Image Gallery
Prelude to Tucson — February 18-19, 2021To view an artist’s gallery, click on the thumbnail. If you would like to comment on any of the images, use the Comments section at the bottom of the page (be sure to indicate which artist and image you are commenting about).
AAPLAC extends special thanks to Kristen T. Woodward of Albright College for suggesting this feature for our conference and for providing helpful guidance with its design. We are excited to include some of her art on this page.
Dani Coronado
Educator
Masc
I have light skin and don’t speak Spanish. I have grown up with the privileges my appearance brings and have only recently realized the plight of my fellow LatinX. The white-elitest culture, especially prevalent in the past four years, has pushed me to study my heritage and analyze my personal identity therein. I focused on corn, a fun nickname from the American pronunciation of my Hispanic last name (Coronado) and an agricultural staple of Peru. I learned its use in ceremonial rites, which lead me to the anthropromorphic imagery in Masc and Femme, and the juicy beverage Chicha Morada. I wanted to express the varietals of corn similar to my various cultural identities in Corn, Huitlacoche, Maíz Morada. Finally, in my self-portrait Kulli Anqas (Blue Violet), I address my personal identification as a descendant of the Inca and how it personally affects me in the current climate of today’s culture.
Femme
I have light skin and don’t speak Spanish. I have grown up with the privileges my appearance brings and have only recently realized the plight of my fellow LatinX. The white-elitest culture, especially prevalent in the past four years, has pushed me to study my heritage and analyze my personal identity therein. I focused on corn, a fun nickname from the American pronunciation of my Hispanic last name (Coronado) and an agricultural staple of Peru. I learned its use in ceremonial rites, which lead me to the anthropromorphic imagery in Masc and Femme, and the juicy beverage Chicha Morada. I wanted to express the varietals of corn similar to my various cultural identities in Corn, Huitlacoche, Maíz Morada. Finally, in my self-portrait Kulli Anqas (Blue Violet), I address my personal identification as a descendant of the Inca and how it personally affects me in the current climate of today’s culture.
Chicha Morada
I have light skin and don’t speak Spanish. I have grown up with the privileges my appearance brings and have only recently realized the plight of my fellow LatinX. The white-elitest culture, especially prevalent in the past four years, has pushed me to study my heritage and analyze my personal identity therein. I focused on corn, a fun nickname from the American pronunciation of my Hispanic last name (Coronado) and an agricultural staple of Peru. I learned its use in ceremonial rites, which lead me to the anthropromorphic imagery in Masc and Femme, and the juicy beverage Chicha Morada. I wanted to express the varietals of corn similar to my various cultural identities in Corn, Huitlacoche, Maíz Morada. Finally, in my self-portrait Kulli Anqas (Blue Violet), I address my personal identification as a descendant of the Inca and how it personally affects me in the current climate of today’s culture.
Corn, Huitlacoche, Maíz Morada
I have light skin and don’t speak Spanish. I have grown up with the privileges my appearance brings and have only recently realized the plight of my fellow LatinX. The white-elitest culture, especially prevalent in the past four years, has pushed me to study my heritage and analyze my personal identity therein. I focused on corn, a fun nickname from the American pronunciation of my Hispanic last name (Coronado) and an agricultural staple of Peru. I learned its use in ceremonial rites, which lead me to the anthropromorphic imagery in Masc and Femme, and the juicy beverage Chicha Morada. I wanted to express the varietals of corn similar to my various cultural identities in Corn, Huitlacoche, Maíz Morada. Finally, in my self-portrait Kulli Anqas (Blue Violet), I address my personal identification as a descendant of the Inca and how it personally affects me in the current climate of today’s culture.
Peruana
I have light skin and don’t speak Spanish. I have grown up with the privileges my appearance brings and have only recently realized the plight of my fellow LatinX. The white-elitest culture, especially prevalent in the past four years, has pushed me to study my heritage and analyze my personal identity therein. I focused on corn, a fun nickname from the American pronunciation of my Hispanic last name (Coronado) and an agricultural staple of Peru. I learned its use in ceremonial rites, which lead me to the anthropromorphic imagery in Masc and Femme, and the juicy beverage Chicha Morada. I wanted to express the varietals of corn similar to my various cultural identities in Corn, Huitlacoche, Maíz Morada. Finally, in my self-portrait Kulli Anqas (Blue Violet), I address my personal identification as a descendant of the Inca and how it personally affects me in the current climate of today’s culture.
Soy Peruana, pero soy Americana (I am Peruvian, but I am American). As our world continues to grow in acceptance of other cultures, expanding our “world view,” I struggle with the ideas of assimilation that I have grown up with. In my art, I explore the historical traditions, native resources, and powerful symbols of the Inca culture. I focus most on finding my personal identity as a half-Peruvian female who grew up in an American household, the attributes of conservatism in my Hispanic-Catholic upbringings, and the political tensions of the U.S. in relation to my bloodline.
The catalyst to this internal search stems from my years teaching in Kansas City Public Schools at the “ELL hub” of our district. I actively work with immigrant families, some undocumented, who face this acculturation being placed in “low-performing” public schools. We collaborate on expressing ourselves in personal cultural identities, meeting white-washed standards in our own way. With such a diverse group of students, half of which identify as Hispanic, I focus on giving students a voice in an institution where they are asked to assimilate. I’m excited to engage with other conference participants on educational policies that work with a proud and growing Latin culture.
Ned Flanagan
Echols Scholar, University of Virginia
Sigue Adelante: El Camino del Migrante
Sigue Adelante: El Camino del Migrante is a collection of poems with accompanying images which collectively seek to convey what a migrant traveling from Latin America to the United States might encounter on their journey. Every poem is inspired by the true stories of migrants and their own reflections on their path to the U.S./Mexico border. The title “Sigue Adelante” highlights the incredible perseverance and determination that permeate practically every migrant’s story of hope and struggle to reach a family member, safety, or a chance for a better life.
Introduction to Sigue Adelante: El Camino del Migrante
Sigue Adelante: El Camino del Migrante is a collection of poems with accompanying images which collectively seek to convey what a migrant traveling from Latin America to the United States might encounter on their journey. Every poem is inspired by the true stories of migrants and their own reflections on their path to the U.S./Mexico border. The title “Sigue Adelante” highlights the incredible perseverance and determination that permeate practically every migrant’s story of hope and struggle to reach a family member, safety, or a chance for a better life.
La Bestia
Sigue Adelante: El Camino del Migrante is a collection of poems with accompanying images which collectively seek to convey what a migrant traveling from Latin America to the United States might encounter on their journey. Every poem is inspired by the true stories of migrants and their own reflections on their path to the U.S./Mexico border. The title “Sigue Adelante” highlights the incredible perseverance and determination that permeate practically every migrant’s story of hope and struggle to reach a family member, safety, or a chance for a better life.
Me Dijeron
Sigue Adelante: El Camino del Migrante is a collection of poems with accompanying images which collectively seek to convey what a migrant traveling from Latin America to the United States might encounter on their journey. Every poem is inspired by the true stories of migrants and their own reflections on their path to the U.S./Mexico border. The title “Sigue Adelante” highlights the incredible perseverance and determination that permeate practically every migrant’s story of hope and struggle to reach a family member, safety, or a chance for a better life.
Esposados de la Oportunidad
Sigue Adelante: El Camino del Migrante is a collection of poems with accompanying images which collectively seek to convey what a migrant traveling from Latin America to the United States might encounter on their journey. Every poem is inspired by the true stories of migrants and their own reflections on their path to the U.S./Mexico border. The title “Sigue Adelante” highlights the incredible perseverance and determination that permeate practically every migrant’s story of hope and struggle to reach a family member, safety, or a chance for a better life.
Ned is a third-year undergraduate student studying Public Policy and Leadership as well as Global Development Studies and Latin American Studies at the University of Virginia. Shaped by experiences working along the U.S./Mexico border with deportees and asylum seekers from Central America, Ned has specific interests in immigration policy, humanitarian aid, and asylum law. Ned spent four months volunteering for the Kino Border Initiative (Iniciativa Kino para la Frontera) in Nogales, Sonora/Nogales, Arizona where he served daily in the aid center and regularly visited migrants in detention centers in Arizona. Before working with KBI, Ned spent four months studying Spanish, Quechua, and indigenous movements in Bolivia and Peru. As a Research Assistant with the UVA Humanitarian Collaborative, Ned has conducted research about the history, efficacy, and ethics of global humanitarian action as well as how best to promote early childhood development in crisis contexts (ECDiE).
Other Collaborators: Wenceslo Hernandez
Reyna García
Social Activist Artist-Cultural Worker, Reyna’s Gallery Latino Cultural Art
Voces de Esperanza
“Voices of Hope,” also known as “Voces de Esperanza,” is composed of three pieces that are conjoined together to represent one complete message. The first piece represents the immigrant individual who has come to the United States to create a better way of life. The immigrant is looking back at what they are leaving behind but at the same time taking a step forward, of what they think might be their future. They are leaving their country, their home, family and their culture, but they want to go to a new land and find a better way of life, conquering the American dream. The artist expresses the feeling of this difficult transition as they leave what is familiar to learn and adapt to the unfamiliar. All this is necessary for their new beginning. The second piece represents the struggle of the economy as people lose their homes, jobs, and all that is necessary to sustain in life. As the immigrant comes to the United States they see that the reality isn’t what they thought it would be. At the same time the artist dedicated this piece to all the people that want to confront the recession and the people who battle the with economy. Nowadays there are house foreclosures, budget cuts, unemployment, gas prices rising and many other things that are making us as Americans feel that we are put down and that we cannot get up from this economic situation. We feel that we are drowning, but there is always a light in every darkness. The last piece represents the “voices of hope.” It is the voice inside of us all that encourages us to keep moving ahead. The voice represents the voice of God and our faith to focus on the bright side when life is difficult to handle and everything appears to fall apart. The artist desires for this pieces to encourage someone to never give up, no matter what; for it to encourage them to move on and keep a positive mindset. The questions I want to evoke are to deepen the meaning of forced migration.
Voces de Esperanza
“Voices of Hope” also known as “Voces de Esperanza,” is composed of three pieces that are conjoined together to represent one complete message. The first piece represents the immigrant individual who has come to the United States to create a better way of life. The immigrant is looking back at what they are leaving behind but at the same time taking a step forward, of what they think might be their future. They are leaving their country, their home, family and their culture, but they want to go to a new land and find a better way of life, conquering the American dream. The artist expresses the feeling of this difficult transition as they leave what is familiar to learn and adapt to the unfamiliar. All this is necessary for their new beginning. The second piece represents the struggle of the economy as people lose their homes, jobs, and all that is necessary to sustain in life. As the immigrant comes to the United States they see that the reality isn’t what they thought it would be. At the same time the artist dedicated this piece to all the people that want to confront the recession and the people who battle the with economy. Nowadays there are house foreclosures, budget cuts, unemployment, gas prices rising and many other things that are making us as Americans feel that we are put down and that we cannot get up from this economic situation. We feel that we are drowning, but there is always a light in every darkness. The last piece represents the “voices of hope.” It is the voice inside of us all that encourages us to keep moving ahead. The voice represents the voice of God and our faith to focus on the bright side when life is difficult to handle and everything appears to fall apart. The artist desires for this pieces to encourage someone to never give up, no matter what; for it to encourage them to move on and keep a positive mindset.
Voces de Esperanza
“Voices of Hope” also known as “Voces de Esperanza,” is composed of three pieces that are conjoined together to represent one complete message. The first piece represents the immigrant individual who has come to the United States to create a better way of life. The immigrant is looking back at what they are leaving behind but at the same time taking a step forward, of what they think might be their future. They are leaving their country, their home, family and their culture, but they want to go to a new land and find a better way of life, conquering the American dream. The artist expresses the feeling of this difficult transition as they leave what is familiar to learn and adapt to the unfamiliar. All this is necessary for their new beginning. The second piece represents the struggle of the economy as people lose their homes, jobs, and all that is necessary to sustain in life. As the immigrant comes to the United States they see that the reality isn’t what they thought it would be. At the same time the artist dedicated this piece to all the people that want to confront the recession and the people who battle the with economy. Nowadays there are house foreclosures, budget cuts, unemployment, gas prices rising and many other things that are making us as Americans feel that we are put down and that we cannot get up from this economic situation. We feel that we are drowning, but there is always a light in every darkness. The last piece represents the “voices of hope.” It is the voice inside of us all that encourages us to keep moving ahead. The voice represents the voice of God and our faith to focus on the bright side when life is difficult to handle and everything appears to fall apart. The artist desires for this pieces to encourage someone to never give up, no matter what; for it to encourage them to move on and keep a positive mindset.
I specialize in art that expresses deep passion, with a focus on the causes of those underrepresented, using art to represent the needs and the plight of Latinos and immigrants, both through the art itself and also through the forums through which my art allows me to speak and give voice to those causes.
Previous: Professional artist self-employed for many years. Coordinator of the Mexican Cultural Project in New York City. Experienced events crossing cultures and causes, churches and civic groups, and helping to give voice to those underserved.
Communicator through events, art, and speaking engagements. Experienced as coordinator and participant in a variety. Co-founder of grassroots cultural movement Niños del Sol. Organizer of the Women In Resistance Conference.
As a cultural activist she has contributed to the empowerment of women and the community at large and has gained the respect and recognition from a number of local agencies and organizations as an advocate for the underprivileged. Her track record as an activist has been acknowledged by a number of organizations from New York to Grand Rapids, MI, particularly as a cultural activist on issues of social justice.
I would like to network in the areas of art and social justice.
Heather A. Hathaway Miranda
Professor of Latino Studies, Saint Xavier University & R.Evolución Latina
Learn, Laugh, Lead, & Self-Love in Illinois, Texas, & Mexico City
No one lived through the world’s global pandemic of 1917. The internet and technology did not exist. The yearning for continued human connection and the thirst to continue to mentor, grow, and serve others is how the weekly bilingual mentoring group of “Learn, Laugh, Lead, & Self-Love” came to be. In July 2020, the presenter decided to take the ‘Lunch & Learn’ corporate/university model and twist it upside down and infuse it with only the love, compassion, and culture she lives. Building on the availability of technology and making a list of young Latinas whom she had taught or mentored informally from academic spaces, she invited 10-15 mujeres/women to meet over Google Meet to, at first, learn and laugh while also intentionally inviting them to love themselves more deeply. Within a month the young women offered to take on the lead to rotate teaching the group and to share the collective joy and responsibility of healthy critical dialogue and laughter. It was very much the intention to create a safe space, across international borders with a proposed structure that was open to movement and shaping by the collective. The organizer wanted a virtual experience that would take shape and be able to exist without the original leader, the common thread, the former professor, forever mentor. The constants have been like the bread of a torta sandwich, opening with 3 gratitude statements and a self-love writing prompt and then closing with ‘espinas y tunas’ and bold affirmations.
From Puerto Rico to Chicago, Daring to Go Beyond the Pandemic
The arts have been devastated and formal performances on Broadway and theaters around the world have been suspended due to the global pandemic. University instruction has shifted to majority online at some institutions. Professors, like the presenter, had to reinvent a course that typically met in person. The world of Zoom opened opportunities for collaborations beyond classroom walls, state lines, and international borders by seeking ways to invite the arts into the majority-Latinx classroom to inspire, mutually uplift, and dare to go beyond. This image shows an executive director, choreographer, performing/teaching artist, and international volunteer reaching beyond the computer screen to connect with a colleague and her students, from Puerto Rico to Chicago, reinventing, redefining, daring to go beyond.
Heather A. Hathaway Miranda is a bicultural, bilingual Chicana/Latina and a first-generation college degree recipient. She has traveled extensively including all 50 U.S. states, 31 Mexican states, over 35 countries, and 25 U.S. National Parks.
Heather is an award-winning, international speaker with over 20 years of multidisciplinary, multi-tiered experiences as a researcher and educator specializing in a range of topics intersecting race, ethnicity, class, gender, identity, and disparity. As a scholar-activist and consultant through Hathaway Miranda LLC, her passion is to advocate for underserved communities by raising consciousness about oppressive issues locally, nationally, and internationally. Recently, at the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education, she delivered supportive testimony to recognize Indigenous People’s Day. She teaches Latino Studies for Saint Xavier University, English for the National Autonomous University of Mexico, substitutes ESL & develops curriculum about race & equity for the nonprofit PODER, and teaches high school Spanish. Heather is a trained Racial Healing Practitioner.
As a Founding Co-Chair, Heather has served nearly 12 years on the Latina/Latino Alumni Association. She is a survivor of domestic violence and a member of the Speaker’s Bureau of Metropolitan Family Services’ Family Shelter Service. She is a self-taught photographer and gardener and loves road trips.
Other Collaborators: Ana Calderon, Maria Dorado, Jessica Flores, Jennifer Yenni Jimenez Franco, Brenda Munguia, Mariana Pérez, Karina Reyes, Luis Salgado, R.Evolución Latina
Carlos Lorenzana
Artist
Ardor
Honor your ancestors and the sacrifices they endure to build a better future for us. They paved the way for us and as the children of the earth, we are at the most critical point to give back to the planet.
IXOQ
Honor your ancestors and the sacrifices they endure to build a better future for us. They paved the way for us and as the children of the earth, we are at the most critical point to give back to the planet.
Na’
Honor your ancestors and the sacrifices they endure to build a better future for us. They paved the way for us and as the children of the earth, we are at the most critical point to give back to the planet.
QUETZACOALTl
Honor your ancestors and the sacrifices they endure to build a better future for us. They paved the way for us and as the children of the earth, we are at the most critical point to give back to the planet.
Tecunuman
Honor your ancestors and the sacrifices they endure to build a better future for us. They paved the way for us and as the children of the earth, we are at the most critical point to give back to the planet.
Keeping nature’s existence close in mind, Carlos Lorenzana aspires to create abstract art which reflects the interdependence amongst all surrounding. Everything cannot exist on its own. The art explores a theme relating to Buddhist Principal, “form is void”—meaning that forms are inseparable from their content. The form of shapes and figures Lorenzana takes on in his paintings are also the forms of their backgrounds. He applies this philosophical motif through a colorful acrylic palette and a dense layered texture display. It is in the minute details that one can see the correlation between what unifies form and all surrounding.
Jennifer Markovits
Ph.D. Candidate, Rutgers University
Cross-Linguistic Influence in Bilingual Aymara Heritage Speakers
The scope of this research is the visibility of speakers of Aymara heritage in Chile to understand that the Chilean territory is multilingual and therefore requires intercultural policies in school education. In addition, the training of traditional teachers to teach the indigenous language as L2 is urgent, since Aymara speakers lack the pedagogical tools to teach their L1 or heritage language as L2.
Cross-Linguistic Influence in Bilingual Aymara Heritage Speakers
El alcance de esta investigación tiene que ver con la visibilización de los hablantes de herencia aymara en Chile para comprender que el territorio chileno es plurilingüe por lo que requiere de políticas interculturales en la enseñanza escolar. Por otra parte, urge la capacitación de profesores tradicionales para la enseñanza de la lengua indígena como L2, puesto que los hablantes de aymara carecen de herramientas pedagógicas para enseñar su L1 o lengua de herencia como L2.
Cross-Linguistic Influence in Bilingual Aymara Heritage Speakers
El alcance de esta investigación tiene que ver con la visibilización de los hablantes de herencia aymara en Chile para comprender que el territorio chileno es plurilingüe por lo que requiere de políticas interculturales en la enseñanza escolar. Por otra parte, urge la capacitación de profesores tradicionales para la enseñanza de la lengua indígena como L2, puesto que los hablantes de aymara carecen de herramientas pedagógicas para enseñar su L1 o lengua de herencia como L2.
Cross-Linguistic Influence in Bilingual Aymara Heritage Speakers
El alcance de esta investigación tiene que ver con la visibilización de los hablantes de herencia aymara en Chile para comprender que el territorio chileno es plurilingüe por lo que requiere de políticas interculturales en la enseñanza escolar. Por otra parte, urge la capacitación de profesores tradicionales para la enseñanza de la lengua indígena como L2, puesto que los hablantes de aymara carecen de herramientas pedagógicas para enseñar su L1 o lengua de herencia como L2.
Jennifer Markovits Rojas is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition program at Rutgers University. She is a Spanish teacher from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, and she received her master’s degree in Linguistics and Chilean Dialectology from Universidad de Playa Ancha, Valparaíso. Jennifer has worked teaching morphosyntax, Chilean phonetic and Spanish as a second language at the same university. She is currently working with Aymara heritage speaker in Chile, designing projects to develop an intercultural curriculum.
Research Interests: indigenous languages, heritage speakers, languages in contact, intercultural education
Other Collaborators: Novelia Amaro, Elias Ticona for their Aymara language assistance
Chris Revelle
Interdisciplinary Artist, Chris Revelle Studios
A Letter to Sonia Sanchez
For much of the country’s life, it has taught a version of history that excluded black Americans. In the mid-1960s, the most popular textbook for eighth-grade U.S. history classes only mentioned two black Americans in the century since the Civil War. The suppression of black history and art is intertwined with the repression of black rights and equality. A Letter for Sonia Sanchez is an examination of the suppression and distortion of black history, culture, and education, while providing light to the depth and diversity of American literature.
A Letter to Sonia Sanchez
For much of the country’s life, it has taught a version of history that excluded black Americans. In the mid-1960s, the most popular textbook for eighth-grade U.S. history classes only mentioned two black Americans in the century since the Civil War. The suppression of black history and art is intertwined with the repression of black rights and equality. A Letter for Sonia Sanchez is an examination of the suppression and distortion of black history, culture, and education, while providing light to the depth and diversity of American literature.
A Letter to Sonia Sanchez
For much of the country’s life, it has taught a version of history that excluded black Americans. In the mid-1960s, the most popular textbook for eighth-grade U.S. history classes only mentioned two black Americans in the century since the Civil War. The suppression of black history and art is intertwined with the repression of black rights and equality. A Letter for Sonia Sanchez is an examination of the suppression and distortion of black history, culture, and education, while providing light to the depth and diversity of American literature.
A Letter to Sonia Sanchez
For much of the country’s life, it has taught a version of history that excluded black Americans. In the mid-1960s, the most popular textbook for eighth-grade U.S. history classes only mentioned two black Americans in the century since the Civil War. The suppression of black history and art is intertwined with the repression of black rights and equality. A Letter for Sonia Sanchez is an examination of the suppression and distortion of black history, culture, and education, while providing light to the depth and diversity of American literature.
Chris Revelle is an interdisciplinary artist focused on civically-engaged work and a professor of contemporary art practices and theories. Through the examination of history, language, and visual culture, Revelle’s work confronts the failures and abuses of social, political, and economic systems. The goal of his practice is to challenge public memory/engagement while inspiring discourse and empathy. Revelle has exhibited in the United States, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Europe, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and India, and has created artwork for United Nations organizations. His solo exhibition Swing Low was named Best Virtual Exhibit for 2020 by Phoenix New Times. In 2018, Revelle was the recipient of the Idea Capital Grant and a finalist for the 2017 Hong Kong Human Rights Art Prize. As an educator, Revelle is passionate about his students’ success – emphasizing research, dialogue, and persistence – while balancing technical and conceptual development. He was formerly the Chair of Fine Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design Hong Kong, and a Faculty Lecturer of Painting and Drawing at Arizona State University. Revelle earned his Master of Fine Arts from the School of Art at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) in Valencia, CA.
Ann Troutner (Ana Trucha)
Experiential Educator, DIF GTO and Bella Equestre LLC
Tucson, Limitless Boundaries
Ice Art sculpture can provide community bonding and understanding by experiencing a unique art project. The beauty and simplicity of ice with no ownership, as the project melts away, much like watching a dance performance, exists in the moment and in our memory. The ice gives reason to observe, while it changes shape, before it is ‘gone.’ The message is basic. Humans are actually 60% water, a part of the web of life, and Water Is Life.
Tucson, Limitless Boundaries (detail)
Ice Art sculpture can provide community bonding and understanding by experiencing a unique art project. The beauty and simplicity of ice with no ownership, as the project melts away, much like watching a dance performance, exists in the moment and in our memory. The ice gives reason to observe, while it changes shape, before it is ‘gone.’ The message is basic. Humans are actually 60% water, a part of the web of life, and Water Is Life.
Tucson Green Fields School, 3 Kids Carving
Ice Art sculpture can provide community bonding and understanding by experiencing a unique art project. The beauty and simplicity of ice with no ownership, as the project melts away, much like watching a dance performance, exists in the moment and in our memory. The ice gives reason to observe, while it changes shape, before it is ‘gone.’ The message is basic. Humans are actually 60% water, a part of the web of life, and Water Is Life.
Japan, Flags
Ice Art sculpture can provide community bonding and understanding by experiencing a unique art project. The beauty and simplicity of ice with no ownership, as the project melts away, much like watching a dance performance, exists in the moment and in our memory. The ice gives reason to observe, while it changes shape, before it is ‘gone.’ The message is basic. Humans are actually 60% water, a part of the web of life, and Water Is Life.
Japan, Kids with Flags
Ice Art sculpture can provide community bonding and understanding by experiencing a unique art project. The beauty and simplicity of ice with no ownership, as the project melts away, much like watching a dance performance, exists in the moment and in our memory. The ice gives reason to observe, while it changes shape, before it is ‘gone.’ The message is basic. Humans are actually 60% water, a part of the web of life, and Water Is Life.
Tucson and Guanajuato are two communities, where I live, providing Equine-Assisted therapy, specializing with autism, as well as, exhibiting artwork in glass, and also in ice. The coronavirus pandemic has delayed my plans, and without answers, all of us are challenged to find creative solutions. Ice is a material that speaks to critical environmental issues, and seems to engage all ages and cultures. My ice projects are designed to leave viewers with a memory of a beautiful image in ice and water, full of light, as it melts away. Viewers often carve the ice, and watch it change in real time, with its returning to the ground water. I want to bring ice projects to different international communities, to educate about climate change, and to give unique artistic experience with ice sculpture.
Matthew Earl Williams
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, Muhlenberg College
Broken Round Dance
As a Native American who is white passing, I am made up of both colonizers and the colonized. A contradiction, figuring out belonging in this world, while maybe not even wanting it. These images are a teleological investigation into reconnecting to “sacred” lands in the digital age, an era explicitly designed to keep Indigenous peoples out by its definition. Pushing back against this notion while also having its truth affirmed, the photographs present fluctuations between stages of grief. A result of the survivor’s guilt that I’m confronted with each time I see my reflection in a darkened viewing screen. The work is a “ceremony” in the name of decolonization. It encapsulates both love and grief just like the traditional Round Dance. Only this time it’s happening in a broken world.
Broken Round Dance
As a Native American who is white passing, I am made up of both colonizers and the colonized. A contradiction, figuring out belonging in this world, while maybe not even wanting it. These images are a teleological investigation into reconnecting to “sacred” lands in the digital age, an era explicitly designed to keep Indigenous peoples out by its definition. Pushing back against this notion while also having its truth affirmed, the photographs present fluctuations between stages of grief. A result of the survivor’s guilt that I’m confronted with each time I see my reflection in a darkened viewing screen. The work is a “ceremony” in the name of decolonization. It encapsulates both love and grief just like the traditional Round Dance. Only this time it’s happening in a broken world.
Broken Round Dance
As a Native American who is white passing, I am made up of both colonizers and the colonized. A contradiction, figuring out belonging in this world, while maybe not even wanting it. These images are a teleological investigation into reconnecting to “sacred” lands in the digital age, an era explicitly designed to keep Indigenous peoples out by its definition. Pushing back against this notion while also having its truth affirmed, the photographs present fluctuations between stages of grief. A result of the survivor’s guilt that I’m confronted with each time I see my reflection in a darkened viewing screen. The work is a “ceremony” in the name of decolonization. It encapsulates both love and grief just like the traditional Round Dance. Only this time it’s happening in a broken world.
Broken Round Dance
As a Native American who is white passing, I am made up of both colonizers and the colonized. A contradiction, figuring out belonging in this world, while maybe not even wanting it. These images are a teleological investigation into reconnecting to “sacred” lands in the digital age, an era explicitly designed to keep Indigenous peoples out by its definition. Pushing back against this notion while also having its truth affirmed, the photographs present fluctuations between stages of grief. A result of the survivor’s guilt that I’m confronted with each time I see my reflection in a darkened viewing screen. The work is a “ceremony” in the name of decolonization. It encapsulates both love and grief just like the traditional Round Dance. Only this time it’s happening in a broken world.
Broken Round Dance
As a Native American who is white passing, I am made up of both colonizers and the colonized. A contradiction, figuring out belonging in this world, while maybe not even wanting it. These images are a teleological investigation into reconnecting to “sacred” lands in the digital age, an era explicitly designed to keep Indigenous peoples out by its definition. Pushing back against this notion while also having its truth affirmed, the photographs present fluctuations between stages of grief. A result of the survivor’s guilt that I’m confronted with each time I see my reflection in a darkened viewing screen. The work is a “ceremony” in the name of decolonization. It encapsulates both love and grief just like the traditional Round Dance. Only this time it’s happening in a broken world.
I’m an artist, educator, and enrolled tribal member of The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. I received a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography and a Masters of Arts in Studio Art from the University of Iowa. My work is shown internationally with recent cities including Rome, Los Angeles, Berlin, Chicago, New York, Denver, Portland, and Phoenix.
Currently, my projects are exploring my identity as a Native American who is white passing. I’m made up of both colonizers and the colonized. I’m making work that explores this contradiction and what it feels like to be living in the modern world from an Indigenous perspective.
I would be interested in meeting others that are doing research and other explorations into modern identities and how pre-colonial ways of living may hold the key to saving our existence as human being on this planet.
Kristen T. Woodward
Professor of Art, Albright College
Boruka jaguar
My paintings inspired by Boruca traditions and legends attempt to explore states of shamanic transformation. Rather than appropriate Boruca imagery directly, I translated their iconography into my own aesthetic and spiritual traditions in a desire to have dialogue about broader relationships between art and conquest, commercial art versus personal expression, ecology, and archetypal transformation. It is my hope that viewers engage in this visual dialogue, and become curious about the Boruca.
Authority
My paintings inspired by Boruca traditions and legends attempt to explore states of shamanic transformation. Rather than appropriate Boruca imagery directly, I translated their iconography into my own aesthetic and spiritual traditions in a desire to have dialogue about broader relationships between art and conquest, commercial art versus personal expression, ecology, and archetypal transformation. It is my hope that viewers engage in this visual dialogue, and become curious about the Boruca.
Altered States
My paintings inspired by Boruca traditions and legends attempt to explore states of shamanic transformation. Rather than appropriate Boruca imagery directly, I translated their iconography into my own aesthetic and spiritual traditions in a desire to have dialogue about broader relationships between art and conquest, commercial art versus personal expression, ecology, and archetypal transformation. It is my hope that viewers engage in this visual dialogue, and become curious about the Boruca.
Having a long-established interest in Latin American art, I team taught a lecture-studio hybrid course titled Revolutions with Dr. Elizabeth Kiddy at Albright College, up until her death in 2014. In the spring of 2019 I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica with a small group of students and colleagues to research and develop a new interdisciplinary course on art and biology. The trip significantly inspired my own artistic practice. The result was a new body of paintings that explore the shamanic traditions and zoomorphic art of the Boruca people. More specifically, I witnessed a ceremony performed by tribal leaders in the Talamanca Mountains that involved human-animal jaguar transformations. Subsequent research expanded my understanding of the desire by contemporary Boruca to expose a broader community to their history and beliefs.
I was impacted by the beast and man in the same body. For me, this evokes the mystery and fusion between animals and humans. Both powers deserve the same respect and care.
The chromatic is beautiful!
What an amazing compilation of art that represents our cultural beauty and challenges.
Incredible works with complex and nuanced messages, all leading towards the same goal of understanding and expression. I especially loved the ice sculpture and the symbolism behind the ice itself, as a way to spread light, appreciate temporary beauty, and give life to all things.
Art as a medium really helps us unlock the spiritual journey that exists when working at the intersection of international education and social justice. International Education is a field whose very goals and structures emerged out of the political desire for diplomacy, US hegemony, and control. It is no surprise that at this moment of reckoning in our field we are asked to peel back the layers and plot a new path forward. These artists help reveal the psychic consciousness we have underneath our work when reimagining the complex power dynamics of global exchange.
Beautifully put! Annie, I admire your ability to express yourself with such beautiful words. The gallery for me shed light on how much people leave behind when seeking better opportunities and how much work we have ahead of us. The gallery highlighted the strength needed to face and overcome obstacles put forth by society.
Boruka jaguar, is beautiful and really gives the image of the human-jaguar transformation. I wish that ceremony is something I could witness it seems very interesting and beautiful. The use of art to make people curious of a cultures history or beliefs can be really powerful.
Thank you Nicole! I am humbled to be in this group of fascinating artists and scholars.
Thank you Nicole! I am humbled to be in this group of fascinating artists and scholars.
The ice sculpture made made by Ann Troutner (Ana Trucha.) I used to work with children on the spectrum as well horseback ride, so initially reading that I could understand, but upon further reading her ice projects are designed to leave viewers of a memory rather than an actual artistic piece as it melts away, sounded beautiful. This image is beautifully crafted in glistening ice and and as it melts away it returns again to ground water. I hope that she is able to bring these ice sculptures all across the world, I would love to see one and educate myself further on climate change.
Hello everyone,
I really enjoyed looking at and reading everyone’s work, but Reyna Garcia’s work stood out to me the most! I love the first image and the description provided as I was able to relate to it. Most of my family including my parents migrated from their native country to America in hopes of a better future, not only for them but also for their children. I have never felt that experience firsthand, but I have seen it and can only imagine how difficult it is, having to leave your entire life behind and start an entirely different one. It is such a hard journey to take and then once they arrive in America things are not as great as they thought; it is very unfortunate that even if they wish to go back many stays because their need to support their families back home is much more important for many than their own happiness.
Ann Troutner : me encantó la fusión de lo efímero y el cambio climático. Estamos viviendo oleadas de frío y “hielo” como nunca antes. Gracias por hacernos reflexionar como parte del “todo” que somos
Dani Coronado: por algún tiempo enseñé arte Latinoamericano en Ecuador. Soy de Ecuador y ahora vivo en New Jersey. Hablar del maíz en nuestras culturas es hablar del pasado, presente y futuro. Gracias por rescatar miradas y perspectivas y juntarla a la vivencia actual dentro de la escenario migratorio. Me encantó!
The exhibit was full of beautiful art and the participants were even more extraordinary. I admire all the work everyone continues to do to make a change in society. Your work inspires as well as brings hope for change. Reyna García’s painting was one painting that really caught my eye. It highlights all the sacrifices made by so many in search of a better life, as well the painting sheds light on the hard road ahead once people get to America. From leaving home to coming to a foreign land the painting does a great job at showing what it takes to achieve the ‘American Dream’. The painting is truly beautiful.
Carlos Lorenzana, I am drawn to your juicy color palette and mysterious forms. The color and figure-ground relationship remind me of Rufino Tamayo.
Wow! The pieces presented are amazing and the artists explain remarkable stories that are attached to their work. I am in awe of the art and its owners. Ann Troutner’s piece, Limitless Boundaries, stood out to me the most. Ice sculptures are interesting within themselves because the medium requires you to work faster than most. The explanation of her piece expresses this and symbolizes how you can see change happen before your eyes. Right now we are living in a time of uncertainty and I feel that this artwork expresses that perfectly. Ann touches on bringing the knowledge of climate change and this medium to international communities as well. Truly this was a remarkable piece!
Ardor
Beautiful art that depicts our ancestor’s stories, oftentimes our minds get absorbed into insignificant things that we forget to appreciate and thank our ancestors whose struggles gave us a brighter future. It is our turn to take action and help our children our communities build on what was built for us and continue to do our best in our environment and for our planet so that the environmental struggles we face now aren’t endured by our future generations.
I really enjoyed looking at all the pictures. They are so beautiful and meaningful. Reyna García’s picture I liked the most maybe because it talks about me m.I know exactly how hard it is when you leave your country and your family to find a better life
I enjoyed looking at the artwork and reading about the inspirations behind it. I liked Kristen T. Woodward’s art piece, inspired by Boruca traditions and Latin American studies’ interest. I was amazed by the transformation of the jaguar into a human. I believe this art piece met the artist’s hope for viewers to engage in this beautiful visual dialogue and become curious about the Boruca.