue sky”, I really hope it’s fake blood. I can only think of the smell of the artwork. It is very gory to me. Or maybe too disturbing in how it is too  much “in your face”, you can’t just see it for three seconds and walk by- you have to stand there and have some sort of reaction to either is harshness or its brilliantness. It’s like video games in person.



















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