Image Gallery

Prelude to Tucson — February 18-19, 2021

To 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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.

18 Comments

  1. Jobita Anguisaca

    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!

    Reply
  2. Claudia Rinaldi

    What an amazing compilation of art that represents our cultural beauty and challenges.

    Reply
  3. Christina Tomasik

    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.

    Reply
  4. Annie Gibson

    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.

    Reply
    • Sabrine

      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.

      Reply
  5. Nicole

    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.

    Reply
    • Kristen T. Woodward

      Thank you Nicole! I am humbled to be in this group of fascinating artists and scholars.

      Reply
    • Kristen T. Woodward

      Thank you Nicole! I am humbled to be in this group of fascinating artists and scholars.

      Reply
  6. Sara Mostofi

    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.

    Reply
  7. Carolina Gomez

    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.

    Reply
  8. Jobita

    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

    Reply
  9. Jobita

    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!

    Reply
  10. Sabrine

    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.

    Reply
  11. Kristen T. Woodward

    Carlos Lorenzana, I am drawn to your juicy color palette and mysterious forms. The color and figure-ground relationship remind me of Rufino Tamayo.

    Reply
  12. Sarah Sanders

    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!

    Reply
  13. elizabeth arvizu

    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.

    Reply
  14. Jehad

    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

    Reply
  15. Melissa Flores

    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.

    Reply

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