La Belleza de Mi Cultura
For my final self-portrait project, I decided to name it “La Belleza de mi Cultura”, which means “The Beauty of my Culture”. Let me express how I was inspired to create artwork. As you may know I am from the Dominican Republic, from a little small town near Santiago where neighbors are like family. From a beautiful field where the grass, the flowers, and palm tree stretch far. From a place where everybody eats arroz, habichuela and carne. From a place where the climate is tropical and from platano and salami. I am from a place where we only loved to dance and smoke tobacco. I am from the Dominican Republic. With such beauty like this that I was surrounded, I was also exposed to the racial divide and the judgment of having your natural hair in public.
Ever since I was a little girl, my mom always straightened my hair because I was “gringa” and my natural hair didn't match my skin color. I was always made fun of for saying I was “adopted” because my skin color didn't match how Dominicans are supposed to look. I was always struggling to fit in with Dominicans because they only saw a “gringa” even though I was born in the Dominican Republic. My family always says I was lucky to have such a “divine light color”. Yet, I always loved my natural hair and always hated going to the salon bi-weekly to get it straightened. Yet, I still have dealt with to this day people expressing: “You don't look Dominican?”, “Are you even Dominican?”, “How are you white, if most Dominican are black?” . People asking me questions like this always made me doubt my culture and why I was so different from my family. I had learned that Latinas/os have no skin color. I learned that I am not the only one out there who gets questions by their ethnicity just because of how they look. I learned to love who I am, my skin tone, my hair and my culture. There shouldn't be a barrier or a standard stereotype in a culture. I had learned that I am no different no matter how dark or light my skin tone is or how curly or straight my hair is. The beauty within me and my culture should be overlooked on the stereotypical people think how Dominicans are supposed to be or look.
I was so moved by Frida Kahlo that I decided to portray myself in a self-portrait with flowers for both my hair and the background. Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter who was well known for her many portraits by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Most of the flowers I had included reminded me of some of the flowers I see in Dominican Republic like Framboyan (the pink flower), and the Hisbiscus Flower (all around the figure). The split between the color of the figure was inspired by Cindy Sherman whose work consist of depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. I decided to represent the judgment of people expressing my skin tone not matching what a Dominican “supposed to look”. For all the whole inspiration was inspired by Amy Sherald style which is simplified realism and involving staged photographs of her subjects. I decided to represent this “figure” as me and portray the beauty within me. I decided to add LED lights to portray the beauty of the figure and the flowers. I decided to include the tobacco wrapper. Wish is a big thing Dominican do, but also is a memory of my grandpa who loved smoking tobacco and just helping anyone out no matter what, which represents my characteristics of who I am. These artists had inspired me to go beyond, show and be proud of my culture, expressing the beauty of it, even though the media portrays Dominicans as “party people”, “crazy”, or “loud”. Which none of these expressed who I am.
Ever since I was a little girl, my mom always straightened my hair because I was “gringa” and my natural hair didn't match my skin color. I was always made fun of for saying I was “adopted” because my skin color didn't match how Dominicans are supposed to look. I was always struggling to fit in with Dominicans because they only saw a “gringa” even though I was born in the Dominican Republic. My family always says I was lucky to have such a “divine light color”. Yet, I always loved my natural hair and always hated going to the salon bi-weekly to get it straightened. Yet, I still have dealt with to this day people expressing: “You don't look Dominican?”, “Are you even Dominican?”, “How are you white, if most Dominican are black?” . People asking me questions like this always made me doubt my culture and why I was so different from my family. I had learned that Latinas/os have no skin color. I learned that I am not the only one out there who gets questions by their ethnicity just because of how they look. I learned to love who I am, my skin tone, my hair and my culture. There shouldn't be a barrier or a standard stereotype in a culture. I had learned that I am no different no matter how dark or light my skin tone is or how curly or straight my hair is. The beauty within me and my culture should be overlooked on the stereotypical people think how Dominicans are supposed to be or look.
I was so moved by Frida Kahlo that I decided to portray myself in a self-portrait with flowers for both my hair and the background. Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter who was well known for her many portraits by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Most of the flowers I had included reminded me of some of the flowers I see in Dominican Republic like Framboyan (the pink flower), and the Hisbiscus Flower (all around the figure). The split between the color of the figure was inspired by Cindy Sherman whose work consist of depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. I decided to represent the judgment of people expressing my skin tone not matching what a Dominican “supposed to look”. For all the whole inspiration was inspired by Amy Sherald style which is simplified realism and involving staged photographs of her subjects. I decided to represent this “figure” as me and portray the beauty within me. I decided to add LED lights to portray the beauty of the figure and the flowers. I decided to include the tobacco wrapper. Wish is a big thing Dominican do, but also is a memory of my grandpa who loved smoking tobacco and just helping anyone out no matter what, which represents my characteristics of who I am. These artists had inspired me to go beyond, show and be proud of my culture, expressing the beauty of it, even though the media portrays Dominicans as “party people”, “crazy”, or “loud”. Which none of these expressed who I am.
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| La Belleza de Mi Cultura by Dattnan Martinez |
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