Beauty

Tex-Mex Woman: Shaping an Identity Within Internal Dualities: Bi-national, Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural Struggles of Questioning Iden

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I use my art practice to express the dualities, issues, questions, feelings and conflicts of a bi-national, bi-culture, and bi-language woman identity - pain, belonging, struggles, cultural loss, self-esteem, acceptance, and inclusion. My practice transports the audience into the experience of being in my world - emotionally and physically - by utilizing Painting, Installation, Sculpture, and Photography. This is portrayed by using elements such as body language, facial expressions, objects, shadows, and nature. My use of iconography is important to represent both the Mexican and American cultures, inspired by the symbolic metaphors of Frida Kahlo. My depiction of dualities is influenced by Cindy Sherman and Ana Mendieta. The colors used in the work reference the national flags, culture and emotions. The materials, such as tissue paper and paper mache, interpret the Mexican handicraft and piƱatas, and chicken wire and wire fences relates to the barbed wire and fence of the U.S. and Mexico border. In the U.S., some of these issues are shared between the Chicanx, Latinx, immigrants, women, and minority communities. My work, as well as this paper, decolonizes art and is made to represent the people that resonate with it.

I Like Pretty Things: On the Ornamental and the Beautiful in Art - A Companion to "BioNuminescence"

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My written thesis explains the concepts in "BioNuminescence", my Graduate Thesis Installation, which celebrates the fascinating beauty of small animals and plants. The name of the exhibition is a compound word that suggests the sacredness of the ecology. It fuses the prefix "bio" (which references the biological) with the word "numinous" (which indicates the presence of the sacred) into a pun on the word "bioluminescence," (i.e., the emission of light from living organisms like fireflies and glowworms.) The theme of radiance generated by living beings is made into an aesthetic analogy for the amazing ways in which smaller organisms "light up" the world. If form is to follow function, then the function of my art is to share beauty with others, and I design my forms towards that purpose. Insofar as visual delight can uplift one's spirit by pleasing the senses, my thesis proposes that there is an ethical aspect to the effect which beautiful adornment can generate. My art is thus highly ornamental, and combines different processes in order to provide a richly decorative atmosphere. My written thesis supports my work by exploring the significance of the experience of beauty through cultural, psychological and existential frameworks.