Category Archives: Projects

by victoriadelgadillo

Centennial: 100 Years of Otis College Alumni

[NOTE: Victoria Delgadillo is not a graduate of Otis College, but her collaborative film project with Raul Baltazar called “Califas” was screened as part of this exhibit celebration.]

September 7 to December 7, 2019. Celebrating Otis College’s one hundredth year, Centennial is a group exhibition of selected works by notable alumni spanning the 1920s to the 2010s. Centennial offers a glimpse into both the range of artists who attended Otis College, as well as work that has come to represent a specific historical moment, focus, and aesthetic engagement. While the exhibition brings together artists working within diverse histories, places, and experiences, each work has a relationship to the present. Centennial is a nod to artistic process, as well as the 100 years of artists’ work sharing space in the Ben Maltz Gallery.

Alumni artists in the exhibition include the following: Bas Jan Ader, Mary Sue Ader Anderson, Kelly Akashi, Michelle Andrade, John Baldessari (in collaboration with Meg Cranston), Raul Baltazar, Billy Al Bengston, George Chann, Katy Cowan, Kohshin Finley, Kim Fisher, Teresa Flores , Kristen Foster, Gajin Fujita, Kio Griffith, Judithe Hernandez, Dakota Higgins, Noah Humes, Sara Hunsucker, Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia, Dorothy Jeakins , Joseph Mugnaini, Sandeep Mukherjee, Alan Nakagawa, Ruben Ochoa, Rick Owens, The Perez Bros, Kour Pour, Ken Price, Pamela Ramos, Vincent Ramos, Steve Roden, Alison Saar, Forouzan Safari, Eduardo Sarabia, JT Steiny, Masami Teraoka, Daveion Thompson, Kent Twitchell, Jeffrey Vallance, Mark Dean Veca, Tyrus Wong, John Weston, Bruce Yonemoto, Liz Young, Milford Zornes.

by victoriadelgadillo

The MexiCal Biennial presents: CALAFIA (el fin del parai­so) / Final Round

“Know then, that due east of the Indies there is an island called California, very near to the locale called the Terrestrial Paradise. It was populated by Black Indigenous women, without men among them. They possessed strong and firm bodies of ardent courage and great strength. Their island was the strongest in all the world, with steep cliffs and rocky shores. Their arms were decorated with gold, as were the harnesses of the wild beasts they tamed and rode.” Garci Rodri­guez de Montalvo, Las Sergas de Esplandián

Thus began the creative narration for Mexicali Biennial’s 2 year project called CALAFIA: Manifesting the Terrestrial Paradise. Raul Baltazar and Victoria Delgadillo’s film collaboration for this exhibit with the title of Califas was called dystopian in the press and at the University of Paris a student asked, “Is it ok to laugh while watching this film?”

In the end, the Mexicali Biennial closed the 2 years of programming and exhibits with echos between Calexico, California and Mexicali, Baja California. There, among the historical exhibits of bones and time elapsed graphs at the Institute for Cultural Research Museum in Mexicali, was an installation of all the props and costumes used in the filming of Calafia.  The Cultural Research Institute’s Director was elated.

Below are the border event offerings and locations during the closing of CALAFIA: Manifesting the Terrestrial Paradise in Calexico and Mexicali

Friday, January 17, 2020
Steppling Art Gallery, SDSU, Imperial Valley Campus
CALAFIA: Manifesting the Terrestrial Paradise. Visual Arts exhibition

Friday, January 17, 2020
Planta Libre Galería Experimental
Mexicali, Baja California MX
Films screenings, followed by Q&A

Saturday, January 18, 2020
Institute for Cultural Research Museum (IIC Museo)
Mexicali, Baja California MX
Installation and film screening of Calafia by Victoria Delgadillo and Raul P. Baltazar
Runs through February 2, 2020

Saturday, January 18, 2020
Workshop: “My face hurts from being so white”
A metaphorical intervention process of internal and external whiteness using colored t-shirts

Saturday, January 18, 2020
Tianguis del Caballito, I21 Art Space. Local I21
Mexicali, Baja California MX
A site specific solo project to connect diverse Mexicali audiences to multidisciplinary art practices.

Sunday, January 19, 2020
In front of Toyota Car Dealership, Calzada Cetys
Mexicali, Baja California MX
A billboard project

Sunday, January 19, 2020
A border fence performance
Calexico Side: Parking lot at 426 E. 1st St, Calexico, CA
Mexicali Side: Heroes de Chapultepec Park Avenida Madero, Mexicali, B.C.

Images: Courtesy of the MexiCali Biennial and the artists.

by victoriadelgadillo

La Moda

La Moda was created for Caught Between A Whore and an Angel, a women’s performance exhibit at Regeneracion/The PRC in Highland Park.  La Moda (1996), shot on VHS with a separate cassette sound track was filmed in 1 hour, with the soundtrack taking 8 hours to construct to compliment the footage.

Mexican Spitfire, Victoria Delgadillo filmed La Moda in a straight shot, no edit format (mainly due to a lack of resources). Each time she began to shoot a segment, the borrowed camera rolled back the tape, sadly losing some of the action. The sound track was edited from music left-behind by friends except for The Last Poets on the closing credits. The sound became Victoria’s presence in the story line of a neighborhood cabaret-style beauty pageant.

La Moda was made in a Direct Cinema style, characterized by a desire to directly capture reality and represent it truthfully, and to question the relationship of reality with cinema. Captured were Marco Trejo’s (†) love of Elvis practicing karate (opening credits), Patricia Valencia dancing flirtatiously and kissing the camera (a huge hit at the premiere) and Elizabeth Delgadillo Merfeld wearing clothes with sales tags still on it, an early hip-hop fashion statement about the “haves and have nots.”

Victoria studied Video Filmmaking at UCSD, during the growth in popularity of the Cinema Verite and the early stages of the portable video camera. Drawing from personal experiences as a non-conformist artist, her artwork and ideas have been profoundly influenced by growing up in a predominately African-American neighborhood in San Diego, California during the civil rights era, as well as by a word-of-mouth Mexican cultural experience in America living on the international border.

View LA MODA here

by victoriadelgadillo

Entre Tinta y Lucha

Entre Tinta y Lucha
45 Years of Self Help Graphics & Art
January 31 – March 9, 2019
Exhibition opening January 31, 6-8pm

California State University, Bakersfield  – Todd Madigan Gallery
9001 Stockdale Highway
Bakersfield, CA  93311-1022

On January 31st, the Art & Art History Department will host a public opening reception for an art exhibit entitled Entre Tinta y Lucha: 45 Years of Self Help Graphics & Art at the Todd Madigan Gallery.

Delgadillo’s Print, Bolsa de Mercado, 2013 part of Entre La Tinta y la Lucha.

“CHICANO ART — During its 50 years of existence, Chicano art, always in transformation, has revolutionized itself into one of the main currents of the American creative canon. Based on four cultures-the pre-Columbian, the invading Hispanic, the Mexican and the American-Chicano art is inspired by these and develops from both its roots and the decades of oppression suffered by those who practice it and their families.

Since the violent confrontation in the streets during the 1970 Chicano Moratorium, Chicanos have progressed economically, socially and politically. Nonetheless, Chicanos and Latinos continue to be a marginalized group – foreigners – in their own home in the United States, and even in Mexico. This happens, even when the percentage of the Latino population in the main cities of the United States (such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago) has grown tremendously, both in size and in political power.

Born in the mid-1960s, along with the protests of the Vietnam War and the Black Power movement for civil rights, the Chicano movement challenged the categorization and mocking stereotypes widely spread among the Anglo-Saxon population, as well as the public schools, plagued with desertion and proclaimations that they were too inferior to achieve a middle class standard of living.

These problems became the central themes of the first Chicano artists. The expressionist and frank realism of their works appealed to an art audience that had grown weary of the successive tendencies of the system established in unrepresentative paintings.

With highly developed skills and great originality, these artists of dual origin, Mexican and American, directed the eyes towards the Latin American culture, not only highlighting the conflicts with the Anglo-Saxon society, but also boasting, celebrating and elevating the elements of the Latin American culture and tradition, that the Anglo-Saxon world marginalized.

Both the advances and the difficulties of the last five decades have helped to shape the evolution of Chicano and Latino art. These artists expanded their creative expression and demonstrated great dexterity to develop and represent their mythologies, methodologies and philosophies. They introduced an outstanding and original school in the history of art.” – Julian Bermudez

by victoriadelgadillo

Regeneracion: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology

Regeneracion: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology examines the transnational exchange and circulation of revolutionary and activist ideas through which political protest intersected with experimental artistic practices across generations, and between the U.S. and Mexico. The exhibition centers on three instances of political and cultural production, each called Regeneracion, and the interconnected ideas and relationships between them. The term regeneracion was first used by the Los Angeles-based, Mexican anarchist Flores Magon brothers in their revolutionary-era political newspaper Regeneracion (1900 – 1918); subsequently adopted in the cultural and political journal Regeneracion (1970 – 1975), which was an important collaborative site for the Chicano avant-garde group Asco; and later evoked in the experimental space Regeneracion/Popular Resource Center of Highland Park (1993 – 1999).

These groups and sites of production were incubators for transnational political thought and forms of resistance that linked Mexico and the United States from the site of Los Angeles, stimulating the creation of journals, print media, plays, music, film, satirical cartoons, drawings, performances, and poetry, and contributing to the convergence of art, community, and politics across the span of one hundred years. Tracing political and artistic modes of cultural production rooted in counter-hegemonic practices within Latino communities in Los Angeles in the twentieth century, Regeneracion: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology aims to shed light on nuanced aspects of Southern California’s regional history.

This exhibition was organized with extensive collaboration from advisors, artists and historians. It reflects collaboration with, contributions from, and works by Lalo Alcaraz, ASCO, Raul Baltazar, Barnet, Jacinto Barrera Bassols, Alberto Beltran, Akira Boch, Ludovico Caminita, Oscar Castillo,  Zack de la Rocha, Elizabeth Delgadillo-Merfeld, Victoria Delgadillo (screening LA MODA), Richard Estrada, Lysa Flores, William Flores, Diego Flores Magon Bustamante, Roman Gabriel, Joseph Galarza, Diane Gamboa, Harry Gamboa Jr., Antonio (Willie) Garcia, Javier Gonzalez, Gronk, Colin Gunckel, Romeo Guzman, Sara Harris, Sergio Hernandez, Willie F. Herrón III, Marissa Hicks-Alcaraz, Blas Lara Cazares, Jesse Lerner, Manuel Lopez, Ruben Martinez, Lara Medina, Marisol Medina Cadena, Menoman Martinez, Claudia Mercado, Joseph (Nuke) Montalvo, Shawn Mortensen, Mujeres de Mai­z, Leo Ortiz, Ruben Ortiz-Torres, Raul Pacheco, Martin Quiroz, Omar Ramirez, Rudy Ramirez, Nicolas Reveles, Gregory Rodriguez, Seymour Rosen, Fermin Sagrista, Aida Salazar, Jeniffer Sanchez, Elias Serna, Humberto Terrones, The Mexican Spitfires, Edgar Toledo, Mark Torres, Adriana Trujillo, Patssi Valdez, Patricia Valencia, Arnoldo Vargas, L. Villegas Jr., Marius de Zayas, Sergio Zenteno and others.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a robust public program series, including art and music performances, film screenings, a symposium, and art workshops for families, in addition to a gallery sound booth for online radio station programming and conducting oral histories. In an effort to continue to gather materials related to this history, the Vincent Price Art Museum welcomes communication from those invested and engaged with these iterations of Regeneracion to deepen the research of these important periods.

The programming for Regeneracion: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology takes place at the Vincent Price Art Museum, East Los Angeles College, 1301 Avenida Cesar E. Chavez, Monterey Park, CA 91754.

Read more on Terremoto Art Magazine

by victoriadelgadillo

Mi Sereno

 

Raul Baltazar invited Los Angeles cultural workers, friends, family and neighbors to unite at Ascot Hills Park in El Sereno for two Sundays of processions, picnics and performances. Mi Sereno was a pair of ritual events honoring many generations of cultural workers, as they came together to form a larger body on two special days. Baltazar set a tone that was relaxed, playful, and introspective, with ephemera, games, picnic blankets, ritual trail hikes and group portraits observing the visual commons of the LA cultural worker. Those who were attending were encouraged to wear all Red or Blue outfits (comfortable walking/hiking attire), and to bring water, picnic blankets and food to share with others. This performance took place on January 14 and 21, 2018 – 11 am to 2pm. LOCATION: Ascot Hills Park, 4371 Multnomah St, Los Angeles, 90032

Victoria Delgadillo participated as a storyteller in Mi Sereno at Ascot Park, a beloved place of Raul Baltazar’s childhood.  The space is a breathtaking reserve of native plants and Los Angeles views.  Baltazar’s themes of family, nature, urban home and connections to native ritual echoed throughout the hiking trails of this performance.

“Baltazar sees the hills as a temple for the city’s Eastside Chicanx community, and said he wants the performance to serve as a moment of healing in the current political climate. ‘The piece is creating a space for people to congregate in a safe space, especially for us, as people of color, who are facing this really intense, violent time,’ he said. ‘I want to create a space for us to have leisure, to recuperate, and strengthen ourselves spiritually to create a connection with our network . . . and for this to create an impetus for future networking, workshopping, and community.’ - ArtNews, Maximiliano Duron, November 11, 2017

“Raul Baltazar’s Mi Sereno is an interactive, ritualistic experience over two Sundays honoring multiple generations of cultural workers.

The public is encouraged to wear red or blue, a collective costume that he sees as representing lava and water flowing through the hills. Participants are also encouraged to bring food to share at the picnic, where Danza de Compton will perform the Mexican folk dance La Danza de los Viejitos wearing traditional wood masks representing resistance to colonialism.

‘The first Sunday is focused more on the elders,’ Baltazar said, ‘our roots, how we migrated here, the foundation of where we come from. The second Sunday is more geared towards the children, the future, what we’re aspiring towards.’

The inspiration for the piece came last year when Baltazar visited Mineral de Pozos, near Guanajuato, Mexico, an old mining town his grandparents had migrated from. He learned of a custom in which the miners met once a year for a celebratory picnic.

Baltazar sees the El Sereno location of Mi Sereno as integral to the piece. Mi Sereno translates as My Peace, but as someone born and raised in the neighborhood, he also means My Sereno.

‘The trails end up becoming a microcosm or metaphor about how our ancestors have migrated throughout the continent,’ he said. ‘In the midst of this political climate where we’re meant to feel like lawbreakers or guests in our own home, this little sanctuary in the park is a place to celebrate the fact that we’re alive, and moving along the continent. We’re here, we all ended up here no matter what our stories are.’

Baltazar’s work breaks down the relationship between the audience and the artist — because you’re invited to participate in the midst of a community ritual that celebrates and claims a sense of belonging. It acknowledges connections between the land here and the land south of here. It’s a celebration of a neighborhood as home.” - Los Angeles Times, Devorah Vankin, January 11, 2018

 

“Anger remains in explorations of feminism, immigrant rights, environmental and economic justice, Mark Murphy (Executive Director of REDCAT) said, but he credits performances such as Raul Baltazar’s Mi Sereno with the transformative effect of activating, connecting and celebrating communities.” – LA Weekly, Beige Luciano-Adams,  January 24, 2018

 

 

by victoriadelgadillo

Con la Casa a Cuestras

A continuacion, esta descripcion esta en Espanol.

“Mi historia, tu historia, nuestra historia and Con la casa a las espaldas: miradas migrantes are an initiative of Proyecto Caracol. Migracion y patrimonio cultural and the International Seminar Con la casa a cuestas, a donde los pies me lleven, organized by the Pablo de Olavide University, Seville (Spain), the Benemorita Autonomous University of Puebla (Mexico) with the collaboration of the National Autonomous University of Mexico-Los Angeles (United States).

In life, there are those who constantly migrate, those who seek, those who displace themselves; and there are others that remain, that stay or travel without moving from place. It is important to recognize that, although we are of those who decide to remain, migration has a place, sometimes hidden, sometimes at the edge of the skin, in each and every one of our histories, because movement is an intrinsic part of the human being.

Nowadays, massive movements of large distances and stories that hurt us are prioritized, but if we start to recognize that displacement is an essential part of our own history, we may stop looking at ourselves from distance and start seeing each other closely and with empathy; because after all we are all the ones who live together day by day, the ones who run into each other on the street, the ones who travel together on the public transport, the ones who transform cities, the ones who live in a world in constant movement.  Visit UNAM LA

Mi historia, tu historia, nuestra historia y Con la casa a las espaldas: miradas migrante son una iniciativa que forma parte del Proyecto Caracol. Migracion y patrimonio cultural y el Seminario Internacional Con la casa a cuestas, a donde los pies me lleven organizado por la Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla (Espana), Benemorita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla (Mexico) con la colaboracion de la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico-Los Angeles (Estados Unidos).

En la vida, hay quienes migramos constantemente, quienes buscamos, quienes nos desplazamos; y hay otros que permanecemos, que nos quedamos o viajamos sin movernos de lugar. Es importante reconocer que, aunque seamos de los que decidimos permanecer, la migracion tiene un lugar, a veces recondito, a veces a flor de piel, en todas y cada una de nuestras historias, porque el movimiento es parte intranseca del ser humano.

Hoy en dia se priorizan los movimientos masivos,  a gran escala, de grandes distancias y de historias que nos duelen, pero si empezamos por reconocer que el desplazamiento es parte esencial de nuestra propia historia, es posible que dejemos de mirarnos con distancia y desde la diferencia empecemos a vernos de cerca y desde la empati­a; porque finalmente somos todos quienes convivimos dia a di­a, quienes nos cruzamos en la calle, quienes viajamos juntos en el transporte, quienes transformamos las ciudades, quienes habitamos un mundo en constante movimiento.  Visita UNAM Los Angeles

by victoriadelgadillo

Gregorio Escalante Gallery July 2017

Victoria Delgadillo’s print Bolsa de Mercado was on display during the month of July 2017 at the Gregorio Escalante Gallery (in the upstairs Salon),978 Chung King Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90012. The gallery space had an impressive array of artists and exhibits!

NOTE: Due to the passing of Greg Escalante on 9/8/17, The Gregorio Escalante Gallery was permanently closed in 2017. Read more about the importance of Greg Escalante’s work.

by victoriadelgadillo

Panuelos Rosas

(Arriba) Foto de la V-Day Protesta en Ciudad Juarez, 2004, con el proyecto Panuelos Rosas de Rigo Maldonado y Shakina Nayfack. Los panuelos que totalizaron 370 representan las mujeres desaparecidas en Chihuahua, Mexico en 2004. Estas desaparecidas son relacionadas con mas de 10 anos de femicidios en el norte de Mexico con impunidad.

(Arriba) El video Arena y Sangre, 2004 fue filmada por Rigo Maldonado durante la semana de la protesta de V-Day en Ciudad Juarez. En el video, Shakina Nayfack realiza un baile Butoh en El Lote Bravo, Ciudad Juarez. Los panelos rosas, que fueron sostenidos por los marchanistas de la protesta, se convirtieron en parte de este performance acerca de espacio y cuerpo. La pista de sonido en la peli­cula son los marchantes gritando “Ni Una Mas.”

Al sur de Ciudad Juarez, cerca del Aeropuerto Internacional de Juarez, El Lote Bravo fue un cementerio con el  proposito especi­fico de botar las victimas de las guerras de drogas. Esta zanja de irrigacion es tambien el lugar donde los cadaveres de 8 mujeres asesinadas y mutiladas fueron descubiertas en 2001. Los asesinatos se conocieron como “los feminicidas del campo algodonero” de Ciudad Juarez.

Shakina J. Nayfack, Ph.D. Escribio en 2009: “. . . Butoh Ritual Mexicano remodela y reconstituye el sitio de su ensenanza y los cuerpos de sus estudiantes, estas transformaciones confrontan y complican la realidad del imperialismo y el capitalismo global a nivel corporal y social, a la misma ves, puede ser que esta forma de danza obtiene un modo alternativo de supervivencia y renovacion.”

(Arriba) Despues del V-Day, los panuelos rosas fueron utilizados como parte de varios talleres sobre los Femicidios en Juarez, dirigidos por Rigo Maldonado y Victoria Delgadillo. Materiales e imagenes de las mujeres de Juarez (recopiladas por Rigo y Victoria) fueron entregadas a los participantes de los talleres para crear arte de protesta. El arte es una manera fuerte para discutir y elaborar estrategias para problemas sociales que son dificiles.

En 2010 Victoria Delgadillo co-organizo  un mes de eventos internacionales de activismo arti­sticos sobre el tema de los feminicidios.  Los eventos tomaron lugar en Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Fort Worth, Quebec, Ciudad de Mexico, Nueva York, Sydney, Los Angeles y Albuquerque con la colaboradora de cineasta / poeta Pilar Rodríguez Aranda que estaba en DF y por la comunicacion exclusivamente a traves de Internet.

(Arriba) El proyecto de los panuelos rosas se movio al DF en 2010 con Pilar Rodriguez Aranda, quien organizo varios meses de eventos sobre los feminicidios en Mexico.  Logro que suficiente miembros de la comunidad local hicieran instalaciones de arte publicos como una forma de protesta y usando el modelo de Rigo Maldonado y Victoria Delgadillo.

Bordamos Por la Paz, despues de haber visto el proyecto de los panuelos rosas en Mexico, iniciaron un circulo de costura de protesta en lugares publicos en todo Mexico (ahora en expansion por todo el mundo). Los asistentes discuten la violencia en sus comunidades y hacen declaraciones bordadas sobre ella para crear una exhibicion esontaneos en parques y cafes.

4.

by victoriadelgadillo

V-Day Protest in Ciudad Juarez, 2004

V-Day Protest in Ciudad Juarez, 2004. Photo of Pink Square project by Rigo Maldonado and Shakina Nayfack. The Squares which totaled 370 representing the women who had disappeared in Chihuahua, Mexico at that time, were related to over 10 years of femicides in southern Mexico with impunity.

(Above) Arena y Sangre, 2004 was filmed by Rigo Maldonado & Shakina Nayfack on the weekend of the V-Day protest.  In the film, Shakina Nayfack performs a Butoh Dance in El Lote Bravo, Ciudad Juarez. The pink squares held by V-Day protesters became part of this space/body healing performance. The soundtrack is of the V-Day protesters yelling “Ni Una Mas,” (Not One More).

Just south of Ciudad Juarez, near Juarez’ International Airport, El Lote Bravo, was an ad-hoc cemetery for victims in the area’s lethal drug wars. This desert irrigation ditch is also the place where the bodies of 8 murdered and mutilated women were discovered in 2001. The murders became known as “the cotton field murders” of Ciudad Juarez.

Shakina J. Nayfack, Ph.D. wrote in 2009: “. . . Butoh Ritual Mexicano reshapes and reconstitutes the site of its teaching and the bodies of its students, how these transformations confront and complicate the reality of US imperialism and global capitalism on a bodily and societal level, and what, if anything, can be gained from this dance form as an alternate mode of survival and renewal.”

 After V-Day the pink squares were used as part of various Juarez Femicide workshops led by Rigo Maldonado and Victoria Delgadillo in 2004 and after. Materials and images of the women of Juarez (collected by Rigo and Victoria) were provided to participants to create protest art. Art is an excellent way to discuss and strategize for difficult social issues.

In 2010, Victoria Delgadillo co-organized an international month of femicide art activism events in Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Fort Worth, Quebec, Mexico City, New York, Sydney, Los Angeles, and Albuquerque with collaborator, filmmaker/poet Pilar Rodriguez Aranda in Mexico City and by solely communicating via the internet.

The pink square project moved to Mexico City in 2010 with Pilar Rodriguez Aranda, who organized several months of femicide art activism events in Mexico, encouraged many to create public art installations as a form of protest by using the model from the US.

(Below) Bordamos Por la Paz (We Embroider for Peace) having seen the pink square project in Mexico, began a protest sewing circle in public places throughout Mexico (now expanding all over the world). The attendees discuss violence in their communities and make embroidered statements about it to create a protest display.

by victoriadelgadillo

Self Help Graphics: Aztlan, the Permanent Collection, and Beyond

shg-permanent-collection-and-beyond
Exhibition: August 28, 2016 to January 15, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 6, 2016, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Self Help Graphics & Art (SHG), a community art center based in East Los Angeles, has been an integral part of Chicano art production since its foundation in 1970. SHG played a critical role in the Chicano movement and the art of printmaking was a means to expand activism around civil rights and ethnic pride. The deployment of printmaking as a vehicle for grassroots organizing and political and social commentary was profoundly influenced by Mexican artists of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Jose Guadalupe Posada, Leopoldo Mendez, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as art collectiveTaller de Grafica Popular in Mexico City. Drawing upon these influences, Franciscan nun Sister Karen Boccalero formed SHG, joining a wave of other Chicano printmakers in Chicago, San Francisco, and Sacramento. Sister Boccalero’s roots in activist art can be traced to her education at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles where she studied under Sister Corita Kent, influential printmaker and social justice advocate of the 1960s and 1970s. Sister Karen Boccalero, along with artists Carlos Bueno, Antonio Ibaez, FrankHernández, and others held their first exhibition in 1971.
Established in Boyle Heights, SHG was enormously successful in promoting Chicano artists and outreaching to young Latino artists throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and was a means to celebrate Chicano culture, to empower a political voice, and to generate art that was rooted in Mexican tradition and that bypassed the mainstream art world. The Chicano self-empowerment movement drove the vision of SHG. Artists created art, held their own exhibitions, and sold their work on their own terms.
SHG became a critical gathering place in the local community and was a site of art making, activism, and music. During the 1970s, SHG brought the traditions of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, to Los Angeles as means to reclaim indigenous identity and to engage the local community in the cultural practices of making papel picado and altars, and holding printmaking workshops for the community. In 1974, SHG also launched Barrio Mobile Art Studio, a vehicle equipped with art supplies that went directly into Latino communities “to develop the individual’s aesthetic appreciation, to provide an alternative mode of self-expression, and to increase the individual’s appreciation of Chicano culture.”
In 1982, SHG began its seminal Experimental Screen print Atelier, a workshop program that allowed artists to create high-quality limited edition prints using methods such as serigraphy, intaglio, and lithography. This new direction offered Chicano artists a foray into the mainstream art world and art market. During the 1990s, SHG sought a more outward-facing posture and began seeking to disseminate Chicano art to a wider audience. SHG organized the traveling exhibition, Chicano Expressions, and donated numerous artworks to archives and museums. In 1996, a year before her death, Sister Boccalero donated 42 prints to the Riverside Art Museum (RAM) to be held in our Permanent Collection.
SHG continues its legacy of bringing art to the community through its programs. Día de los Muertos remains a significant cultural celebration for SHG and in Los Angeles, and the Barrio Mobile Art Studio is still active today and was recently brought to Riverside’s Eastside by RAM and the Riverside Community Health Foundation. An exhibition of prints created with Eastside residents and the Barrio Mobile Art Studio is on view in the Taylor Family Gallery.
The atelier program is now the internationally acclaimed Professional Printmaking program that invites 10-20 printmakers as artists in residence each year to address a range of themes, including SHG’s traditional themes of culture, religion, politics, and Day of the Dead, as well as evolving themes of ecology, female empowerment, and gentrification.
Over time, SHG has broadened its approach to art making from strictly Mexican-American heritage to the broader pan-Latin-American community, as well as to other cultures and communities that have shared aesthetic political goals. SHG, in partnership with the Museum of Latin American Art and the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, organized an international artist ambassador exchange program with the Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Cuba. Earlier this year, SHG co-produced with Social Public Art Resource Center, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, and Art Division, a traveling exhibition called Ayotzinapa: A Roar of Silence of works by international printmakers from Mexico, Iran, Poland, Spain, Portugal, China, Greece, and other countries that call for justice for the 43 disappeared students in Guerrero, Mexico.
Self Help Graphics: Aztlán, the Permanent Collection, and Beyond includes selections from RAM’s Permanent Collection by some of the iconic artists and master printmakers from SHG that were created in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Victoria Delgadillo, Diane Gamboa, Gronk, Leo Limon, Roberto Gutierrez, Jose Alpuche, Patssi Valdez, and more. On loan from SHG are works by Margaret Quica Alarcon, Poli Marichal, Dewey Tafoya, Miyo Stevens-Gandara, Dalila Paola Mendez, Yamylis Brito Jorge, Carlos del Toro, Dayron Fernandez, Aliosky Garci­a, Octavio Irving Hernandez, Pavel Acevedo, and others.
Related Programming
*Pochoir and Oil Resist with Cynthia Huerta|
Saturday, September 10, 12 noon to 3 p.m., Free with paid admission or membership.  Artist Cynthia Huerta will be leading visitors in a printmaking workshop that explores pochoir, a sophisticated stenciling technique. She will also be teaching oil resist to produce prints in this workshop/taller.
*Chine-colle with Pavel Acevedo
Thursday, September 15, 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Free with paid admission or membership. Artist Pavel Acevedo will lead this workshop/taller in chine-colle, a special technique in printmaking, in which the image is transferred to a surface that is bonded to a heavier support.
*Talk and Tour with Joel Garcia of Self Help Graphics
Saturday, September 24, 12 noon to 1 p.m., Free with paid admission or membership. Join the Director of Programs & Operations at Self Help Graphics & Art Joel Garcia for a talk about the history, legacy, and ongoing efforts to create Latino art in East Los Angeles and beyond, and tour our Self Help Graphics: Aztlan, the Permanent Collection, and Beyond exhibit with Joel as he discusses the artists of Self Help Graphics’ past and present. Plus Victoria Delgadillo, Artist/Curator of  2013 “Communication Threads & Entwined Recollections” Print Atelier LV will speak on the print process and vision of selected prints by Victoria Delgadillo, Patricia Valencia and Dalila Paola Mendez included in this Riverside Museum of Art exhibit.
*Self Help Graphics: Aztlan, the Permanent Collection, and Beyond
Opening Reception + Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration
Thursday, October 6, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Free. Please join us for the Opening Reception of
Self Help Graphics: Aztlan, the Permanent Collection, and Beyond during the October Artswalk. Come celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with SHG and local artists, as well as with the Riverside County Mexican American Historical Society’s Roots of Our Family pop-up exhibition and speaker Professor Raymond Buriel at 6:30 p.m. Professor Buriel will be speaking on Mexican Culture and the Citrus Industry in Riverside.
*Alebrijes with Cosme Cordova
Saturday, October 15, and Sunday, October 16, 12 noon to 3 p.m., Free with paid admission or membership. Join Cosme Cordova for this special two-day workshop and learn how to make alebrijes, brightly colored Oaxacan-Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures. Though these sculptures are traditionally made of wood, Cosme will be helping visitors create fun papier mache alebrijes.
by victoriadelgadillo

ChIFF, Chicano International Film Festival 2016

On Saturday, September 10, 2016 the Chicano International Film Festival (ChIFF) took place at Plaza de la Raza, 3540 N. Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA  90031.  The day long film festival begin with live music, an art exhibit in the boat house, food and drink, various panel discussions on historical and contemporary Chicano filmmaking and a red carpet ceremony.

On Sunday, September 11, 2016 ChIFF moved to the Arclight Hollywood Theater, 6360 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028 for a special screening of feature film, “The Other Barrio.” This special screening is followed by Q&A with the filmmakers, a ChIFF Awards presentation, live music and a VIP reception.

Two fictitious film posters with a “films I wish I could have made” theme created by Victoria Delgadillo for the exhibit are  “Kung Fu Raza,” a Mexploitation style theme on good vs evil. “Dame Dolores,” a movie poster on the loves of Golden Age of Mexican Cinema star Dolores del Rio.

My 2nd piece in this exhibit "Kung Foo Raza"

"Dame Dolores" is my piece for this exhibit

by victoriadelgadillo

Indigenous Women and Creative Traditions: Transforming Lives through Radical Practice

Indigenous Women and Creative Traditions: Transforming Lives through Radical Practice

“I’m very honored to be a part of such an inspiring and important exhibition of Indigenous ceremonial art at Queensland, Australia’s University. Programming on The Spiritual and Healing Aspects of Art, Ritual and Ceremony took place in 2016. Many thanks to Prof. Yreina D Cervantez for recommending my work.” – Victoria Delgadillo.

This exhibition was curated by Alma Cervantes and Megan Darr and ran from June 21 to July 7, 2016. Read More

by victoriadelgadillo

From Ayotzinapa to Ferguson Protest Exhibition

From Ayotzinapa to Ferguson Protest Exhibition
May 1 through June 10, 2016

Self Help Graphics & Art in partnership with Social Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), the Center for the Study of Political Graphics and Art Division launch of a series of exhibitions and activities regarding the governmental systematic murder of youth of color in the United States and Mexico.

“I made a special digital poster (below) for this important art activism exhibit. The title is A2F. Please join in solidarity with the youth in America and Mexico who are being erased systematically from our world.” –Victoria Delgadillo

43_Ayotzinapa_to_Ferguson_hztl_web-1170x790
43

Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc. is a community arts center in East Los Angeles, California, USA. Formed during the cultural renaissance that accompanied the Chicano Movement, Self Help, as it is sometimes called, was one of the primary centers that incubated the nascent Chicano art movement, and remains important in the Chicano art movement, as well as in the greater Los Angeles community, today.
 
Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc.
1300 E 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90033
 
by victoriadelgadillo

Edges of Chaos: Promoting Madness & Dissent in the 90’s

PSSST Gallery in Boyle Heights opened with Edges of Chaos: Promoting Madness & Dissent in the 90’s  a series of events and two dance parties curated by the current resident artist Guadalupe Rosales & guest curator Adrian Rivas opening Friday June 3 and running until Friday June 9, 2016.

The events were:

CONVERSATION & VIDEO SCREENINGS
Friday June 3, 7-10pm
Artist-in-Residence Guadalupe Rosales and independent curator and PSSST Director Adrian Rivas host a video screening and conversation about artistic practice, (sub)culture, and politics. During her residency at Self Help Graphics, Rosales began an ongoing archival project called “Map Points.” At PSSST, she continues to work on this project developing an archive of photographs, objects and ephemera related the 90’s SoCal Latino party crew scene. Rosales will also open her studio to anyone who wants to learn about her current projects and residency.

BUST FREE: DANCE PARTY
Saturday June 4, 7-Midnight
DJ Sessions with DJ Dose Manuel Corral (Swing Kidz Crew), Carlos DJ Hi-C (The Valens / Head of Strictly Hardcore Ent.), Rob Free (Nice Dreams), DJ Boogieman (East LA / SGV), DJ Marvel from City Terrace and DJ Mixxo (SGV) spinning that Jungle House, Techno, and KROQ.

BEER BUST: DAYTIME DJ SESSIONS
Sunday June 5, Noon-5pm
Oskar De La Cruz (Owner of Luxe De Ville), Liz O, and Rob Free (Nice Dreams) spinning 90’s familia (LGBTQ).

SPOKEN TEXTS
Wednesday, June 8th, 7-9pm
Readings from 90’s diaries, Guadalupe talks with Leon Donjuan on the subject of 90’s Party Flyer Design. Presidential Campaign reading by Rosales and video by Raul Baltazar.

POR VIDA PRC (Public Resource Center): ART PRACTICE & POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Thursday, June 9th, 7-9pm
Sound Performance by Joe Galarza of Genetic Windsongs of Truth and Revolt and rare 90’s videos by Raul Baltazar, Rita Gonzalez (Acting Contemporary Art Department Head & Curator at LACMA) and Victoria Delgadillo/The Mexican Spitfires screening of LA MODA

PSSST
1329 E 3rd Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90033

UPDATE!!  FROM THE GUARDIAN ARTICLE BY RORY CARROLL – OCT 18, 2017

“Are white hipsters hijacking an anti-gentrification fight in Los Angeles?

Kean O’Brien, an artist who taught a course called Decolonization and Deconstruction at California State University, Long Beach, was a close friend of Jules Gimbrone and Barnett Cohen, who founded Pssst, a not-for-profit gallery. The friendship soured and O’Brien joined a campaign against the gallery.

“Those were my colleagues and friends who were making these big mistakes and causing displacement,” O’Brien said via email. “It is very unfortunate that I lost my friendships with Jules and Barnett … however, I stand proudly in the position I have taken on artwashing and will continue to challenge my colleagues, graduate school professors and friends as they participate in displacing people from their homes with their art careers. Our art careers are not worth more than people’s rights to housing.”

Gimbrone and Cohen closed PSSST in February, citing “constant attacks” and “highly personal” harassment, without identifying the sources. Gimbrone declined an interview request, saying only that he was “still processing all that happened”.

Several artists and gallery owners, speaking anonymously, cited other cases of former friends and colleagues who now picketed their exhibitions and assailed them on social media. “It’s all so weirdly interconnected. Most are people who have struggled in their own art career. It’s about take-downs,” said one.

Guadalupe Rosales, a successful Latina artist with roots in Boyle Heights who exhibited at Pssst, had her car vandalised. Trolls also criticised her on social media.

Rosales declined to comment on who targeted her, saying only in a joint statement with Matt Wolf, the director of a documentary about her, that the situation in Boyle Heights was ‘much more nuanced and complex’ than the ‘community versus the galleries’.

Gallery sources provided evidence of individuals who sought their patronage before turning against them via anonymous accounts on Instagram and other platforms. The Guardian put the allegations to two alleged trolls. One declined to respond, the other denied wrongdoing. The Guardian could not verify their role in online campaigns so is not naming them.”

by victoriadelgadillo

Cinema Directo

 
My solo exhibit: “Cinema Directo” from February 12 to March 20, 2016, took place at Steppling Art Gallery, San Diego State University lV, 720 Heber Avenue, Calexico, CA 92231 (760) 768-5536. Curated by SDSIV Gallery Director and Founder of The MexiCali Biennial, Prof. Luis G.Hernandez.

On Thursday, March 17, I traveled to Calexico for a weekend of events related to this exhibit. It started with my lecture entitled “Separate Reality: A Journey through Chicana/o Art”  followed by an artist reception in the gallery for Cinema Directo.  Many students attended. I received some very engaging questions on filmmaking and my artistic vision/methods when creating films.

On Friday, March 18,  Luis Hernandez arranged an interview about Cinema Directo at Radio Formula 1150 Mexicali, Baja California. Each Friday afternoon in the 3pm to 4pm spot News Anchor Ruben Gomez (twitter.com/ruhgr) features art from the Imperial Valley. I struggled through my 15 minutes of fame spot in Spanish–but it was fun!

 
Featured in the Exhibit were short art films and fantasy digital movie posters of films I wished I could direct.

LA Woman, was selected for “Out of the Window” the first and highly revered Transit TV Film Festival on the Los Angeles Metro.  LA Woman is a moment of solitude while driving across Los Angeles, where there is a spirituality of visual offerings, some spontaneous and others purposeful.  Influenced by Film Director Jean-Luc Godard of the French New Wave movement (i.e., no script or storyboard, and letting the narrative evolve on set), I wanted to communicate the experience of a heavy car culture ride in Los Angeles. In LA Woman, the film subjects are women on billboards invoked to tell their own interconnected stories.

Ms 40oz, a documentation of a larger exhibition on the gentrification of businesses in downtown Los Angeles, was a performance that I scripted and directed. Drawing from archetypes of gang violence in the media and feelings of agitation by the sudden media approval of singer Gwen Stefani dressed as a Chola, Ms 40oz was a self-determined humorous street intervention.  In the style of an premiere ribbon-cutting, which was comprised of mariachis and mural unveilings when my family opened a new business, Ms. 40oz celebrates the festivity of a street blessing for prosperity without forgetting those who came before.  Ms 40oz is portrayed by Jennifer Salinas, a former Miss Illinois and also a Miss America contestant.

Bɔrdər a joy ride in Tijuana to the beach with swept-away-by-a-wave music of Baja Californian musician Ceci Bastida. Bɔrdər, the phonetic pronunciation of the word border, features separated families, lovers and children sitting on both sides of the US/Mexico border sharing food, documents and letters through a chain-linked fence.  On the Tijuana side, there are restaurants with beachside panoramic views that are disturbed by the sudden lunge of a speeding immigration van pushing someone back for getting too close to US land. When this happens, diners in the restaurants jump up from their meals and everyone gasps. In Calexico I learned that the footage I filmed is no longer how that section of the border looks. 

LA Dream,  a film about The 6th Street Bridge Viaduct in East Los Angeles, a city monument that has appeared in numerous films, television shows, music videos and video games since 1932.  LA Dream was shot in Super 8 film and contains the elements of timelessness that I aspire to obtain in most of my work. Timelessness is achieved through a studied selection of clothing, props, sets, make-up, color choices, lighting and though the refusal to use the latest popular film embellishments (i.e., stickers, filters, re-coloring, the latest digital technology and fixes). 

Santa Perversa in Cuba, was filmed on location in 2008.  This film is a poetry video of Los Angeles performance artist Reina Alejandra Ibarra aka Reina Prado aka Healing Queen as she is offering her message of ardent love. A bootleg cd of Juan Formell y los Van Van that I purchased in a covert transaction on a Havana Vieja street, flavors the video with an authenticity of the moment.  Shot during a time when Americans traveling to Cuba could be prosecuted severely by the US government, Santa Perversa in Cuba is an entertaining time stamp of a moment in history.

Cinema Directo  featured what if code switching movie posters that I created such as What if La India Maria starred in a Bollywood film? These movie posters were inspired by my favorite film genres and themes, my artistic collaborators and by the following movie titles by Mexican Director Icaro Cisneros (1925 – 1984): Las Sobrinas del Diablo (1982), El Triangulo del Crimen (1983), Gente Violenta (1977), Las Cabareteras (1980),Vividores de Mujeres (1981), Las Fabulosas del Reventon (1982), Disputas en la Calle (1979), La Golfa del Barrio (1981),and Esos Viejos Raboverdes (1982).

by victoriadelgadillo

“The Space” Regeneracion

An historical overview of Regeneracion art space (1992ish -2000) was presented for the Getty initiative Pacific Standard Time at The San Diego Museum (May 2, 2015).  Attendees commented on the interesting history of this collective and their international work in social justice–how exciting it was to hear of events of such scale occurring in a seemingly quiet area of Los Angeles.

ezln

“Caught Between a Whore and an Angel” the first women’s exhibit at Regeneracion was produced by Patricia Valencia, Aida Salazar, Elizabeth Delgadillo Merfeld and Victoria Delgadillo in 1996. The idea to have a women’s show at Regeneracion was Patricia Valencia’s — inspired by Sub-comandande Ramona, Cecilia Rodriguez and the other Zapatista women in Chiapas coming to the forefront in leadership.

caught between a whore &

The show’s concept of living art as opposed to the usual paintings hung on the wall, complimented “In the Red,” (the first men’s performance exhibit at Regeneracion)–which was the idea of Elizabeth Delgadillo Merfeld.  Elizabeth also created the publicity image from a backdrop Patricia Valencia and Victoria Delgadillo painted on red cloth, using a photo projected image of a 1910 Zapatista soldada.  Aida Salazar was the brilliant show organizer/producer.  As an community organizer, Victoria Delgadillo established written and verbal communication updates with the participating artists, helping them to problem solve administrative matters, as well as persuaded everyone to include men in the show. Sometimes the whole family needs to come together, just as we women had helped with In the Red. There was a tremendous amount of work to put this show together, using our only resource: a network of friends.

Later, Claudia Mercado and Felicia Montes, the founders of Mujeres de Maiz noted that “Caught Between a Whore and an Angel,” inspired the inception of Las Mujeres de Maiz.  Its interesting to see how art can grow and inspire great things.  Regeneracion had many participants and many stories of art, music, words and resistance. This is just one of them.

“The body of a woman is also a battleground ” -Cecilia Rodriquez, EZLN (1995)

 

Las Mujeres de Chiapas marchan

(below) The Mexican Spitfires (Elizabeth Delgadillo Merfeld, Patricia Valencia & Victoria Delgadillo) created “La Moda” as their offering for the Caught Between a Whore and an Angel exhibit. It stars Marco Trejo aka DJ Yaqui (†), Patricia Valencia and Elizabeth Delgadillo Merfeld. Victoria Delgadillo filmed in the Direct Cinema genre style which took 1 hour. The script was spontaneously decided by the group during costume changes. After filming, it took Victoria 3 hours to create the synchronized sound track using her personal record collection and transcribing them onto a cassette tape. This film was created with a hand held video recorder shot in sequence (no edits) and a separate cassette tape for the sound. Artists Alma Lopez transferred the Video into a digitized MP4, later Martin Sorrondeguy & Rigo Maldonado added the cassette soundtrack to the digitized film.

View La Moda

Read more about La Moda

by victoriadelgadillo

Scotch Tape Cinema

One afternoon in July of 2015 I took a studio class at the Echo Park Film Center on experimental film making.  This is a very interesting technique on making looping films and looping sound tracks with no camera.

Basically, the film: is a transparent lead of 16mm film about 6 feet long with the beginning and the end taped together to create a loop. The images are magazine clippings (soaked in warm water to detach the pulp, leaving transparent images). The transparent images are adhered to the film lead by sandwiching the clippings between a 1/2 inch wide piece of transparent scotch tape to the film.

The sound: is an old music cassette tape made into a loop by opening the case and cutting out a piece big enough to make one circulation through the “play” process and scotch taping the beginning to the end to create a loop. The rest of the tape is taken out and the case is re-closed. Note that this can only be done on music cassette tapes that are sealed with tiny screws.

The above experimental film was created by Margie Schnibbe, Ariel Teal, Anna Ayeroff, and Victoria Delgadillo. The Scotch Tape Cinema and Sound class was taught by Mike Stoltz. He also digitized and edited the final version.

My film is the last section with the sound track of “Depeche Mode” on a loop. Enjoy! 

Below is another experimental film I made at EPFC (May 2016)–all on computer–“Vortex.” I can’t remember the process though. That IS my hand manipulating something. Now that I am looking at this it seems to me that the circle is the computer camera lense/eye, and I am touching the computer screen to get the waves. There must be a computer mirror setting to get those atmospheric views, as you record from the computer at the same time.  Well, remember that old age is not a factor on my memory, I tend to forget things I won’t use anymore. I’m just jaded.

by victoriadelgadillo

Democratizing Food in Boyle Heights

From a paper written by Prof. Enrique C. Ochoa February 2014, Democratizing Food Policies: Community Activists and Reclaiming Mexicana/o Food Cultures and Health in Boyle Heights:  

“PUBLIC ART
The arts, public art in particular, have been important forms of resistance by marginalized communities and a way for (re)claiming space and cultural identity. Chicana/o artists have long been working to ‘flip the script’ on aspects of culture and community that have been subjects to disparagement and erasure by colonial culture.  Since the Zapatista uprising in 1994, maize has been a growing subject (and medium) in the eastside art community.

  • Much of this work has focused on cultural symbolism and the reclaiming of maize and tortillas as key symbols of Mexican and indigenous identity. for example, the artist Joe Bravo uses tortillas as the canvas of his paintings of a wide variety of Chicana/o cultural icons, thus literally centering tortillas.
  • There is also a growing body of work linking capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy and their impacts on traditional diets and cultures. For example, many Chicana feminist artists such as members of the artist collective Mujeres de Maiz, are engaged in visual and performance art that examines, class, gender, and cultural resistance. The exhibit ‘100 Years of [Mexican] Food and Revolution” curated by Victoria Delgadillo and Leslie Gutierrez Saiz at Self Help Graphics in September and October 2010 captured the dynamics of food, culture, gender and revolution in Mexicana/o communities.”

100 Years of Food & Revolution postcard.  Concept: Victoria Delgadillo. Image: Leslie Gutierrez-Saiz

Read the entire paper by Prof. Enrique C. Ochoa here

by victoriadelgadillo

Photos

I recently got my Nikon digital camera fixed.  I am so happy, because (for over a year) I have had to use other cameras for taking pictures. The camera repairman said I should never try any settings outlined in the Nikon manual. Funny!

Taken with my Samsung telephone

The Annual Holiday Hustle 2013 in Boyle Heights.  Above: taken with my Samsung telephone camera

My hand while I drive home.

My hand while I drive home 2014. Above: taken with my Samsung telephone camera using my right hand.

Chain link fence in Boyle Heights.

Chain link fence in Boyle Heights 2014. Above: taken with a borrowed and very basic Kodak.

Waiting for Vickie Vertiz in Aix Provence 2013

Waiting for Vickie Vertiz in Aix Provence 2013.  Above: taken with a Canon Elura digital video camera.

My companion Frankie, who is always sleeping.

My companion Frankie (†) who is always sleeping 2014. Above: taken with my readjusted Nikon!

My living room, my work shop.

My living room, my work shop 2014. Above: taken with my Nikon.

Why only one brand at Target?

Why only one brand at Target? Above: taken with my Samsung telephone camera 2014.

by victoriadelgadillo

bawrder

In 2007 I made a short film on the Tijuana side of the San Diego border. I called it bawrder, the phonetic pronunciation of the word Border. It was interesting to hear people struggle to pronounce the title whenever it was mentioned, as difficult as the concept of an imaginary line that one must not cross. In the film, I featured the people that go to the border to look at the other side through the fence and are intimidated by American immigration officers driving vans quickly up and down the beach, close to the fence.

Most striking are the families visiting between the fence along the beach, some just chatting, others having picnics. Separated families, lovers and children sit on two sides of the border, sharing food, documents and letters through the chain-link fence. It has the sense of being in a prison, such as those experienced by weekend prison visitors who chat by telephone or through a hole in a glass barricade.

On the Tijuana side, there are restaurants with beachside panoramic views, that are disturbed by the sudden lunge of a speeding immigration van pushing back someone on the border, who may have gotten too close to the American side. People in the restaurants jump up from their meals and everyone gasps. It is a very peculiar group experience.

by victoriadelgadillo

Glamour Shotz

After a Glamour Shot

Glamour Shotz, A transformative store front beauty shop and performance–where you are the star!

In 2005, Glamour Shotz was part of a larger exhibit on gentrification. Gentrification is defined as the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displace poorer residents and artists.

The entire exhibition was called The Store Front Project, curated by Adrian Rivas at Gallery 727, located in downtown Los Angeles, California.  Adrian was inspired by the writings of Grant Kester, a Professor of Art History in the Visual Arts Department at UCSD. Each week Adrian’s store front gallery space would become a different business, mimicking the drastically changing downtown area of Los Angeles. The original concept of a Puerto Rican Pride photo studio business was that of photographer, Vanessa Sepulveda Shaushkin.  Multi-disciplinary artist Raul Baltazar added the self-scripted and impromptu political performance aspect to the store as the store front security guard, greeter, club barker and host.

Rigo Maldonado and Victoria Delgadillo were agitated with the sudden American media approval of Gwen Stefani (lead singer of No Doubt) dressed like a Chola. A Chola is a Mexican/Chicano term used to refer to a teenage girl who is closely associated to a street gang and dresses in a unique (non-mainstream) style of make-up, hair, and clothing.

The Chola style has been common in California barrios, since the 1920s. In California, teens dressed in a Chola/o fashion walking on a public street were/are photographed by the police and placed in a gang member file, even if they are not in a gang. Public schools have punished teens who dress in this fashion. To witness a media campaign on Chola attire being acceptable, because a white woman is wearing it, is offending to decades of Latino teens in California (and Mexico) who have been persecuted for this style.

As the two principal curators, Rigo Maldonado and Victoria Delgadillo scripted the various scenarios that would transpire in this beauty make over photo studio called Glamour Shotz. Initially there was a curatory desire to beckon gentrifiers to wear the Cholo style, because it was a way of “returning the gaze” [Anna Everett, Returning the Gaze: A Genealogy of Black Film Criticism, 1909 -1949 – March 12, 2001.] Rigo Maldonado created the above promo piece made for Glamour Shotz.

The concept of engaging people who were passing by to agree to a free make-over failed.  People passing by seemed uncomfortable wearing the gang style. Yet people lingered with curiosity outside and across the street, to view the process through the store window. Fortunately, the organizers’ artistic community loved playing the roles and getting their glamour shotz. Drop-by artists enjoyed creating some of the makeovers as well. Ms 40oz, Jennifer Salinas was an actual Miss Teen America contestant from Chicago, who performed a gang style blessing for all the fallen hommies (gang members), with a pseudo ribbon-cutting ceremony for the the Glamour Shotz storefront. Victoria Delgadillo’s family owned businesses in San Diego. The two elements they had for a successful grand opening was a mural unveiling and  a mariachi band.  Victoria brought these ideas to Glamour Shotz (writing, directing and producing the grand opeing performance). See segment above “Ms 40 oz.” 

The week long Glamour Shotz installation store culminated with a fashion show.

[Note: “Aztec Gold vs Glamour Shots” a documentation here by Victor Payan and Pocha Pena recaps the scenarios and store front space as it was conceived by curators Rigo Maldonado and Victoria Delgadillo. The beautiful mural “Fallen Cholo” was created and painted by muralist/artist Midst for Glamour Shots. The mural made a perfect backdrop for our urban transformations.]

They got transformed
ENJOY X 2
After a shot of Glamour
GOLD TEAM
RED TEAM
SISTERS
SISTAHS!
BEFORE
AFTER GLAMOUR SHOTZ
BEFORE
QUE LOKA!
WALKING DOWN THE STREET
THEN!
FROM CHARLIE BROWN GIRL
TO B GIRL
BASIC BUSINESS GUY
AFTER!
BEFORE
. . . WOW!
FROM THE MERCADO
TO THE 40oz
TATOO ARTIST
KEEPING IT REAL
by victoriadelgadillo

Institut des Amériques

Titel

These past weeks, I have been too busy to blog. Someone noted last night, that I am like everyone in LA keeping extremely busy to feel that I am having a full-life. Work, a flu and more work are my only excuses. Financial woes too and cramming everything into some time allotment.

I submitted an application for a grant, and tried to file more, but on the other applications I was either too late or too early. It seemed like destiny was saying “Move on to the next thing, Mujer.” It is said that there is some easy flow, when things are meant to be. I am still trying to experience or get-into-the-groove of what that might feel like. My life is struggle, struggle and then some more of the same.

Latched onto someone’s star, I have been invited to present my art work at a conference in France this December. Instituts des Amériques/Women in the Americas conference in partnership with, the Centre for Mexican and Central America Studies (CEMCA) in its 11th edition of organizing this conference. This time taking place in Marseille, France. The congress will analyze the continuities and changes in roles, identities and representations of women in the Americas. It will be held in English, French and Spanish and will lead to several international publications.

Publication! Yes, I am writing like crazy, trying to document what my art is about in 6000 words, English and Spanish. My mind wanders with all the ideas that I have and sometimes contradicting my panel: “Feminist Interventions: Art and Community Building in a Transnational Era.” Writing about what one does, when one likes to be behind the scenes is a mega challenge, coupled with getting the finances together to travel and find accommodations–a race that is neck and neck. Wish I had people, like other artists do, but I am sure I would reject that eventually. I love my privacy.

It occurs to me that maybe I have let-go as an artist, and it’s only in my mind that I think I am such a controller (even when behind the scenes). I am going to ponder that more. My mind is all over the place these days. Anyway this is the place “Axe 8 Arts.” I am getting ready to make my European debut. “When I am aligned with my path, the universe opens doors in front of me.”

by victoriadelgadillo

Bad Girls Leave Home

Heartfelt & Homespun, 2004, Mixed Media

Heartfelt & Homespun, 2004, Mixed Media

There is an association called Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambios Sociales (Women who are Active in Academia and Social Change) established in 1982, at UC Davis, with the purpose of documenting the contributions of Chicanas and sharing it with other feminists. MALCS sponsors an institute on themes related to academic pursuits and world change. This year the conference takes place in July at The Ohio State University, with the theme this year of Movements, Migrations, Pilgrimages and Belongings.

Our panel discussion: Bad Girls Leave Home: Subverting the Good Girl Aesthetic in Prose, Performance and Art Activism was selected as one of the presenters for the institute! Usually, I am really lame at writing proposals and getting them accepted. I cringe when I press send on these things. That is why I love the collective–there’s power in a group of heads. Even though my words were the opening for our proposal, it goes down better sent and edited by other hands.

The group consists of Maya Chinchilla, Reina Prado, Vickie Vertiz and me. For this panel presentation I am creating a Power Point. I have been attending the University of YouTube recently, getting some techniques and tips on making my presentation interesting.

Although I have presented many times on Art Activism, each version is different. I am still active and evolving in this genre. As a presenter one must be informative and brief. That is difficult, because once a devotee begins speaking about a personal passion, they become transfixed. My greatest fear is awaking from my talk and seeing that the audience is restless and bored.

by victoriadelgadillo

My Film Making Inspiration

What inspires my art, are those around me. If you look at enough of my work, you will start to realize that many of the models I use are people that I know, mostly friends.  I suppose all artists draw from their surroundings.

Especially, when I look at my body of film work, I realized that I am not creating a film, but more of a moving photograph of my subject.  I don’t try to write a script or make my stars do anything that is foreign to them. I pick my subjects, because I have noticed them doing a certain activity that I find intriguing and then try to capture that same action or gesture on film. My actors are not playing a role, they are being themselves–or a portion of themselves. They are playful, absurd, emotional or sexual—all the emotions that pepper my art.

I draw from the American film industry way of creating films, where ‘film star’ personalities are always the same character in any film in which they appear.  There are no surprises when you go see a favorite American film star. You want to be transported by their usual magnetic and truthful screen persona–which is always the same. Great acting is more of an artistic expression–where the actor convinces you that they are someone else. I believe that the ‘film star’ is a more truthful human portrayal than an actor.  No matter how excellent an actor is, they are still acting.

That is why I look to my friends as a source of inspiration and translate that inspiration into art.  There are times when I laugh loudly and inappropriately, because I notice one of my friends in one of ‘their gesture’ modes and I am delighted. I am always conscious of the roles we all play in the stage of real life and often step outside of life-dramas as a viewer, while they are occurring.

I have been asked, “How did you accomplish that?” or “How did you make that person do that?” I explain that the person is being themselves or the “self” that I bring out in them.  I piece together a loose and changeable story line, review it with my stars, create a supportive setting, leave the dialogue up to the stars or direct them to say something while I am filming.

I usually do all my own film shooting and sometimes edit while I am filming, because something occurs to me in the moment or because some perfect lighting or. background change happened. I use inexpensive film equipment to bring an element of ‘snap-shot’ culture to my work. I think super slick color and lighting would throw me off or I’d try figuring out how to make it look less Hollywood.

by victoriadelgadillo

LA Noir

In 2002 I was part of a Maestras (Female Print Master) Atelier called “Upraise of the Urban Goddess”, curated by Diane Gamboa. These series of women master-printers (founded in 1983) includes many illustrious artists, themes and prints. One day there will be an exhibit of these prints, maybe at LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art), because they have suites of every print in this series in their archive.

For “Upraise of the Urban Goddess”, Diane gave us readings from Anais Nin, Diane Arbus, a photo essay from French Vogue called Santa Maria de los Chicanos by Peter Sellars , an essay on Great Goddesses (Chamunda, Kali, Coatlicue, Laussel, Wilendorf),  an article on an 80 year-old woman coping with mental illness in the Los Angeles County jail, the Autobiography of Bette Davis, Home Remedies from Mexico, excerpts from Carlos Fuentes book The Goddess who hunts alone and “A Novice Woman’s Quick Reference Guide to Erotically Dominating a Submissive Man” for our inspiration.

Full View

Full Print View

My print Knowingly Walking Through the Imaginary River Towards Divine Destiny, is about self guidance with help from ritual and intuition–as one travels in a world that is not always what it appears to be.

“Upraise of the Urban Goddess is an open ended concept that positions women in the limelight.  This project is an observance on misunderstood sex in a time of great change . ”  – Diane Gamboa, Curator

“Delgadillo discusses in her print an experience of female intuitiveness and a universality of spirituality, ultimately a meditation for healing.  The central image strikingly reveals the flesh-ness of the woman.  She is composed of colors that resemble the palettes of biological, anatomical drawings.  These colors also draw the eye over the entirety of the body, introducing the details of her face and neck, while slowly down the gaze at her torso and legs, as well as her arms which extend outwards in a gesture of embrace and balance. The candle and the Tarot card in the woman’s hands are gently wielded as offerings to the viewer, yet also to the city in the background. Delgadillo’s image is very much about the physical locale of the city.  As LA moor where the city figures prominently as a character in the narrative, Delgadillo introduces cityscape as an element of the goddess. Yet, over the other shoulder of the woman, we glimpse a row of five hearts on the horizon.  These hearts seem to address the notion of growth and hope for the city and inhabitants, much unlike a noir metropolis.  The hearts and the city are un-trusive to the central image, but are powerful enough details to complete the characteristics of the goddess image and remind the viewer of the urban situation of contemporary spirituality.

Crowned by the sun, or moon, the woman looms forward.  She is grounded in the element of water, energizing her with strength and the curative possibilities of woman and water. The green haze of the sky and pink clouds offer a dreamscape setting, but also call to mind the element of air and smog of LA skies.  The speckled mid-layer of the print creates energy and movement, perhaps of the city and perhaps also of the figure herself.  It is this energy and movement that the feminine force in Delgadillo’s print calls forth.  Speaking to the universality, both of body and of time, the woman’s image conjures notions of the ever present-ness of the female as a source of wisdom and intuition.

The river becomes a figure central to our intuitions and our experiences of the metropolis.  The Los Angeles River is legendary for trickling through the concrete basins along the freeways and through neighborhoods.  Yet, it remains a central figure of imaginings because it is our aqua vitae.  Although it currents diminish to threads, they are threads of history, and threads reminding us of the naturalness of life that continues.  Moreover, the woman walks through this river as a necessary aspect of her being and presence, she has perhaps become the currents of the river, a river that continues through her.” – Martina Melendez, Documentarian

by victoriadelgadillo

The Sound of Performance Music

Click here and listen:
HareKrishPies
Jeninche and the Jaguars

Drummer du jour [heart], Maria Azteca [crown], Jeninche [green circle], James Brownie [star]

Drummer du jour [heart], Maria Azteca [crown], Jeninche [green circle], James Brownie [star]

It may seem like a weird thing to say, but those that know me will agree when I state here that I have good taste. Mainly it is limited to artistic matters. I have these strong epiphanies about an art concept, a curation, or music–whose familiarity immediately drives me to do extensive research on the internet. My personal understated art business mode is based on a lifetime of being looked at as a gold mine. When a new acquaintance gives me “that look”, I turn down my ability to spew out ideas and am glad that early on in life I learned to say no. I always felt that limiting myself to just one project or idea would keep me from growing as an artist.

In 2006, artist Rigo Maldonado and I curated a two person exhibit at Voz Alta Performance Space in San Diego. We wanted it to be something fun. He also wanted to exhibit some recent photos he had taken on sploshing. Sploshing is a sexual fetish where the participants smash food on their genitals, or collapse naked into food to reach sexual heights. In the case of Rigo’s photos it was dessert sploshing, so we agreed to exhibit art that related to dessert fetishes and called it Aunt Rita Wants Pie. The title was based on a road trip Rigo took with two women with self-indulgent appetites and their semi-comatose aunt who allegedly needed to stop at every road house for pie, “because she was very hungry”.

In addition to our art pieces on the walls, Rigo said he would perform a PG version (speedo and goggles) of sposhing at the exhibit opening. The storefront space lent itself to a live performance in the display windows, and also had a small stage near the back of the room. As Rigo practiced his sploshing at home, it occurred to me that we should have live music. But what kind of music would support our dessert fetish theme? After slight thought, I knew I was ready for something new. That’s another thing, I get bored quickly. I thought, the music would not have to be from a band with superb musicianship–in fact, the rawer, the better– but the band would have to be genuine and committed to the theme.

My friends Jennifer Araujo, Dewey Tafoya and Becky Cortez are fellow vegetarian foodies, artistic dilettantes, community activists and punk music lovers. Based on friendship, mutual interests, culinary concerns, and a hunch, I presented the exhibit concept to them and pronounced that they would be the band performing at the opening. I called them the HareKrishPies.

They took to the invitation like cocoa powder to hot water. While Dewey and Becky industrially composed original music, Jennifer wrote lyrics for the songs about the angst and preoccupation of weight and the love of food. She would be the designated front person in the band. One song, It’s Cheaper to be Fat, was a declaration of acceptance of the delicious American regime of fat-filled, fast-food diets. Another song about the 99¢ Store, praised their inexpensive offerings of cookies, candies and cakes. Each song had a charming introductory story prefacing it, as Jennifer shyly explained her work process.

Usually very soft spoken, sweet natured and chill, Jennifer’s lyric/poetry writing skills impressed on me that she had always been a secret song writer and charming emcee. Dewey (James Brownie of the HareKrishPies), and his GF, Becky from Texas are  experienced with music.   They rocked the backline, and were the techies and roadies all rolled into one. Becky and Dewey laid down some interesting music and so quickly. At each performance they have conscientiously created an elevator-ride rework of their sound. It requires a special talent to write and arrange music, I attribute that to their love of the craft and the crafters.

A few months after Aunt Rita Wants Pie opened, the group performed at a Mexica New Year festival in East Los Angeles. Armed with the same music and an additional song called The Vulture, they reinvented themselves as Jeniche and the Jaguars.

Outdoors on Chung King Road

In September (2012) with a new drum machine, the group was invited to perform at an exhibit called Narcolandia in Chinatown (Los Angeles). Much more performance-band focused, this time they renamed themselves Conjunto L@s Nac@s  (pronounced nah-kohs–or in this all gender inclusive version nah-ko-ahs ), a Mexican slang word to describe the bad-mannered and poorly educated people of supposedly lower social classes. It is equivalent to those who say ‘white trash’ in American English and culture. Narcolandia had a drug trafficking art theme. Dewey was now James Brown of  Conjunto L@s Nac@s

Bandstand on Chung King Road in front of gallery.

At Narcolandia, the group maintained the same song tunes, but with new lyrics related to the current drug trafficking wars. In Crackhead Stole My Purse, Jennifer’s pen is still humorous when she writes about being a victim of petty theft, because drug addiction has its needs. Teresa Mendoza, is based on a Mexican Telenovela drama that depicts the rise of Teresa Mendoza, a young woman from Mexico who becomes the most powerful drug trafficker in southern Spain. In the song, Conjunto L@s Nac@s beg Teresa to drop the high life of drug carteling and think of all the suffering she is causing in the world.

Fans!

 

Above are two songs from the group in 2006. Recorded in a very utilitarian, un-sophisticated way, Becky tucked them into one of her famous CD compilation of her favorite tunes and gave it to me as a gift. The group is 1000 miles away from their beginning, but the original concept of performing at an art show as a three dimensional live performance is bam there. Unless you know the trio, you may not recognize their sound stylings and definitely, you will not recognize them from their newest adopted band name.

Chung King Road

To get in touch with Becky, Dewey & Jennifer email them at djtafoya@gmail.com

by victoriadelgadillo

Art Process

September 25, 2012

Here’s how my print process begins. Step 1 -take a picture of what I want to draw.

Bolsa de Mercado

Step 2,  I translate the photo into black & white (using a basic photo editing on computer)—cropping the view to make it interesting.  My friend Leslie Gutierrez took these pictures below for me. She did it with a Nikon, indoors, overhead lighting, no flash.  It’s hard to shoot plastic (as seen in the color version above)–it can have too much shine and blur the details.

Option 1

In Option 1, there is a hint of the bag. In Option 2, you can see the complete bag.

Option 2

Now I can see the vertical and horizontal lines better in the grey-tone version, and can plot out the separations on acetate sheets. I am doing the color separations old school, hand painting the acetates with ink. These days there is a temptation to create the separations on computer. Sure it’s faster, but then the finished print becomes too mechanical, too slick and loses the artist’s personal touch.

I am thinking of color. Not sure if I will use the original bag colors of red, white and green. I like blues and oranges more. We’ll see. Choices, choices and problem solving–that is art.

November 15. Leslie is so clever, I did not have to take another photo, this is actually the red bag version. Les suggested that I photoshop it to change the color and voila I got this look. Love it!  So above is the color scheme I am going for in my print and the final cropping too. I think you can tell what it is, but it is not so obviously figurative–like when you see the whole bag.  I’m going to start my separations next week.

November 17. Met with the Master Printer and talked MORE about color.  I know color only excites a few of us– it’s an art thing. He gave me a sheet of rubylith to cut my background layer. The background (in orange) will be the first pass of color. He suggested that the colors should be printed in this order:  yellow, blue and then the magenta all in transparent inks so that when two colors merge, they will create a third color.  I love transparent paint! Nice to work with someone that does this everyday. Printing in layers is tricky.

Below I adhere the registration targets to the my transparency sheets. The registrations are used to help align each layer.

November 20.  Thanksgiving slowed down my process. The studio was closed for 4 days!  Right before they closed for the holiday, the studio manager said my blown-up poster model was too pixelated.  He said it would be hard to see the lines well enough on the light table to transfer the design onto the separations. Sighhh. It took me forever to get the bad poster versions done too. Staples could not get them right.  It took them a whole day to print it close enough to the size I needed. A waste of $10 and 4 bad posters. Urgh.

November 27. After a nice Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends—I got back to my image. I was frustrated about it from Saturday to this morning (3 days!) Lots of thinking about my plan of attack. I am not sure if this works for everyone, but when I sleep on matters the very next day I have figured out a plan. I woke up at 4:30am this morning and logically figured out what I needed to do. I have always believed that thinking logically can resolve anything in life, because in the world nothing is 100% one way or another.  I am sure it was something I did, not Staples. After searching for the right terminology, I knew how to ask for what I needed help with. I watched a YouTube videos on the subject and got some good tutoring.  I needed to raise the resolution, lock it in and resize the image to what poster dimensions I wanted.  Que pendeja! So simple. The answers are out there! Actually I do not work on graphics that much, I don’t know what buttons to push. Visual tutorials are my best friends. Finally I got my print model sized into a 30 X 22 poster and printed it at Office Depot. Cost $14. Tax deduction for sure. To make it fit into the correct proportions, I had to change the image a bit from Option 1. Ah ha–but now that task is done and I am REALLY ready to hit the light table and create my hand made transparencies. Exciting!

This is my final design model for my print.

December 5. I have put in at least 6 hours on hand inking my separation for magenta and I am not even done (see what I mean in my image below). Everything that will have magenta in it for my print (including orange and purple) require ink blocking.  Below, my photocopied image has a sheet of acetate over it and I am blocking out the magenta areas with my rapidograph pen. I use a small color image for reference, as I count the lines over and over to be sure I am blocking the right areas. I’ve been going into the studio at 6am in the morning, because I am fresher at that time. I rock the jazz station alone and get into an inking meditation. I guess I could have made it as a comic book inker. In truth, I could have drawn the original image myself, it is a simple rectangle. But I wanted it to have the accuracy of realistic woven fabric and accomplishing that is tedious. Inking all that woven fabric was tedious enough. Usually hand drawn silk screen images are less complicated and “complicated” is my middle name–sometimes.

Me, hand inking

December 14. My artist in residency begins! I have been working on my separations non-stop for over a week now.  I had 3 separations completed–but there are always issues to resolve.  Thinking in print is difficult.  When you are inking the separations, what you ink will be the color, not the clear spaces. Darn! Of course, my first separation was wrong! I did it backwards.  I had to scramble to get my first separation ready on the first day. We could lose a day of printing! The color must be laid down in order. The good thing was that we gained a separation for the color blue, which I had not done yet. Yes, the blocked separation I did for the first day was what I needed for the blue color, with a few tweaks–whew. Glad nothing was wasted.

The master printer burnt the screen with a system very much like photo developing. Since it is done in the dark, I could not take a picture. A green photo sensitive liquid is coated on the silk screen, the ink separation is place below the screen on a transparent glass table.  From beneath, a photographer’s light is lit for a designated amount of time–thereby the separation is transferred onto the screen.

Power washing the burnt screen

Power washing the burnt screen

Above the screen is then power washed to remove the areas that were ink blocked. Exposed are the areas where the ink will be pushed through on the paper with a squeegee. The white areas on the screen are open, the green areas are blocked. Note that the image is upside down. This run will be the first color–a peach shade for the background.

Below, the master printer is blocking any areas that may have been exposed in the wash, to make sure there are no pin holes.

Blocking any pin holes

Blocking any pin holes

Then onto the printing. . . . .

Dec 15 Inking the screen

Dec 15 Inking the screen

Dec 15 First print

Dec 15 First print

Dec 15 Pulling out first print

Dec 15 Pulling out first print

Dec 15 First color "peach"

Dec 15 First color “peach”

Dec 15 Seventy more to go

Dec 15 Seventy more to go

Dec 18 (after the weekend) the 2nd color is "blue"

Dec 18 (after the weekend) The 2nd color is “blue”

Dec 19 Third color is "yellow"

Dec 19 Third color is “yellow”

Dec 20 The 4th color is added "magenta"

Dec 20 The 4th color is added “magenta”

Dec 21 Last color is "black", but it is too muddy. Bag looks dirty and dull. Yuk!

Dec 21 Last color is “black”, but it is too muddy. Bag looks dirty and dull. Yuk!

Dark blue final color. Love it!

Dec 22 Dark blue is REALLY the final color I wanted. Love it!

December 22. Voila! My print is done and just like I wanted. It was loads of work, but so worth it. Could I improve it? Of course, each new subject is an opportunity to learn and each new attempt is an opportunity to  translate your image into something else. I don’t feel my print is an actual copy of the model, it has my artistic flavor through my hands-on drawing/inking, color choices and the elimination of factory woven details.

After the prints are created, the separations and bad prints are destroyed by the studio. Yes! It keeps dumpster divers and thieves from copying and selling the prints. This is true.

My print is a tribute to the working class people that use these recycling bags for everything from grocery shopping to laundry washing. When my friend Becky Cortez saw it –she said “This image reminds me of you!”  Perfect. These types of bags are a reoccurring theme in my art and even though it is a common still life, it is an overlooked powerful icon of our times.

by victoriadelgadillo

Sketchbook Tour

sketchbooksketchbook

I’m part of a nation-wide sketch book tour traveling across the US from April – November 2012.  It is being organized by Art House Co-op and will wind up living at the Brooklyn Art Library.  Those visiting Brooklyn, New York can visit the thousands of little sketch books being archived there now, books by artists from all over the world.  It is interesting to be a part of such a huge collection and collective of artists with different skills and interests.

The stop in Los Angeles took place on May 25 & May 26. 2012  at an art gallery in Echo Park called iam8bit .  I didn’t know what to expect, all my communications with the Sketchbook Project people had been on line. I was delighted to enter a foyer at iam8bit of interestingly framed sketchbook drawings that led into a larger room where an impromptu library was erected. Exciting.

After getting an on-the-spot library card at the first computer station, you were asked to go to the next group of computers to request books.  Your order was received on yet another computer (behind the crowd control ropes)  by the library staff.  In a few minutes the staff librarians called out your name and handed you the maximum amount of books you could check-out–2. Books were organized in sections, my section was “In 10 Minutes”. I did not see my sketch book, but got a text each time guests in all the tour cities checked-out my book.

People stood around or sat and enjoyed looking a the sketchbooks that are 4X6 inches comprised of 50 pages each.  I am not an avid sketcher and found the months from August to December of 2011, laborious and frustrating wrapped in self discovery.   The Sketchbook Tour exhibit was  very different from any art event I have participated in.  I liked it!

The Brooklyn Book Library got a cool write-up during the 2012 Sketchbook Tour in The New York Times!  click here

Here are some of the sketches from my sketchbook:

Mixed medium

Blue ink pen

Ink embellished print

Pen & ink

Pen & ink

by victoriadelgadillo

Peel Here Snapshot

(Above) Peel Here 5, a photo from The Dirt Floor Magazine of Victoria Delgadillo’s sticker.

The Dirt Floor was a leading contemporary and underground arts and culture magazine dedicated to surfacing the best of street, underground art, and pop culture in its many forms. Now its a side note here  Sticky Rick curated the Peel Here Adhesive Art exhibit and created Victoria’s sticker from the silk screen print below.

“Vickie (Victoria Delgadillo) always loves a party where the talking is good ’cause the voices  get under her skin just like the funk in the music that makes her body move and her hands follow in a sweet sway in front of her, hands that find their way across a canvas sometimes or destiny’s cards, so they’d tell her where she’s at, though she’s never been no place too long, drifting through age and mind, growing a buddhist’s bud in a shui’ed out potted garden just to see where it takes her, maybe to a psychic surgeon somewhere in San Diego or a third eye convention in space”

..from “snapshots” a series of shorts of my friends by Aida Salazar