A personal commentary: Visual art in 2014 - in San Diego, of course

This is not a commentary about the best art in San Diego in 2014, nor the most expensive, the most brilliant new artist, and certainly not the most clicks and blinks (virtual or otherwise). 

Some have written about the downturn in art galleries or raised questions about what might come in 2015.

I'd like to recall the curious and offer a question: What are some of the lessons learned about the visual arts in San Diego as we close out 2014?

A caveat:  Since this is a personal commentary and what I have seen and/or written about, I readily acknowledge there was much more in San Diego to enjoy and reflect upon. If you have a favorite with a lesson learned, send me a comment.

Even at the clearance sale
The San Diego Art Institute runs a C-Note fundraiser in the Spring and Winter. Artists get to sell art at the one to three hundred dollar level with a majority of the proceeds going to the Art Institute. I've sold a piece or two in the past, but I find it difficult to part with my objects despite the need to clear out space for newer work. 

Looking beyond my own vanity to what others put on the walls, I am reminded that there is compelling work to be found created by San Diego artists. Since the standards for good or strong art have become confusing in the past century with so much pluralism in styles, techniques and media, the Institute's C-Note event becomes an adventure in finding a personal favorite (and let the experts express their favorites at a biennale or Sotheby's). 

One of my favorites was Bonnie Woods' In thought for its choice and organization of color, a portrait that aptly reflects the title using not just the face but the alignment of the body as well as the juxtaposition of wild and geometric form. Also reminiscent of Frederic Leighton's Flaming June from another era and another approach to the portrayal of the languid female form.

Bonnie Woods / In thought

Why does it matter if the artist is an amateur, an emerging or established artist, local or out-of-town? What does it matter if the exhibit is at a museum or an arts partnership?
Context is often important in understanding why an art object is picked for an exhibit. Curators generally provide some narrative, and jurors much less so. Frustration sets in when one has to ask, 'Really?' I recall one juror who was willing to share about the pick of a photograph for an international show - something about a Heinz 57 bottle being in the collection of objects in the photography, something from her childhood memory.  Honest? Yes. Satisfying? Not for me. Many comfort me by saying, 'the juror's choice is more about the juror than about the selected art.'
 
Compare the two photographs, both of which I enjoyed viewing at local exhibits.

Robert Treat / Prague Wildlife / PhotoArtsGroup Urban Landscapes

Millee Tibbs / Mountains + Valleys, Origami Yosemite #4 at MOPA After Ansel Adams

Both photographs intrigue me with their use of texture, composition, point of view and addressing the theme of landscape - urban versus nature. Treat's Prague scene reminds me of my own early morning wanderings in that city. His is the challenge of the urban adventurer, looking for that odd juxtaposition of things and Treat's collection stops the viewer with a 'what have we here?' moment. The juxtaposition of textures adds to the image's interest -- glass, stone masonry, paint and tile, interesting also in the horizontal and vertical arrangement in an assortment of grays. 

Tibbs' use of origami connects me with my own musing about sculptural photography and adding texture to the 2D flat art experience. Tibbs also delights the reinterpretation and extension of Ansel Adams' landscape. 

Is the goodness of each photograph affected by the context of venue (Escondido Arts Partnership vs. Museum of Photographic Arts) or the photographer's qualification (emerging, established, professional, amateur)? 

The lesson learned is not that there are no art standards or that there is no way to discriminate among art objects; rather, the lesson is to remind oneself that there is a pecking order in our community, just as there is in most communities. The pecking order is reflected in the news media, in what collectors' learn to desire and assumptions that venue and the artist's history determine the goodness of the art object. I admit that this lesson is one that I repeat frequently:  good or strong art is all over San Diego - in artist studios, in what might be called 'off Broadway' venues and other than the well-funded institutions.  Be mindful of that dictum and you will enjoy far more art in the San Diego community than you might otherwise allow. 

Jane Lazerow / In her home studio explaining her painting of the Abraham and Isaac Akeda story

Elena Lomakin / In her home studio with her installation of musical birch trees

Josue Castro / In his Little Italy studio with one of his imagined identity photographs

The new kid on the block - at a community college?!
While one notable La Jolla private art gallery closed, another publicly-funded one opened at San Diego City College.  I don't know whether there is a trend in this recent up-and-down of venues that present art, but it is worth noting that places that show art evolves. The new art space at the downtown San Diego Public Library main branch adds to the spaces provided at many branch libraries, including what had been the major voice for the San Diego public library (Taylor Branch in Pacific Beach, but also the Riford Library in La Jolla).

Yoonchung Kim /J's Memory (detail) in Casting Plus exhibit

One of the first exhibits at San Diego City College's Visual Arts Gallery featured a collection of ceramic pieces, in Casting Plus. Both the exhibit and the exhibit space were startling. I hadn't expected the quality of either and this will be a challenge for the visual arts department to meet in the coming years.  

The lesson learned is obvious, though often forgotten. We need to pay attention to the evolution of San Diego, not only where people live, the highways and public transportation, where the foodies go as well as places for the homeless, but also where spaces for art emerge and decline.

Technology platforms:  Youtube, editing software, movies, print services, smartphones, etc.
My, oh, my - do we need to pay attention to visual artistry that connects our locality to the world and the internet? The answer is a resounding yes and there are way too many lessons to be learned that I can discuss in this commentary. But consider the following.

While these digital platforms have been with us for awhile - sometimes extending analog platforms, but others emerging newborn on the internet (Facebook anyone?) - it is important to recognize how they compete for our attention, dollars and value when compared to the more 'traditional' venues for art presentation.  Sometimes interacting, sometimes as alternatives.

Joe Nalven / documenting a viewer at ArtFair San Diego 2014 / Samsung camera painting app

As I wandered through ArtFair San Diego this past November, I documented what I viewed with a point-and-shoot camera. Nothing unusual about that. What was different was that I relied more on the camera's painting app. I could literally 'take a painting' instead of shooting a photorealistic image. 

Here I combined a digital camera with a dreaded app ('dreaded' because it confused the artist's compositional skills with the algorithmic stylization) in picturing the Contemporary Art of a Miami-based artist (Darian Rodriguez Mederos) as viewed by a passerby.

The challenge with many of the digital platforms is that many translate the world in novel ways, ways that have yet to be valued as 'legitimate' art - partly because of the algorithms that make the artistry appear too easy, partly because they can be distributed to millions by going viral (and with pixel transmissions that have yet to be taxed), and partly because anyone and everyone can do it. The challenge is here to stay and one that has yet to be incorporated into 21st century discussions of 'what is art.'  One can view the wide variety of art using digital media in Filters & Masks at the Pacific Beach Taylor Library.

Movies are part of the discussion, but I will simply note that I wait til the end of the movie to watch the credits unfold. Are the artists listed as CG (computer graphic) artists, digital painters, FX (special effects) artists) or digital artists?  Many labels for those frequently doing the 'same' art in digital media.

Consider, though, the use of YouTube with a bricks-and-mortar exhibit. The LFJCC's Gotthelf Art Gallery presented the expressionist-styled art of Hanan Harchol. But the art is not silent. The graphic novel style of several of the artist's narratives speak to what makes the art at Comic Con so popular. More so, the heart of the 2D flat art is on YouTube. There is a conversation about ethical issues (envy, gratitude, faith) between the artist and his father and between the artist and both parents. 

Hanan Harchol / from Forgiveness

The interests here are several:  discussing ethical issues as problem-solving rather than the moralism found in religious art of socialist realism or environmental heart-rending; the connecting of video, internet and art gallery in art presentation (this goes beyond marketing concerns); exploration of art styles more suitable to the graphic novel format.

And, now, your thoughts about 2014?

Sculptural Photography

I remember an online conversation about whether there was an advantage to painting with real paint as opposed to using software and pixels. The crushing blow delivered against pixel-based painting (as well as photography and fractal images) was the absence of texture. Texture that one could feel; texture that would actually be three dimensional and not just simulated. HDR images can look 3D almost like being in a movie theater watching fantastic 3D effects; however, this added dimensionality is only psychological, not tangible. 

There have been faux attempts at texture with media such as modge-podge. I even watched a painter in a Thomas Kincade store (not Kincade himself) applying painted highlights to one of Kincade's reproductions (giclée). And now we have 3D printers that can literally print dimensional objects (presumably these will print objects with images if not doing so already). 

My own adventure in getting to dimensionality outside the two-dimensional printed surface started by using a flatbed printer. Instead of a piece of paper or mylar or whatever substrate we print on being fed through an inkjet, laser, dot matrix or other printer or being processed in a pan of chemicals, the ink can be applied to a surface of variable height. In my experiments, I used surfaces with different heights that could be joined together to form a single image. 

What does that really mean? How would such an object, especially a photographic object look, if created in this way?

So, here are my recent experiments in what might be called sculptural photography.

Wood and Metal Photograph
After seeing what a flatbed printer could do at Pixel2Editions, I decided to see what a photograph would look like if printed at two different heights (on a plywood and metal surface). I glued 1/2" plywood strips in a helter-skelter pattern to a 13" square aluminum metal piece (about 1/16").

Notably, the image itself was not your usual high-resolution-visible-light image. The original photography was taken with a Nikon D50 converted to take only digital infrared images. I had twisted the zoom lens to get an after image. The idea was to create a sense of motion.

Dance sequence at Trolley Dances 2014, San Diego City College / Ariana Siegel and Jedi Taylor

By combining the infrared image with the metal and wood surfaces, I hoped for a presentation of a photograph that went beyond the 2D flat print. What I learned in the process was that the image printed on the metal would be further away from the height of the print nozzles; the printer had to be calibrated to the height of the plywood to avoid damaging the nozzles. This would have resulted in a lower resolution on the metal print. Instead, the plywood pieces were printed separately from the metal to give both the metal and wood segments equal resolution.

See article:  Master printer and the evolution of fine art printing. 

Infrared dancers / sculptural photography / media surfaces include both metal substrate and plywood superstrate

Infrared dancers / side view showing half inch plywood edges / photograph printed on both metal and wood

Ceramic and Metal Photograph
My second experiment began with revisiting an older series of photographs taken in Scotland, near Inverness, of a clava cairn at the Balnuaran of Clava. This circular chamber tomb had a magical effect, especially in the newly fallen snow. This Bronze Age stone chamber created a sense of wonder. I did not want to document the site as many had likely done before, but to capture that sense of immediacy of life and death.

Even changing the infrared images to a stark black-and-white did not seem to do the place justice. 

From a series of digital infrared photographs / Clava cairn / Balnuaran of Clava / Scotland

And so, I began the journey into image editing in Photoshop. I constructed three layers that I intended to have different amounts of opacity (which would allow different degrees of the scratched metal surface to be seen on which the photograph was printed). The printer at Pixel2, Mark O'Donnell, added spot white to the trees at the left and right of the upper portion of the image, lending the scene the ghostly quality of this place.

Edited photograph taken in Scotland (Balnuaran of Clava) / An ancient spiritual meeting place

The challenge was adding a three-dimensional aspect to this ancient tomb. I decided to add broken ceramic pieces to the path leading into the tomb. I broke a ceramic plate into pieces and then arranged them along a quick inkjet print of the entryway. These pieces were then printed on the flatbed following the same print of that area that was now on the metal substrate. With those ceramic pieces having the identical image within the tomb pathway, the pieces were glued to the metal print.

This approach, along with the wood and metal print described above, may or may not be optimal for creating sculptural photographic objects. These are experiments on the pathway to adding texture, of adding another dimension to two dimensional imagery.

Odd shaped ceramic pieces from a broken plate similar to those used in the Balnuaran of Clava metal print

Ceramic pieces on metal print / both metal and ceramic pieces had image printed on them on a flatbed printer

Demonstration of flatbed printer at Pixel2editions

Glass and ceramic objects using photography
Here are two other approaches using photography that seek out the third dimension of depth.

YC Kim fuses a photograph of trees into slumped glass. The bottom glass layer is black and the upper layer is blue within which is sandwiched the photographic image. 

YC Kim / Photo sandwiched between blue and black layers of glass - heated at 1400 degrees F / Side view (Upper), Top view (Lower) 

The second example shows a pair of ceramic plates. The upper plate has the photograph printed with a flatbed printer on the bottom surface. Since the photograph does not leave the flat surface, it "fails" the test of three dimensionality. Compare that object to the one below. A photograph of a drawing by Paola Villaseñor rises up from the flat surface of the ceramic plate along the upper and lower edges. The lower object would be another example of adding a depth dimension to photography, following the example of the cube photographs of Thomas Germer rather than the texturized object of Ethan Greenbaum (discussed below).

Photo of Paola Villasenor painting mural / Top view

Line drawing printed on ceramic plate (edited) / Side View (1) drawing rises onto rising lip of ceramic plate; (2) detail of drawing on lower
flat portion of ceramic plate; (3) drawing rises onto lower area of rising lip of ceramic plate

Other examples of sculptural photography
Other artists have played with the notion of sculptural photography. Take the interaction suggested by image as sculpture and sculpture as image in the work of Lonneke van der Palen. Or an exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art, which tracked the use of photography from 1839 through the ensuing 170 years in capturing the sculptural image. Still, those are two-dimensional portrayals of the sculptural form. 

One way out of this dilemma is to create three dimensional objects, such as a cube, and layer each side with part of a photograph. See the work of Thomas Germer.

Compare Germer's approach to Ethan Greenbaum's objects that are more closely related to the tactile sense discussed in this article:  "[h]e photographs asphalt, basement trapdoors, grafittied surfaces and manholes that depict the way he sees the city and its constant evolution. And then he manipulates the images digitally, gets them printed on large plastic sheets that then are vacuum molded around ceiling tiles. The result is a super texturized piece that is also highly visual.  In a very simple way, Ethan is creating sculptures out of photographs." (Quoted from Out There, October 2014)

Greenbaum's super texturizing of the original image is the notion I am pursuing. Clearly, there are a variety of ways to achieve this texturized or three-dimensional result.

A much broader world of mixed media
This article sketches out a limited approach for using photography beyond the two dimensional surface. The two dimensional surface is what we are most comfortable with - whether paper, metal or even on a computer monitor. 

But we are also likely familiar with coffee mugs with photos of family members - a dye sublimation (or infusion) process. There are thermal transfers, others combining glass and photography with one artist calling her work fusography, and a myriad other ways of crafting mixed-media objects. 

The use of the phrase sculptural photography is a modest effort to focus on a limited range of mixed media objects. 

A small does of humor is a reminder of the increments with which we expand our material culture.

Guy & Rodd / A Golden Age of Culture

Omar Lopex: The Photography of Pretend Families

Families come in many configurations ─ polygynous, polyandrous, extended, nuclear, blended, and the like.

But pretend families? We can find them in Sesame Street, the Familyquins, faux family portraits, and more broadly in ethnographies of pretend family play.

The challenge for an artist who immerses him- or herself in a theme is convincing the viewer of its significance. There needs to be a power that grabs the viewer and makes that theme important in some way. Omar Lopex gets us thinking about family once more.

Lopex makes his pretend families seem real, in part, by using photography from the distant past with tintype photographs. Everything was more real way back then, wasn't it? No Hollywood, no hucksterism, and no Photoshop. Well, maybe that wasn't the way it really was, but the Lopex's tintypes create just enough doubt that his images draw us in. Maybe that was the way it really was.

Joe Nalven: What are pretend families?

Omar Lopex: For me, defining what a pretend family is, involves defining what it's not. It's not Fantasy. It’s important for me to distinguish between Fantasy and Pretend. Fantasy implies a desire a longing a wish it has a focus a distinct aim; Pretending is rooted in the act itself. The heart of this project lies in Pretend’s open-endedness – exploration without obligation or commitment. For me, Pretending does a loop and reinforces everything else that is Real.

Omar Lopex / Pretend Family #25

JN: Are pretend families interesting in ways that are different than 'real' families?

OL: The concept of a pretend family is interesting to me, but even more interesting were the people I actually worked with. For every shoot, I was meeting someone new, and working with them on creating this lie. So each person's personality, style, their home, the ideas they contributed to what the scene in our foto should be, that was interesting in a way that a normal real family isn't.

Omar Lopex / Pretend Family #17

JN:  Are you considering other pretend families? 

OL:  I've been thinking of how to continue the project, which would involve traveling farther and collaborating with people I have less and less in common with. The thing I'm keeping in mind is how not to do it in a trite way. I don't want to create any boring work. But it does feel like the theme isn't entirely tapped. If I do it again, I also might change mediums. It would still be something analog, and in a small format though. Right now I'm shooting a lot of direct paper prints with a brownie camera, and a smaller portable darkroom (fits in a suitcase).

Omar Lopex / Pretend Family #11

JN:  Have you thought about putting these families onto other media?

OL:  If I documented the pretend families in any other media, it would have to be in something that was still small and humble. Besides being in love with the small format, the project just wouldn't work in a large format. A big picture, in this project, would’ve ruined the believability of the image. A large format foto is often too stunning. It would focus too much attention on the image as an object itself instead of the intended story in it. To work the images have to be something, but just as important they have to be nothing – they have to be something you could throw away, or something that someone else threw away and that you found.

Omar Lopex / Pretend Family #6

JN:  What kind of feedback have you gotten?

OL:  The feedback had been pretty consistent. The two things I hear the most from people are that they think the idea of working with all these different people is beautiful, and that the fotos look realistic and that they almost don't even notice that it's me in some of them. For me that's fantastic, and its what I aimed for people to get out of the project. I can be sort of a bull or an ape, kind of loud in real life, and I love spectacle, but I also have a big thing for smallness and subtlety and vulnerability.

JN:  How do you go about making these images?

OL:  I started teaching myself wet plate fotography several years ago. The work in RELÁMPAGO was all done by me, all fotos developed on the spot, in the special portable darkroom I outfitted on my motorcycle.

Oceanside Museum of Art November 8, 2014 - February 8, 2015 Omar Lopex: Relámpago Relámpago is Spanish for “lightning,” referring to the moments of illumination captured directly on solid metal plates for this exhibition of Omar Lopex’s intimate tintype photographs. A photograph documents reality without context: what appears to be a wide variety of traditional family portraits exploring different representations of familial relationships, is in fact a complex game of pretend. Using a motorcycle specially outfitted with a darkroom to develop images on the spot, Lopex visited four different cities to meet strangers and become a part of their family for as long as it took to shoot and develop these images. The resulting small-scale artworks draw the viewer into a fictional world, challenging the traditional concepts of identity, personal space, and familial roles. 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054 (760)435-3720 Tuesday - Saturday; 10am - 4pm; Sunday 1pm - 4pm Closed major holidays General admission $8;  Seniors 65 + $5

What if small paintings became murals: An opportunity for the empty wall space at the San Diego Art Institute

In a companion artblog, I discuss Paola Villaseñor's mural, The Savagery of Women, painted on the large empty wall space viewed directly across the entry to the San Diego Art Institute's gallery. The Institute's gallery is down a flight of stairs from the entry.

This empty wall space had been long considered as a place for art. Easy enough for projected images from across the open area. An actual painting requires a far more substantial effort. Villaseñor paves the way in showing how this would be done using a lift and scaffolding. True, the Michelangelos who braved the scaffolding of the Sistine Chapel had the greater challenge; still, here is a modest opportunity to take advantage of a large empty wall space.

Paola Villaseñor painting her mural at the San Diego Art Institute entry way wall space

With the magic of digital media, we can easily re-imagine this empty space with the frequent smaller fine art paintings such as recently presented at San Diego Art Institute's C-Note fundraiser event. At C-Note, artist members enter images at a relatively modest price. A number of these images would have a similar visual impact as Villaseñor's mural.

Villaseñor's mural has opened the door, so to speak, to thinking about how this space can be used for the more traditional 2D flat found in modest frames and hung on the usual gallery walls.  Below are two C-Note paintings, approximately 12 x 16", that would make the empty wall space come to life:  Bonnie Woods' In Thought and a Tijuana artist, Maria Evangelina Rodriguez' Cavalio II.

Re-imagined wall space across from SDAI entry:  Bonnie Woods / In Thought (L); Maria Evangelina Rodriguez / Cavalio II (R)

Of course, who would paint these large-scale versions?  I, for one, am a dubious candidate for painting at heights - even assuming I could capture the technique and artistry of Woods and Rodriguez. Perhaps Paola Villaseñor and fellow muralists could become collaborators in this scaling up of more intimate-sized art.

Upscaled images at SDAI entry way:  Robert Moses / Yorick (L);  Lauren West / Pike's Place (R)

Several San Diego Art Institute artists bring a perspective from different heritages - Persian, Russian, Spanish, Mexican and a host of other cultures. While a quick perusal of art might appear staid and traditional, a more open-minded approach will reveal as much drama as Villaseñor. As an anthropologist (as well as an artist), I find drama in the daily triflings as in the shock-effects of the momentous. A matter of mood, timing and the quality of the coffee. 

Shahla Dorafshan / Pink on Brawn (L); Silvia Vassileva/ Fall (R)

What is your opinion? The San Diego Art Institute is one of San Diego's art venues in Balboa Park and a home for contemporary art making. It is San Diego's oldest artist member organization that has worked diligently to provide a space for the grand diversity in the visual arts. 

Note:  The author is an artist member and member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Art Institute.

Paola Villaseñor: Transborder muralist and The Savagery of Women

Paola Villaseñor is a San Diego-born and raised artist with her studio based in Tijuana. Living the life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in sufficient measure helps cultivate a transborder sensibility, a transborder mindset - in affect, a transborder aesthetic. El otro lado / the other side becomes less of a wall and more of a semi-permeable membrane. Paola, or Panca, is one of those artists with that transborder aesthetic.

Panca (Paola Villaseñor) on exhibition: Border City Blues, Roots Factory, San Diego (L); Zoofilia, 206 Arte Contemporanea, Tijuana (R)

The San Diego Art Institute (SDAI), located in San Diego's Balboa Park, has drawn on Villaseñor's artistic energy - her art can be seen on cultural treks through Tijuana or on Main Street in Barrio Logan/San Diego. Panca/Villaseñor has composed a multi-walled mural across from the entryway to SDAI's art gallery. The gallery currently features its semi-annual C-Note exhibition allowing individuals to buy original art at low prices. Villaseñor's mural will be featured as  part of the Institute's Winter Benefit and continue its exhibition until March 30, 2015. 

The Savagery of Women / El Salvajismo de Mujeres
The title of the image traversing multiple walls across from the entryway at SDAI is The Savagery of Women. (The completed image has been posted as a YouTube fast motion painting by the artist.)

Paola Villaseñor / Savagery of Women (incomplete as of Dec 4, 2014 / artist painting in lower right / split image with mural across from entryway 
and with gallery shown below as one descends the stairway

What comes to mind when you view this mural? An extension of the zombie fascination, including movies such as Teeth? The concept of the demonic female deity in folklore, fantasy and mythology? The tradition of Mexican muralists? Changing gender relationships in our own and other's society - expressed in how men and women view their social and psychological strengths (and weaknesses)? Some would argue that the discussion should be about savagery against women rather than by women, but that would another mural, not this one.

Will the San Diego Art Institute use the opportunity provided to Paola Villaseñor to foster collaboration between her and  artist members? Read a complementary article that imagines how an opportunity might look at future exhibition: What if small paintings became murals.

Here are some ideas to ponder in thinking about Villaseñor's Savagery of Women.This is a non-exhaustive list and your commentaries are welcome. I will post those that expand upon this discussion.

The Mexican muralist tradition
One immediate comparison would be considering Paola Villaseñor to Aurora Reyes Flores - as part of the female muralist tradition. Aurora Reyes Flores was the first female exponent of Mexican muralism, beginning her exhibition career in 1925. She, like her male counterparts (Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros), was quite political and was known as the fiery magnolia. 

Aurora Reyes Flores' painting, Attack on female teachers (shown below), was the first mural done by a female artist in Mexico. If anything, this might be  called the Savagery of Men - the opposite of Villaseñor's. Different styles, different content in the thematic presentation of gender savagery, while both speaking to the inherent beast within every culture's concept of gender.

Aurora Reyes Flores / Atentado contra las maestras rurales (1936)

In San Diego's Chicano Park, we are familiar with the contemporary Chicano continuation  of the Mexican muralist tradition in the art of Salvador Torres, Abran Quevedo, Tomas Castaneda, Victor Ochoa, and Mario Torero. Their art is closer in style and temperament to the Mexican muralists while Villaseñor's artwork veers off into the sense of fantasy and the modern surreal. 

From an interview in Tierra Adentro:  No podría decir cuál es el estado del arte en México. No le presto mucha atención a eso, pero por el estado del país siento que va a ponerse muy denso. Existen dos tipos de arte en México: el que exhibe realidades o el que muestra falsedades. En temas de los que tampoco podría hablar mucho, siento que la tecnología es sólo una herramienta de difusión. Todo lo que hago es a mano. Me inspiro en lo casual, lo extraño y lo complejo de cada día. Imágenes fuertes con colores tenues, intento lograr un contraste y balance. Las imperfecciones son reales y no tengo por qué ocultarlas: la sociedad está acostumbrada a no lidiar con ellas y hasta a modificarlas. No todo es bonito.  Paola Villaseñor

Demonic women deities - folklore, fantasy and mythology
The Savagery of Women reaches into the widespread cultural phenomenon of cannibalism. In terms of folklore, fantasy and mythology, we find a wide array of frightening figures: "The concept of cannibalism, its ethical encumbrances, and its cultural expression in history and myth are unquestionably universal. To be human is to think about the possibility of cannibalism. Anthropophagy is hard-wired into the architecture of human imagination. Cannibal giants, ogres, bogies, goblins, and other 'frightening figures' populate the oral and literate traditions of most cultures, summoning images of grotesqueness, amorality, lawlessness, physical deformity, and exaggerated size. The Homeric tradition of the Greek Cyclops, the Scandinavian and Germanic folklore giants, or the Basque Tartaro find parallels in Asia, Africa, India, and Melanesia. In a fusion of the historical and the fabled, these pancultural incidences of cannibal indicate a remarkable similarity in the way meanings are assigned to cannibalism across the world." (Encyclopedia of Death and Dying)

However, female cannibalism in folklore, and how sexuality is portrayed, is sometimes focused on the vagina dentata myth. For example, one power-seeking deity in Hinduism, Adi, in order to avenge the death of his father, takes the form of Parvati to kill Shiva by using a toothed vagina after seducing him. 

Artist at work (L); detail from mural (R)

The goddesses in Aztec and Chichimec cultures, Coatlicue and Itzpapalotl, carry the intensity of the demonic. Coatlicue is the "insatiable monster that consumes everything that lives. She represents the devouring mother, in whom both the womb and the grave exist." Itzpapalotl (the obsidian butterfly) both eats and is the patroness of the Chichimecs; she provides directions for ritual human sacrifice. 

Then, there is Baba Yaga, the ogress in Slavic culture; and the cannibalistic forest witch in German tale of Hansel and Gretel as well as a similar cannibalistic witch in Somali culture, Dhegdheer.

From this perspective, Villaseñor's mural of savage women doing savage acts draws us into the broad swath of the history of the human imagination in folklore, fantary, mythology - and projected from time to time in popular selling video games and movies. Villaseñor does not need the academic treatise to prove her point; it is embedded in the human imagination.

Psychological aspects of changing gender relationships
This subject is vast and cannot be fully explored and therein lies an injustice. For several hundred thousand years, perhaps longer, as humans evolved in hunting and gathering social units, men and women were far more egalitarian in their relationships than what emerged with agricultural and pastoral societies. That hunting and gathering time framework has been a far longer human condition than what supplanted it. 

And now we have a kaleidoscopic set of societies with egalitarian relationships re-emerging, partly from the mobility of individuals in a more open society, partly from the needs in ruptured society (for example, WWII left open positions for women when men were no longer available and away at war), and partly from the demands for equality. 

In Hollywood moviedom, we have the video game become scifi movie Resident Evil with Milla Jovovich as the "reigning queen of kick butt." There's Angelina Jolie as the powerful female anthropologist (stronger than Indiana Jones?) as Lara Croft. Strong female characters abound on television as well.

Compared with Hollywood imagery, we might consider several patriarchal-oriented societies.

In Latin American culture, with obvious roots in Spanish and Portuguese culture, including of course Mexico, we run into the words macho and machista. (The Nahuatl word macho was gender neutral for leader or exemplar while the Iberian word emphasizes the masculine.) Does one - especially the female artist - pity the women who is dominated in Latino culture? Or should we expect an aspiration - such as in the work of Panca - of becoming a strong woman (which has a variety of expressive terms in Spanish, including machorra, machorrita,

brava, valiente, macha, machita, arpia, cabrona, hija de la chingada and possibly amachada, and likely many more and not always with respect). 

In another male-dominated ideology, Fatima Mernissi  describes the struggle of Muslim women, particularly in Arab male culture. Mernissi (in Beyond the Veil) notes that Christianity's development debased sexuality and the ways of the flesh; by contrast, she argues that Islam debases women (representing fitna or chaos as an anti-social force): "The Muslim order faces two threats: the infidel without and the woman within. 'The Prophet said, After my disappearance there will be no greater source of chaos and disorder for my nation than women.'" (quoting Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Ismail al-Burhari, Kitab al-Jami as-Salih).  Other Muslim women have contested this male gender-dominated space, including Wafa Sultan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, female Pershmerga fighters, and many others.

However, from Paola Villaseñor's world view - at least in this mural - it is not about patriarchal societies or even Hollywood fictional characters.  

Rather, the sense of a woman's strength seems to harken back to those dark biological urges that may be shared with black widow spiders, praying mantis and other species in which the female devours the male as part of a sexual cannibalism. This is the female strength that dominates the mural. A psychology that is more about primal screams more than about higher levels of self-actualization.

A handful of interviews
Would I have had a CAT Scan that could read visitors thoughts and feelings as they gazed upon the mural. No such technology, not yet.

Instead, I decided to ask a grab-sample of visitors as they embarked down the stairway. Most had no idea what they were looking at; their focus was not on the details. Once I gave them the title of the image and explained what was going on in the image, their eyes refocused on the image and all decided they liked it. Hmmmn?  I wasn't getting any 'I'm offended' responses. 

One set of four visitors - a mother and her two children, about 4 and 9, and her mom - had come from Utah. After explaining what the image was about, I asked the mom whether she was reluctant to have her two daughters view it: "We're Mormon and we are pretty conservative. But this is a painting and I want my girls to see different styles in art." 

Visitors to SDAI / "I want my girls to see different art styles"

So much for presuming what responses artwork has. The reality in this instance was first of all, a general ignoring of what the subject matter was; second, there was a more uniform appreciation than I had expected; and third, pigeonholing some viewers as likely to object to a provocative subject simply because of what one might expect in their holding of conversative versus liberal values or being parents and having young children present. 

As Paola’s father and I watched her finish her mural working above us on a lift, I asked him what his thoughts were about her success.   Hector  Manuel Villaseñor:  "I feel pride about her work, both with the negative remarks as with those in admiration for what she has painted, and what she is painting in this very moment. Her family and I believe that she has achieved something very interesting and important in her career."

I plan on asking more visitors what they thing and, if you come by, play the devil's advocate and ask others coming in what they think. Could be a useful thought experiment. 

Of course, this limited sample does not substitute for a more thorough going discussion of artistic freedom versus the boundaries of community values in deciding what ought to be exhibited, especially at public institutions. I've discussed this elsewhere.

Time to go and view The Savagery of Women at the San Diego Art Institute. It will greet you at the entryway into the contemporary world of art by (primarily) regional artists. Through March 30, 2015.

Update (3/16/2015):  After the mural has been up for several months, there has been further comments, especially in relation to visits by school classes:    More important than the artistic considerations is the poor judgment shown in choosing artwork depicting cannibalism as the entry piece which greets every visitor. Visitors make constant complaints about the mural and often shield their kid’s eyes as they enter the Gallery. Because of complaints from parents about the subject matter of the lobby mural, organized group visits to SDAI by school children in grade 6 and below have been curtailed. Visits by groups 7th grade and above requires written permission by parents. This makes it hard to carry out the education component of SDAI’s mission and harms our reputation in the community. Comments (12/3/2014): I saw the beginnings of this when I stopped in to check out the C-note exhibit. My first thought was that it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the exhibit. It was far more interesting than the rest of the work in the gallery. I wasn't sure what it was about but expected that there was more to come. Gene Wild I normally can't comment much on your reviews because of your focus on photography, but since you're delving into painting...  I'm pretty impressed by the start of this mural by Panca. It's risky in multiple ways for the Art Institute to allow it on the walls. Tourists and families aside, I think the main reaction of interest would be from the members of SDAI themselves (I don't think the muralist is a member). One of the best things at the Hammer near UCLA is the lobby, which is repainted quarterly. Projecting on the walls would not be nearly as effective as color, texture, incorporation of the space, etc. of actual painting/drawing/collaging on the walls. Plus a projection can be turned off if someone wants to delete the artwork. I feel the same about the large printouts in La Jolla ─ just not the same as actual work. So many muralists and street artists in SD could do wonderful things in these spaces.  Good for Ginger, continuing to shake things up in Balboa Park. And thanks as ever for your continued writing about art in San Diego.  Anna Stump "The Savagery of Women" is both daring and frightening. Exceptional art. What are those women eating? I am afraid to ask. Don Archer A great read and super analysis. Glad SDAI is utilizing that wall space and your idea of recreating smaller images [see art blog on What if] is a super add on for the artists although as you say the logistics of doing it that big is another matter. Projection wouldn't be the same I guess. I re-posted your first blog article on my FB if you don't mind. I personally am getting a bit bored with the transborder/mural BOX for discussion. Old school too much. Murals should become three dimensional. It's like people who still try to paint as impressionists. And the border discussion seems overused.  Jim Bliesner I'm glad to see you are still trying to light fires in the San Diego art community. In fact, what comes across most in this blog is the sense of wonderment (perhaps disappointment) that this mural did not raise more hackles than it appears it did. You did not mention anyone that actually objected to the work. If this is true then we have to consider how much the world is changing. One aspect that you may have overlooked is how this mural plays into our current debate as to whether or not the Marines will allow women into its killer elite corp. Or, don't forget the Donner Party, America's own contribution to the cannibal mythos. In which, we can imagine men eating men while relegating the women only to perhaps preparing the gruesome meal, but not partaking. Sequester back in the kitchen, sneaking a nibble just to maintain their womanly measure of strength and female dignity. This also makes me think of another myth that we may be hearing more about leading up to the next presidential election, that being the understanding that the world would be a better place if it were run by women. This mural seems to defuse that unlikely notion to a good degree.  As to the other blog, I see installation of wall size paintings on a regular basis in that stairwell area to have big draw backs as to visitor flow and the introduction of possible walking hazards and insurance concerns. But, let's not overlook a digital answer in the form of huge video screens displaying imagery of all sorts. Therein seems to be an idea worthy of a fundraiser and a new position at the gallery for a digital media co-ordinate.  JD Jarvis I have been enjoying your blogs on the new SDAI entryway mural. I read the commentary based on your interviews in the gift shop. I like your attitude of reporting various reactions, and, for the future, the suggestion of projection alternatives.  You are doing a great job of investigating public reaction. But, I'm thinking that with direct questioning and quoted reaction, some people are embarrassed and are not giving you a true impression. When asked, for the record, it seems people have been rather hesitant, but thoughtful and positive. Even I, as a 25-year friend and volunteer of SDAI, would not necessarily like to be quoted on my opinion. I think the mural is welcome free speech and has a worthy commentary on society, but is in the wrong space. Another screening method would indicate different opinions!  Several friends and I attended the December Nights event Friday and stopped by SDAI. [Ed. note: I agree that other ways of getting reactions are helpful to a broader discussion.] When one "investigates" as a "fly on the handrail," just listening, the commentary and impressions were apparently honest, and very hostile. What we overheard was a completely different "review" from what I read on the blog. The reactions of shock and negativity were very different from what was in the blog. Reason number one:  Generally, the location and scale of this mural is inappropriate, and ill-serves the rest of the gallery, if only as the first impression of what the contents of the gallery below might be. Using that space is a great idea, but the mural must have cost a lot of money for its execution. Reason number two: The timing of display of this mural is totally inappropriate, and very poor judgment─the holiday season, with the park packed with people in a holiday spirit. As in the past, SDAI was open for the hoards of people, including children, who passed through all of the museums.  For several years, SDAI even had a Santa. -S-

The author was, at one time, a 'border expert.' Here is one path to follow in understanding the place referred to as the U.S.-Mexico border:  Transboundary Environmental Problem Solving:   Social Process, Cultural Perception, Natural Resources Journal 26:793 - 818;"Border Development and Border Cooperation," U.S. International Communication Agency, American Participant Program. Talks given at the Colegio de Mexico, Secretaria de Agricultura y Recursos Hidraulicos, Secretaria de Asentamientos Humanos y Obras Publicas‑‑Direccion General de Ecologia Urbana, Instituto Tecnologico in Monterrey and Cd. Juarez, Universidad Autonoma in Monterrey; and other such experiences.