Dreams and Memories
Gouache on paper
22 x 30 in
1993
Latin American Women Artists of the United States: The Works of 33 Twentieth-Century Women
By Robert Henkes
McFarland & Company, Inc.
Jefferson, NC
1999
Artist’s Statement
The nature of my artwork revolves around my duo experience as a woman and Chicano living the contemporary lifestyle of the twentieth century and studying the ancient indigenous traditions of Mexico and the Americas. I have worked to discover woman in her modern and ancient place as a source of strength, love and integrity. I believe that all women are a part of the earth and can be inspired by relationships with and through nature.
My art images are dedicated to the image of women understood in the Chicano-Indigena cultural and spiritual concept. It is my belief that an artist must integrate their life’s experience into a consolidated whole in order to produce an art image true to themselves and the message that they are to share with their audience. As a Chicano, I now participate in many indigenous ceremonial events throughout California and the Southwest.
I often use the image of the full face, with a background of trees, water, fire, and wind to exemplify the most precious aspects of serenity and love within woman. The eyes became the vehicle of these aspects of woman, coupled with the purity of the classical nude form. I have also completed a large series of woman’s images surrounding pain and loss. I have selected the symbol of dismemberment to describe feelings of loss and loneliness, which so many women experience through the death of loved ones, dreams and hope. It is my firm belief that the woman is the symbol of the earth, and that each woman can learn directly from the earth the aspects of loyalty, integrity, honor, generosity and courage.
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