Justice for Ana (Final Self-Portrait)

Denise Abadies, Justice for Ana, 2023

    My final self-portrait project is inspired by Ana Mendieta. I’ve found myself thinking about Mendieta a lot after learning about her activism, art, life, and death. I wanted to embody her spirit and the themes she explored in her art for my final self-portrait. This is a mixed-media sculpture made from coconut fiber, wood pieces, fake flowers, sand, and Spanish moss, with a plastic skull model covered in fake blood with eye sockets painted with black acrylic paint. 

My idea was initially inspired by Mendieta’s Untitled: Silueta Series. I wanted to incorporate Mendieta’s connection with the earth and the female body. “She wanted to leave her mark in nature. It was kind of like a reconnection with the earth. And she speaks about it, she said that she felt that because she was torn away from the motherland, from Cuba.” (Raquel Cecilia) I feel like I can relate to Mendieta on many levels. I also feel disconnected from my Filipino roots because I wasn’t born in the Philippines. My parents didn’t teach me how to speak Tagalog. According to them, we’re in America and Americans don’t speak Tagalog. They thought that we didn’t need to learn Tagalog. Most of the Filipino traditions that I’ve grown up with are religious but, as I got older, I leaned more toward spirituality than religion. I wish I knew more about Filipino culture outside of religion. 

Ana Mendieta, Untitled: Silueta Series, 1978

I also feel inexplicably connected with nature because I love taking care of animals and plants. Replanting and arranging plants makes me feel connected with nature in my everyday life. Arranging this project gave me the same feeling. I started building this project by cutting foam board and turning it into a box. I created a few panels to support the skull and I used an expanding spray foam to keep the skull in place. I arranged the wood pieces, Spanish moss, and flowers surrounding the skull. I tried to form a rough silhouette of a body with the Spanish moss. After I did that, I added the coconut fiber but it didn’t stick to the foam. The foam was no longer tacky. Because the coconut fiber didn’t stick to the foam, I won't be able to transport this very easily. 

I got this technique from watching terrarium builds online. People use expanding foam to get coconut fiber to stick to the vertical glass sides of terrariums. If I could start from the beginning I would try to find a slow-drying spray foam or add the layer of coconut fiber first before arranging the decorative parts. I added sand around the skull to emphasize the silhouette of the body. And finally, I painted the eye sockets black and painted fake blood on the skull. I think that the fake blood gave this project its power. I painted the fake blood onto the skull in some of the same areas that Mendieta had on her face in her Untitled (Self-Portrait with Blood).

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Self-Portrait with Blood), 1973

Denise Abadies, Justice for Ana, 2023

“Blood had a number of meanings in Mendieta’s work. One of them was the violence against women.” (Sabbatino) I wanted to point to the violence against Mendieta, resulting in her death. It’s chilling knowing that during her life, she made art about the injustice and sexual violence against women in her community, and her life ended at the hands of her husband. Her husband Carlos Andre was acquitted of all charges related to her murder but I don’t believe that. The way they let him get away with murder is a direct reflection of how they treated women during the 80s. They disrespected women by dismissing their issues. Women were insignificant. Mendieta worked really hard to speak about this injustice through her art and she didn’t deserve to die the way she did. I can’t believe Andre is still alive today. Mendieta could have been alive today, continuing her legacy and she would have been able to see how far women in the arts have come. 

“She herself invented an artform called earth body. And these are traces in the earth made with gunpowder, blood, water. In which she explores ideas of transformation, transcendence, rebirth, and regeneration.” (Sabbatino) This is a self-portrait because I feel like I’m in a time in my life when I’m in the middle of a regeneration. When I initially graduated from high school I went to Rutgers University in hopes of becoming a veterinarian. Health challenges forced me to take a break from Rutgers, which ended up being 2 years of soul searching. I knew deep down that I’m an artist and I must pursue it. Learning about female artists and activists during my time at NJCU has woken me up. I have an awareness that as an artist and a woman of color, I’m at a disadvantage. But there were so many women, like Ana Mendieta and other female artists we’ve studied in this class, who fought to have their voices heard and change the social discourse. I think it's important for today’s female artists to learn about the history of women in art so we can continue to take up space and express ourselves. Our female perspective is unique and we must acknowledge the legacies of those who came before us to nurture ourselves and the next generation of female artists. 

Denise Abadies, Justice for Ana, 2023

Works Cited

“Ana Mendieta: Traces/Stopy | Krátký dokument | Galerie Rudolfinum” YouTube, uploaded by Galerie Rudolfinum, 3 Nov 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Nk0sPfRrU&ab_channel=GalerieRudolfinum

Castillo, Monica. “Overlooked No More: Ana Mendieta, Artist Who Pushed Boundaries” The New York Times, 19 Sept 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/obituaries/ana-mendieta-overlooked.html

Final(Sheku)

 

Sunset Serenade: Majestic Wave and Mountain Symphony

"Rising Tides of Change: A Young King's Journey Through the Changing Landscape"

    With my final project, I wanted to connect my ancestry with something sociocultural such as the protection of black women. It is too big a subject to encapsulate in a single paragraph, so I won't say too much. I got the inspiration from my own hoodie, and the idea just came to me when I decided that I needed to add more to complete this piece. The staff displayed in this image is one that 'Mansa Musa', the richest person who ever lived, and who was the king of the ancient empire of Mali in West Africa. I included some African jewelry and some traditional clothing. I decided to leave this piece unpainted and connect it with a set painting of the ocean and it's tidal wave, as well as the view of a West African Beach from Afar.

    The main artist that inspired this painting was "Kehinde Wiley". I liked the way he would include modern elements in an old image that was already painted. It led me to want to include engaging scenery, as well as objects that were and weren't made in this era. I got some inspiration from his famous Napoleon painting. They were some more things, i could've added but for my first Self-portrait, it didn't look terrible. 

    Another artist that inspired me was 'Wendy Redstar". I liked the way she connected with her heritage and explored the role of Native women in her paintings. Also, her way of connecting to history had a huge impact on this piece. It was already troubling enough trying to think of an idea, but it did get a bit easier when I started to think about her work and its process.

chance to go camping, and attempt to reconnect with nature, and coming back I realized there was so much more that I could do to find inspiration.

    Another artist I got inspiration from was "Yoko Ono". Her strong sense of activism inspired me to want to make my piece a bit more political and meaningful. I didn't want to just draw anything, and call it a day. As much as I really wanted to, her work was an invisible force behind most of my decisional making.

Final

 

untitled, Angie Cardona (inspired by Dada and collage)

With my final piece, I wanted to connect back to Dadaism with a mix of collages inspired by Hannah Hoch and Nancy Spero and how random the mixture of collaging is. Although I'm studying Fine Arts, it's truly rare that I do collages considering everything is mostly hands-on during class so I was very interested in the process. For my piece, I overlayed my face with a portrait painting of Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Gran Colombia from the Spanish. However, looking back at the history of how Colombia became independent, none of that would be possible without the help from women specifically, a woman named Policarpa "La Pola" Salavarrieta who was critical in Gran Colombia's independence.
    She was a seamstress and a spy for the liberators of Colombia, She singlehandedly stole weapons that we repossessed by the Spanish and also broke many liberators from prison. She was unfortunately executed by the Spanish on November 14th, 1817. Currently, La Pola seems quite hidden in Colombia's history as bills with many male liberators' names and faces are printed on Colombian pesos without her even though she was a crucial part of Gran Colombia's independence. This is why I overlayed my face to give a modern adaptation to the piece and I added a skirt and a bra to add a "feminine flair" so to speak in Simon Bolivar's portrait. I also added a little "Chiva" which is a Colombian party bus.
Behind the portrait, I also added money in the background to indicate a sense of greed within the process of liberation. I also wanted to demonstrate conflicts in the piece such as the dry brush in Simon Bolivar's left hand but a spilled paint on the bottom part of the canvas. I also placed random text such as the farthest bottom text which translates to " exposed into the light or hidden in the shadow?" and the one near Captain America's shield was "protected or reserved?" I felt like this use of text was very common in Dada. I also used a visual conflict such as a transparent curtain, a curtain needs to cover something but since it's transparent, it cannot hide anything.
Quotes:  Top 10 Collage Artists: Hannah Hoch to Man Ray
"collage is a medium as a diverse as it is politically charged. Emerging as a reaction to the First World War, collage allowed artists to interact with existing material- anything from newsprint and magazines to maps, tickets, and propaganda and photographs- to rip them apart and then reassemble them, creating visually dynamic hybrids."
"Collage interrogates the fundamental concept of what it is to create art, whilst offering a prismatic reflection of the social change and upheaval of the twentieth century."
 Nancy Spero's work "It is a grand non-narrative celebration o the family form, but also documents a female struggle against political stereotype."

PORTFOLIO: FINAL

https://dwgeorges.wixsite.com/portfolio

        I didn't know what to expect from this course but I did gain a newfound appreciation for modern artists this semester. These new-age artistist are including culture history, and identity in their art. One of the main themes of this class was culture and identity; individual or social.  which is why I decided to make my final project a personal website showcasing my past works with the hope to include new material over the years.Material that presents culture. I received so much inspiration from the wonderful artists this semester. One, in particular,\ was Bisa Butler. I love how you can get f sense of her culture from her works with quilts. She doesn't need to tell you that she's from Ghana but you the sense from the material she uses and from the subjects she chooses to stitch onto the quilt. Her work feels intimate and personal, that's the kind of feeling I want my audience to feel the steps that went into creating 'my portfolio were me thinking about art and finally coming to terms that I'm an artist. so I started to think about all the content I created over the years. I wanted to understand why was artistic about my content and I discovered that many of my works explore identity. whether it was black identity, women's identity, or even Haitian identity. It only made sense that through it all it was all a process to uncover my artistic identity. I would consider this to be graphic design and photography. I chose this medium because it's engaging. It gives people the opportunity to have intimate access to my work. overall the most ted part of completing this final was building the website and organizing my work. I would say that the difference between my first 3 projects and my final is that my first projects focused on my physical identity and my later projects highlights my cultural and societal identity. 

 "A combination of different cultures all coming together in one household, it also influenced me in a way that I was surrounded by art all the time."  -Bisa Butler (Quilting for the Culture)

"You're the one that sets the mission, and part of that mission was that you have a responsibility to educate your people; you have the responsibility to have your people always shown in a positive light." -Bisa Butler (Quilting for the Culture)

"Realistic representation became a sense of self-worth.” -Kehinde Wiley

"There's something intimate about the ways people assume that by looking at certain parts of a portrait they'll be able to understand who those people are, where they come from, and why they happen to be in this museum today". -Kehinde Wiley (A New Republic)

F

Final

Waiting for Change

My final project is called, "Waiting for Change." I wanted to encapsulate a certain feeling of nostalgia that comes with new beginnings since we're coming into the spring season. Throughout the semester, I've had a lot of life changing events happen to me and it was the main reason why I wanted to make a video of this. At first, it was hard to deal with but after a while I started noticing how these changes were aligning with the changing of the season and it made me realize that this is all a part of life! No reason to worry. 

Two artists that have also motivated me to take on these nature-inspired shots were Wendy Red Star and Yoko Ono. One of my favorite parts of spring, besides the fact that winters over, are the flowers blooming. Even with the infuriating allergies plaguing me as well as a bunch of other people, I find the cherry blossoms very beautiful and I love how the NJCU campus looks when all the trees are in full bloom. In one of the readings, Yoko Ono speaks about them saying, "I like watching Cherry Blossoms from afar. In spring it looks like beautiful pink clouds on the ground!" 

Wendy Red Star's piece, Four Seasons, was also a great inspiration for this video. I loved how her portraits were of her in front of beautiful scenery and I wanted to use that as well as Cindy Sherman's self portraits to do my own version of a self portrait. I ended up getting shy since there were people walking by but I kept it in there anyways because I knew how Cindy Sherman didn't strive for perfection in her art. At the end, I also added a shot of my belongings laying on some grass outside my house. I felt like it was a nice way to add my personality to the video as I tend to carry my whole life in my bag.

 Another artist that was a huge inspiration for the shots I took was Wes Anderson. One of my favorite components to his movies are the still shots he would use that get zoomed in that for some reason always adds more emphasis to the scene. I also used one of my favorite songs called "Dance PM" by Hiroshi Yoshimura because that's one of the few artists that I've been listening to lately that helps when nostalgia hits.

Final Project: La Belleza de Mi Cultura

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.

La Belleza de Mi Cultura by Dattnan Martinez

Final Project

 “Obra Del Maestro”

For my final project, I wanted to execute a painting that resembled the closest indigenous group to the region my father is from. Wendy Red Star inspired me to create this piece because I enjoyed reading and watching her create her passion for art through the history of her Native American side. Trama Textiles is a renowned producer of Guatemala's unique and traditionally crafted fabrics, which have gained international recognition. Despite the pervasive influence of globalization, Guatemala's indigenous people remain proud of their heritage, creating and wearing beautiful, colorful, and intricately embellished costumes. In light of the global conversation surrounding racial discrimination, honoring those who confidently display their cultural traditions is all the more admirable.

Guatemala is a small country located in Central America, however, being this small does not mean that this little gem can not contain rich history. In fact, Guatemala holds a rich Mayan Cultural diversity and customs that have been passed down through generations. There are at least 24 distinct spoken languages throughout the country and these are found specifically in different regions. In addition, to the languages spoken in Guatemala, there is also a significant variation in how people from those regions design and wear their traditional clothing.

Their Traje, or native dress, can differ from village to village, influenced by history, folklore, religious belief, available resources, wildlife, natural features, and climate of each region. Their pieces are hand women with vibrant colors and complex patterns and designs, the fabrics often come in floral, animal prints, or patterns.  Geometric patterns and designs that are heavily used in the region where my father is from- Chimaltenango- are diamonds, circles, triangles, zig-zagged lines, and curved lines. These shapes and patterns indicate features of landscapes, such as volcanoes, mountains, and rivers.

In my painting, I wanted to construct a medium that conveyed my heritage but also a personal detail that I “hand-made” THIS. Simply because knowing that my culture is driven by hand-making anything, I felt that this project needed to be more intimate and detailed oriented. The girl in my painting is me and on top of my head, you can see that I'm wearing this basket with food, typically women in Guatemala carry their corn, and flour that they hand-pressed and turned so that they can make fresh tortillas at home, avocados, beans, etc. To put me in this painting meant that I also imagined myself walking through the mountainous terrains that pertain to my Father’s region and how difficult these daily routines are for women in Guatemala. 

They’re wearing thick fabrics as clothing plus carrying this basket of food, and then walking miles to get to my home, - sounds insane in my life but normal in this life. Despite the fact that my actual face is not shown, it’s important to note that not all Guatemalan self-portraits show their faces, a lot to do with the culture among sexes when it comes to drawing women. Out of respect, they don’t show their faces. Another is to not admire the person's face or beauty but to emphasize the bigger picture, which shows the landscape the detail in the clothes, the food, and what the person is doing, all these points have a greater significance than what the person looks like. Overall, I had a lot of fun creating this painting, inspired look from a painter from Atitlan Guatemala, Antonio Coche, who vividly portrayed the history and culture of my heritage with a lot of pride and detail.

 “Obra Del Maestro”

References

1. https://www.artemaya.org/tablet/bio-ant.html

2. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kiche

3. https://www.wendyredstar.com/four-seasons

Week VII

 

procrastinating 

Procrastination 

This week I decided to do a series on procrastination because it’s something I always do. Normally the reason I procrastinate is because im always working or would prefer to enjoy times with my friends over staying home for hours doing homework. Yet when I’m home since I’m barely home I decide to take time for myself, like watch Netflix, shop for items I need, and even catch up on sleep. In these bitches you can see how my notebook is right next to my laptop. The notebook has a list of 10 assignments that I have to get done within in the next 3 days due to my procrastination. 

Yoko Ono Influence 

“ Her name may have became a synonym for breaking up and discord due to her relationship with John Lennon, and connection with the Beatles break up, but work not be overshadowed even by the in famous status is the fact that Yoko Ono is groundbreaking, figure 1st activist, and an original creator.” 

I find it interesting in society today you could be such an intelligent woman, and once you’re in a relationship, your mean is basically tied to that whole relationship. And this only happens when women and men can have a successful woman, but he still will be individualized by society. As soon as a woman has a boyfriend, she becomes the girlfriend of the wife; it’s like all her titles are stripped, and she is no longer herself, she only is a partner. 

“ and 2011, the 78-year-old made history as old as artist to have a number one dance hit with her single move on fast”

I find it inspiring and motivational that even at that age, she continued her artistic passion and never stopped.

Khans Academy Performance Art Introduction 

“ We must take time back into her self to let Our consciousness breed an occluded mind to be still and silent. This is what I can do, and what a museum can do in today’s world..”

I feel that in today’s society, there is so much going on in the world, and so much information being thrown at us from all different directions, but it is very hard to say and take some time to ourselves. You might think you’re taking time to yourself when you’re not working or being productive, but for the most part, you’re just on your phone, which also doesn’t allow you to take time to yourself. And the museum are you focus is on the artwork and you normally only take out your phone to take a picture of the artwork. So it lets you take some time to yourself and the declutter your mind from everything that is going on in the outside world.

The Gutai Art Exhibition

I like how unique this Exhibitionist, and how incorporates mud with painting, sculpting and wrestling. I have never seen any type of artwork like this and I know it’s because it has to do a post for democracy. But I like it I feel like it gives you a very genuine feeling about how the war felt.

Week VI

 

Natural State

    My collage this week was inspired by Frida. I like how her artwork focuses on a woman’s natural features, for example, having the bushy eyebrows having some peach fuzz over your lips. Things society today has named as masculine. In society today man are the ones that are supposed to have peach fuzz supposed to have that big bushy eyebrows. People expect women to be hairless all the time .So I love that some of her artwork was only based on herself and not caring about society standards. Personally, I am someone who loves make up and loves always being put together. I like constantly do my eyebrows, my nails and my lashes. So for my collage, I decided to do a collage that is based on my natural face. In this picture I had just woke up from a nap and all I did was brush my hair. I did not put on make up. I didn’t even brush my teeth. this was me fully natural and that’s something and that not many people get to see fully. Not because I’m insecure, but simply for the fact that I enjoy getting ready every day and doing my make up, I also included the background with leaves because Frida’s artwork has a lot of trees and leaves. Frida also includes animals in her artwork. I included a monkey and a cat, I also know that she includes birds. I picked to add the monkey, because monkeys are very intelligent and I decided to pick the car because I feel like a cat represents femininity; just like Frida. I had to add the flower crown because it’s a classic. It’s like signature Frida.

Wangechi Mulu: A New Face for the Met 

“Words that we haven’t heard, people we have a notice. They will be our redemption. 

Tell me this honestly means that ignorance is bliss. The knowledge that we haven’t taken in yet and the people that we haven’t noticed are what will teach us the most. The potential information that these people can teach us, and the information that we have yet to learn, will redeem who we currently. Will redeem our ignorance.

“ They say, when an old person dies a library goes with them“ 

I like this quote so much because it is so true at some thing my mom has always told me. The people who have real knowledge and different perspectives about situations are older people that are in their 70s and 80s because they have witness thing first hand. They have experienced it and have gone through it. So they know more than what the news and government is willing to tell us about what happened in certain situations so when an old person dies the real library goes with them, not the library society and the government has created for us.

Week V

Cindy Sherman Film Still #52