Tuesday, February 28, 2017

RORO FIGHT THE POWER!

Rosa Garcia, Let My Hand Do The Talking, Sir Dump., 2017
I’m a woman. (with boobs and a vagina) I’m a writer. (an artist) I’m a daughter of immigrants. (who became citizens) I was inspired by the Guerilla Girls, mainly because they are always fighting for the women who are unheard in the art industry. I believe women are equal as men. Women have the right to their own bodies, choices in everything in life, jobs, whether they want children or not etc. I also believe that art is important in time, and I know that in this generation that might be taken away from me along with my rights as a woman. Lastly, my family. I have family that are undocumented and I fear their safety yet fight for them to stay. I am Salvadoran American. My culture and beliefs stay with me. No one can take my rights as a woman, my expression as a writer, my love for my family, and my culture.
I speak the romantic tongue. I can curse you out in English and Spanish. SO.
Respect my right, my art, and my family.

My Body is My Own!


This post was inspired by the Guerilla Girls. They focus on fighting discrimination against women. Women have to fight to have the right to regulate their own bodies. There is an ongoing fight for women’s rights everywhere around the world. Women’s rights are limited to them and it’s time to give women more rights to have equality because women should have equality in every aspect of their lives. They are unable to have self empowerment due to the rights not given to them. Society is interfering with the woman’s right to make decisions related to her own body. 






The guerrilla girls certainly holds some of the glue that holds the feminism movement together. Throughout time , women have been given the shorter end of the stick , our bodies have been policed , our emotions , experiences and brain power have been invalidated. Men have failed to realize our power. But overtime , some of these issues have been worked upon, because of groups like the guerrilla girls, women who are fed up. Anguish, tiredness , these are all things that can spark a revolution. The guerrilla girls did so in the art world, breaking down many barriers for women artist of all race color and creed. They inspired me to think about another deficit in our continuous fight for equality. There is a taboo placed upon an exposed or nude female body, a notion of hypersexuality, especially for a female of color. I decided to pose this way, to sortve fight the power. To send a message that me showing my body doesn't make me any less valuable or more sexual than the other person.

"Female by Birth, Feminist by Choice."

Inspired by the Guerrilla Girls

  This image was inspired by the feminist activist artists, the Guerrilla Girls. I obviously am all for the guerrilla girls because they talk about important issues women go through, throughout our daily lives. We are treated unfairly when it comes to occupations, relationships, rights, life, etc. Women can just never be on top, and I love how the Guerrilla girls stand up for all women all around the world and help bring out a voice for all those women who feel they just cannot speak up or feel they aren't heard at all. Not only are they helping us spread the word, but they're slowly helping us gain equality. The more they speak up about issues women go through, the more recognition it'll get. This image I created was inspired by one of the themes the Guerrilla girls posted on their page based on art. Now, I put the word "feminism" because I, myself, am a feminist. Many people, including men, seem to hate the word "Feminism" because some women use the term wrongly, simply to degrade men... This word has acquired a negative connotation lately when simply the definition of this word is actually pretty easy to define... Feminism to me means women having the same equal rights as men. See! simple... Anyway, I put the word "Hypocrite" because the Guerrilla girls discuss on their page how an art collector decided to buy a white male's art work for liberal causes, but has never bought women's art work, especially women of color, therefore this is why the guerrilla girls think this is hypocricy. Lastly, I put the word "Confrontation" because that is all the Guerrilla girls do. Even though they are disguised as gorrillas and want to stay anonymous, they still have the courage to speak up and confront people and important issues being ignored by the government, occupations, and life itself. As you can see, my eyes are covered. This is to stay anonymous while I have these words up, which was also inspired by the Guerrilla girls, too. 

Wednesday, February 22, 2017



I was torn upon what I really wanted to do for this project because it could have been anything about myself, and for anyone that is in their twenties there is a lot to talk about. So I decided to use some of my self interests and incorporate them into my self portrait. Everything on the top half of the portrait are my favorite hobbies and things to do.The title of the portrait Gabe;s Bizarre Adventure is a anime reference to my favorite anime Jojo;s Bizarre Adventure. In the middle of the portrait is a drawing of me, because I'm the center of all this because it is me and who I am. The top left side represents that I love to play video games and they have had a huge impact in my life since I was a child. Many people think video games don't teach people anything, in my opinion I think this is false. Theres all types of video games out there, tons of genre to pick from jrpg's (Japanese role playing games) to fps (first person shooters), they contain knowledge or make stories of the real world outside of them to make it real for someone playing them. Below the video games pictures, on the middle left side theres a black and white picture of Jersey City. I'm a huge sucker for beautiful sights and this picture reminds me of a sight of NYC that I like to see in downtown Jersey City in the waterfront. Theres a part of the waterfront where there is no railings and boundaries to stop you, its just land and rocks and you are very close to the river. Its one of my favorite places that I share fond memories of with friends. Skipping the middle part for now, the lower half is a painting of a beach, with a palm tree and a wood plank with the words etched into it "Rest & Peace". All these together give me the one feeling I love, tranquility, the state of being calmed and not being worried about anything feels amazing. Lastly, back to the middle, I wanted to look like the poster had the paper ripped off it, so I dipped some regular printing copy papers into coffee and cut them out into this shape to be able to leave a quote on it from John Berger's book "Ways Of Seeing". The quote from Berger states "The meaning of an image is changed according to what one sees immediately beside it or what comes immediately after it"(Berger, pp 29, 1972). It was hard to find a quote to fit my portrait and this one nailed it, it shows the overwhelming parts of my life and has another meaning when you look at the beach, which represents a state of calmness. Overall, I enjoyed doing this portrait and will strive to do much more for the next portrait in the near future.

My self portrait collage is about most of the things that motivate me in my life. In the collage you can see words of motivation that encourage me to do the things that I love to do in life. The career choice I want to do is being a audio engineer or music producer. In my spare time I like to create hip hop music and it's a lot of people that like to say things "you are wasting your time" "you're not going to make it in the music industry". How I vision music is its like im creating life. Life is important to anybody because it symbolizes a new coming of something new .

Life is a little war that goes inside every and each one of us.  What I think about is if everyone used the element God or his parents has provided him with.  If each one used those elements the right way of using he/she will get to whatever his/her goals are and will be successful in life.
       Talking about myself and the elements I thought of I think who works as the savior in my life is Jesus, what plays a big thing in my life is church and tradition, and a lot more. But at the same time there is an opponent team who plays against each one of us in life. On my point of view devil is what takes that position in life providing us with a lot of things that can kill our movement to success. So what everyone should be really thinking of is God and how to use whatever everyone has not what we don’t have or what we can’t get to move toward success of life.
Success Road
My image "Success Road" depicts the road to success through my eyes. The content in this image all has its purpose. The large wave on the left of the image represents all the obstacles in life that could hold you back if not managed. Written in the wave are a few examples of the obstacles and responsibilities in my life. These are things that if we don't stay ahead of,they will come crashing down on us. The truck represents my life and how I'm at the wheel controlling it. I'm driving my life up the road to success. The road is a steep and narrow road full of curves with steep drops on both sides. Going up the road you need to be mindful of what you're doing. In the image I'm hauling ass up this dirt road slinging dirt trying to stay ahead of my obstacles and responsibilities so they don't crash down on me. At the end of the road is what is guiding my life up the road, my focus. My focus is on God and living for him. Staying focused on him will get my life up through the success road. By focusing on him I'll be able to live without worry of those obstacle crashing down on me. Living a free of obstacles and full of good breakfast. An artist that influenced me would be Frida Kahlo. She used her life as inspiration for her work and included images of her life in her work. My work is full of images that are me. The truck for example. Although I only had for a short time, there were so many memories made in it that are now a part of me. It was my first truck full of first times like running out of gas in the middle of nowhere on a fishing trip, my first date, and drifting through town during a blizzard with some of my best friend's. In the truck are three images of me. The one driving in control over my life. The one with a pineapple in hand shows me and my layer back side who likes to just let go. The third me is holding on to the American flag to show my love for America and history. The cross shows my faith and my focus on God. The eggs and bacon of course show my emense love for breakfast. It's my hope viewers see my image as my road to success even if they see differently then I have. I created this collage with a combination of drawing and the classic glueing stuff on paper which also helps represent me. It's rough cut and messy which is how I am. The composition of it I feel helps with the focus of the image. Flowing left to right really helps me and hopefully the veiwer guide my eyes through the image and eventually onto the ending focus.

Hope






          The subject for my project was to show how I am living the world now rather how I was before.  I dividend the poster with one side of the color of the flag.  As a gay man that just came out of the closet, I am putting my happy side with pictures with my friends.  I did not put pictures of my family because I have not told them.  I do know think it is time for me to tell them because I know how a religious Hispanic would take the news.  The other side was going to be dark and plain colors because I was not being myself.  I did not want people to make fun of me because I was different so I just wanted to fit in.  I separated the two side by putting a duct tape with tigers of my wall.  I want all the negative side to see what I have become as a person.  All the negative side would be scared to come to my happy side because the tigers.

My goals was to make gay flag to show the true side of how I lived my life. Adding the word hope in my project was to show that I am living better.  Before in the dark side I was just thinking about all the negative things would say to me.  People would call me stupid because I failed twice in elementary.  That is why I put pictures of monsters because I felt like all my teachers and children were trying to but down.  I wanted to show dark color to represent evil. I want the people to see how my happy side is the way I am living rather than living like you are down about life.
I tried to put the Cindy Sherman effect in my project because of her style that was weird.  I enjoyed looking through her art and seeing models making fun faces.  In my project, certain pose are funny because I want people to see how life can be wonderful.  It does not matter if you are in uniform or dress.  I live my life no matter what people say and it does not matter how I look in camera because a photo is a work of art.  I tried to use retro effect because Cindy work is bright.  On my happy side is full with bright colorful because it shows a lot emotion.  My friends are living life in my project because the main purpose was to live life the way you want to as long you are happy.






Doll House



Throughout life, people use pictures for many reasons but the main one is to show something, to bring a point across.  The subject of my image is myself, the representation of the women image as a sex toy, and how the way we act, dress or take pictures and upload it to social media apparently leads us to getting sexualy abused, or invite men to view us differently. In this image I tried to make people understand that we, women, are not the problem. The way we dress or act doesn't give you the right to try and do whatever you want with us or our body. We will not change the way we dress because it’s more convenient for your lack of self control. Blame the rapist not the victim.
When I told my mom that my stepfather was molesting me, and she asked him, he denied it and  said that my school skirt was too short and provocative. I was twelve and my school wouldn't let me in if my skirt wasn't down to my knee. He convinced my mom that I was lying, then walked in my room and told me it was going to get worst for me for speaking up. He always saw my body has a toy he could play with whenever he wanted. His excuse? Because I was growing up and turning into a beautiful girl, because I always liked to play dress up and look pretty. Well  that doesn't give you the right to touch me.
Each one of this pictures represent a part of my story and the string in the doll, represents all the string society had attached to us as women, because of the way we dress and or act. Cindy Sherman inspired me to create my own pictures and use my imagination. She made me seen something else in photography, other than just the pictures. Every picture has its own story and mines have a lot to say. A lot of us wish we could change the way man sees us, a lot of us want to have the freedom to wear whatever we want and be as sexy as we can without having to worry about being harassed. We don’t need your attention, we are not inviting you in. John Burger said: “ You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure.” Once again, man blaming us for the way the see us.


#ImnotsorryforhavingEpidermalNevus

"The skin I'm In Was Made With Love"
Here for midterm is a collection of mixed media that I've assembled that embodies me and what I have learned. The term #selfiasimage is a powerful message that teaches us as students that images aren't what make us, we make the image we want to show people. That has been the first thing I was taught in this classroom that I've brought with me to my first collage. The subject of my image is all about loving yourself. The colors surrounding my image are bright and vivid to embody peace and love. Within the colors is my hand with the "ME" on it, peeling back a poster/sticker that unleashes everything that makes me unique.
 The colors are blended and surround everything including things that make me human. On the top left facing right is a quote that says, "Confidence is a beautiful thing." On the bottom left is my birthday. Along the bottom is my baby picture with my grandparents, next to it, a postcard from Portugal where my grandmother was born and raised. The poster that is peeling back shows makeup at the bottom and the hashtag, "#imnotsorryforhavingEpidermalNevus. This is the name of the extremely rare skin condition I have. Its a condition that causes the color of your skin to appear darker in some areas in the form of swirls, patches, dots and various patterns. The skin condition is notably everywhere on my back, chest, arms, legs and neck. This is why my neck in the photograph has many "eyes" upon it. Growing up, my neck has always been the topic of discussion when meeting all kinds of new people. On top is my name in big letters where my eyes should be but instead they are looking down at my poster from the top right. In the middle are my hands holding the words, "recipe for success" with the words, "I am a women" on my left arm. Beneath my arms are my insecurities being the foundation that I use everyday to conceal the marks on my face. At the right side of my self portrait with the blended colors have the quote, "The skin im in was made with love." At the bottom there are three little boats with the names, Reah, Ava, and Ronald Jr. which are my three younger siblings. Lastly, Beneath my hand, there is a small yellow heart that says, "Tio Danny", which means Uncle in Portuguese and Spanish and to whom I dedicated my poster. He has passed away two years ago but when alive he did teach me to happy about everything and never dwell on the negative things. Most of what he taught me has given me the inspiration of my self portrait to be about being happy.
The supplies I have used have been acrylic paint, crayons, magazines and various other household supplies. I used a lot of blending techniques for the colors of my outer poster and a scratch-like blending technique with a fan brush to represent the harsh insecurities my skin condition has given me in the past and how I've learned to love it.

Self Portrait







-My image is a painting which signifies personal growth despite challenges.


                            -My image contains a silhouetted woman, stretched towards an orange sunset, with sunflowers growing around her.
-       I wanted to make my project personal, I thought compiling a bunch of photographs wouldn’t completely capture a personal essence of myself. I am not a great artist, but I thought it would represent me more if I painted.
                                     -I am not a great artist, clearly, but I believe when a person looks at my image, they might just see a woman outstretched to the sky, sort of a dance position, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and someone may have many other interpretations to my image.
-       I was inspired and influenced by Frida Kahlo’s raw vulnerability in her paintings, to create a portrait that directly expressed me.
-       I first outlined my image with a pencil on canvas, then painted it with acrylic paint.
                            -This project represents my constant journey to self betterment. I believe that growth is a choice, and I refuse to be held back by fear of change. I choose to let flowers bloom in every crack and crevice of my body which pain has formed.













Self Portrait

Rosa Garcia, Gits and Shiggles, 2017
In “Gits and Shiggles”, my subject matter is my brain. I have anxiety and depression and the biggest problem is being positive through it all. I decided to put how I feel my brain works.So in the words of my friend who saw this: “ lol it looks like what I imagine the inside of your head looks like”.


All the colors are what I see on a daily basis blurred, patchy, and bright. The cats are what makes me happy and calm. I added images of anime because it's a funny anime and one of my favorites. I decided to add my sense of humor by words and adding images on images. I already had this idea in my head the moment the assignment was assigned but it came out different than what I expected. It came out weird and colorful and messy which makes sense. It follows my personality on a good day and I wanted to remind myself that through the anxiety and depression there is still light. I added symbols and small drawings and things you have to look to find for example the kitten on the bottom is following a laser pointer. I decided to add a bit of texture like in my hair because I have a tendency to play with and damage it a lot. I also include some keywords like dump because I love poop jokes and a cough drop wrapper so for in the moment I'm becoming sick which is often there is random strings because I'd make bracelets but also because I play with it. I decided to do this because in the month of February I am at my worst. I don't see these colors and I don't tend to be calm. I am always in a terrible place but I push through.


When people see this image I believe they see colors and cats mostly. I believe they'll think it's a self portrait for the love I have for cats and just how random it is.
Hannah Hoch (Made for a party) and Frida Kahlo was my main inspiration for the collage. I wanted to be weird and unproportioned. Hannah Hochs images were what I wanted and colors were Frida Kahlo. I went with paint because it dries differently than it would with marker or pencil. It adds more texture and I always love playing with strokes because I can be neat or messy.


How this image represents me is by how weird it is. The title itself represents me “Gits and shiggles”. I'm all over the place and my life consists of “git” times and giggles. I think not many people talk about mental illnesses(don't like the words specifically) but I am quite open about what happens in my life and how I feel. I don't know how to really explain how it represents me.

My Game of Life

My Game Board of Life
In “My Game Board of Life,” the main subject throughout the board is about myself and my pathway in life. Throughout the game board, you will notice a few pictures of myself growing up. There is a picture of myself in elementary school in New York, a picture of myself graduating from middle school, and a current picture of myself used as a stick figure walking across the board as continue to go through the events in reality.
            As shown above, my game board consists of 3 levels, indicating beginning, middle, and end. The first level represents my life in New York, East Harlem. In the top right corner of the board, there is a small image of New York. In my path through New York, I went to P.S. 96 Joseph Lanzetta, which was, at first, an all-girl school but was later changed to a regular public school. In one of the boxes there is a school picture of myself in my uniform when I attended P.S. 96. In a couple other boxes, viewers will point out an image of a part of Harlem that shows the poverty people had gone through when living there around the year 2003 or 2005.
Around the middle of the board there is a transition of New York to New Jersey. This was when my family decided to move and start a “brand new life.” My view has definitely changed as shown in the image at the middle to the right. My view went from seeing buildings to seeing nature. When living in New Jersey, I have entered a new school district which was distinctly different from New York. I graduated from Lincoln Community School (middle school) and Bayonne High School (BHS). I became the first person to go to college in my family, I received scholarships, and graduated with a good GPA, bought a car, and continue to walk down my path of success.
In the last level is where I am heading towards and that is what I am soon planning to achieve. I plan on going into a PA program at Rutgers and then after go to Medical school to become a Pediatrician. As soon as I have my dream job everything else becomes easier, such as traveling and buying a house.
            The reason I chose a game board is because I feel as if life is a game. We have to play the game right in order to win. If you notice, I did not add any slides or latters to skip from one level to the next. I chose to do this with my game board because I feel the best way to succeed is by taking baby steps and work your way up to mastering your skills. This is like solving a complicated problem in math. In order to get the right answer, one must solve it step by step rather than skipping around and missing a negative sign or multiplying wrong. This image conveys to the viewers the dream of any other person who is trying to succeed in their life choices. We all face struggles and difficulties that makes it hard to achieve a goal. You can always change the path but not the goal. Artists who have influenced my portraits would be Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman. The way Frida dressed represented her culture. In my project, I represent where I come from also, which is in level one. And Cindy Sherman’s shifting from one person to another inspired me to shift from one life time to another by starting from where I come from to where I am to where I want to be.

In a way, I am an organized person. Since I was in middle school I started becoming competitive, ambitious, and prepared. This game board did not only become my game of life but also my path in life. This includes no skipping around or cheating. I take it step by step because I feel as if I need to go through the whole experience. Without going through the experience, I do not discovery myself nor do I learn from any mistakes to prevent in further down the line. So in order to achieve my goals I created a path, treated it as a game, and continue to walk one step at a time.

Body Image

    The subject to my collage is body image. I decided to trace a silhouette of a very curvy woman that isn't the ideal skinny model we see on magazines because many people do not appreciate the body they have. they do not admire the curves they are given because society idolizes these skinny Victoria Secret models as the body type and many people feel so insecure when they see those images and some try very hard to convert themselves into these models that they forget that they don't have to be like everyone else. In my collage I have a broken mirror and the reason behind the broken mirror is because many people that have a problem accepting their bodies see this broken person inside of themselves and always want to recreate themselves to someone they aren't. I was that person once. I wanted to go under the knife and fix my body because I was constantly told I was fat even when I weight 160 pounds like I do now. It hurts, and being in front of a mirror sometimes can make you realize that you are perfect the way you are or can make you want to fit into society and try all these methods to become the small waisted person that society keeps pushing on you on TV, and magazines. 
         The reason I  choose body image is because throughout the years even as a child I was made fun of because I was a chubby kid, and even growing up though I wasn't really fat I would still be called "obese" even  by my mother. Even today, my mother calls me fat and obese and yes it makes me feel horrible and it hurts because it is coming from my mother , but I have learned to ignore it and embrace the body I have. When I was in middle school, I was made fun of by my own "friends" and at first I would laugh about it because I would think to myself, "Hey! These are my friends they don't mean any of this," but as the days and months went by everything they would say began to start affecting me. It came to a point that I became depressed because I thought that I was fat and I stopped eating. In that time I stopped eating, my doctors were telling me I had anemia because I wasn't eating the right nutrient I was supposed to. Over the years, I told myself I had to accept who I am because I cannot keep trying to be something I am not. 
      I think this image conveys a message that states be who you are and love yourself no matter what admire who you are and what you have and don't let society tell you how you should look because we are all different. They two artist that influenced my self portrait were Cindy Sherman and Frida Khalo because they are both strong women who portray a similar message and that is to be strong and be yourself because what others think of you truly do not matter. In my collage I used pieces of a magazine, some printed out quotes from my computer, a broken mirror, and pictures of me embracing my body and who I am. This collage represents me because of my story of how my mother wishes I was as skinny as a model and always tells me how I should be looking at myself in the mirror and see how I am getting fatter everyday. 

 



Self-growth


The subject of my image is Self-growing. The content of my image is learning how to outgrow any obstacles that come in your way. Because our life happens one day at a time, there is a tendency to view each day as a separate and independent event. While I am a big fan of living in the moment, it is equally important to understand how one moment relates to the next. Those with something to gain want you to believe that major success can happen almost instantly and with very little effort. To be a success in any area of life we need to learn to view today, not as a single disconnected event, but as a major contributor to our future.
My choices were influenced by the quote “There’s no such thing as overnight success” and the image of “The morality factor”. Once I found those two things, I had an idea of what I wanted to do. This image not only reflect success, it also shows growth and desire. Desire to be better in life and show people your potential. I started looking through magazines and found some really cool images that I thought were going to help me prove my point.
This image might be confusing to some viewers. It has many different meanings which makes it hard to identify. But for the most part the viewers might think the image is about growing into success and obtaining freedom.
My image was inspired by Hannah Höch, (Made for a Party) 1936. It caught my attention how she could put all these pieces together and have such deep meaning. To create this image, I had to think about what matters to me the most. I looked at many collages to give me an idea on how to develop my ideas. I used a butterfly which symbolizes freedom. I also used the image of the morality factor which I used to define liberty.
This image represents me because im still growing as a person and there are many obstacles that I must overcome. This image portrays two different sides of me: the side that people see and the side of me that I see. This image also shows the freedom that I desire.




Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Self Portrait (Gabriela Ortiz)



  •  The subject of my image is learning about me, Gabriela. 
  • Not sure if I am answering this question right, but the content of this image is about me. My interests, daily things I use, the things I like/make me happy, what I have experienced, and what I want to accomplish in life. I decided to throw random objects/things that describe me, what I want, and what I like, to show who I truly am. 
  • I made the choices that led to this composition so that it could be fun and intriguing. At first I was planning on doing a dark silhouette with objects and symbols outside of it, but then I thought to myself that maybe that would be boring. I wanted to get a tad creative, so I started going through a bunch of magazines I have at home, and I started cutting out pieces of what I think described me the most, or simply things that represent me and what I like. I honestly was random about this project and made it look weird on purpose because that is what I am into. 
  • This image probably leaves the viewers thinking that it is a bit odd, but interesting. This image may look creepy and not proportioned well, but it has meaning and value because it represents me. This image represents me but it also carries a strong message letting the viewers know that they're not alone, that we've all been through the same thing when it comes to confidence, insecurity, going through struggles, having happy memorable moments, and having goals set to achieve in the future. 
  • I honesly got inspired to create my image the way I did by looking at every image on the  anothermag.com website you shared with us in class. Every image shares its own story and helped me come up with my own, but if I had to pick, I would say Hannah Hoch (Made for a party) helped me the most because of how curious it looked to me. That is exactly what I wanted to achieve. A curious, odd, interesting image that would leave the viewers thinking.   
  • To create this image I had to go to youtube and watch a "silhouette tutorial" and then that is when I started using my pencil to sketch the silhouette, and also my imagination. 
  • Why does this project represent me ? because I put in things that describe my personality. I share my interests, my goals, my happiness, my culture, my hobbies, my belifes, etc. 
  • It is too much to explain how it represents me, so I rather talk about it during the presentation but it just does.