TWO CULTURES MESHING

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

My artwork is designed to bring together different cultures in order to form loving and supporting community. I grew up in a family with Jewish American and Narragansett/Mexican-American roots. Our Highland Park home was located in a place with the second oldest synagogue in Los Angeles operating in its original location, and in an area where Mexican immigrants and their American born children debated how to fight discrimination and advance civil rights.

My Jewish and Latina cultures form the basis of my artwork. The red ribbon in the image, for example, indicates the joining of two cultures by linking the Star of David and the Catholic Cross. The playful movement throughout the entire image is inspired by my admiration of Marc Chagall, a Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin. The face of each figure will be Latina/o, showing the passion of the indigenous people of the Americas. Bold color palette and simplified forms demonstrate the influence of Cubism and Post-Impressionism as well as Muralism in Mexico and the Americas. I am drawn to illustrate the mural with different shades of grays, blacks and whites in order to unify figure and background. Jewish tradition, after all, sees God in all things. By using a fragmented cubist style, I can offer a style that will mirror the complexity of creation. Additionally by overlapping images in the background, I can suggest there’s more to life under the surface. By adapting both Jewish and Christian themes, I can create a more universal message.

The other side of the mural will be of similar design but showing a male figure. Architecture includes many notable examples of female and male figures serving as load bearing supports. Sculpted female figures serving as structural columns include those of the south porch of the Erechtheion on the acropolis of Athens. Sculpted male figures include both the Atlantes of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in Russia and the massive statues of Toltec warriors atop Pyramid B at the Toltec capital of Tollan (Tula) in Mexico. Whether the viewer looks to Greco-Roman tradition, Russian tradition, Mexican Tradition, or any other tradition—there are heroic figures that can shoulder the weight of the world and pass their strength and beauty and care for others to all who view.