healing and things

The past two weeks have been emotionally a bit draining. I've been angrier than usual and it hurts more because I know my anger is justified. Trump is a pendejo. An hijo de puta. An idiota tan grande that I simply cannot debase myself and call him my president. I don't condone name calling usually, but if you decide you're going to build your campaign and WIN on the basis of blatant racism and xenophobia targeting latino's than I will gladly refer to you now and forever as the world's most racist cheeto (thank you Jezebel). Since the election, I've felt electric. I've already been getting more and more involved in local civic engagement and social justice things but now more than ever do I feel the need to arm myself and fight back. So I've been making to get the aggression out. I find myself coming back to my favourite radical group the Young Lords Party/Organization. I also have decided to start a project where I document space and places from my past and my families past that I have mythologized. I'm excited to see where this all goes. I'm also starting to wrap up the research phase of my thesis on Hispanic and Latinx involvement in the arts here. I'll talk a little about recent stuff below: 

So the top image is the original Immaculate Heart of Mary image I've been obsessing over privately. I just find so much of Catholic and Christian imagery to be so weirdly violent and 'gothic.' I've been using the phrase Tengo Puerto Rico en Mi Corazón a lot lately as a personal mantra. I borrow it from the YLP and I felt like this image resonated with it. On November 8th with the elections heavy on my heart, I started to doctor the image of Mary I isolated to look more like an Afro-Latinx woman I wanted to darken her skin a bit and change her features. I started to think about how regardless of the results, more Latinx and POC will be feeling the brunt of the anger or gloating post-election cycle. So I started to make her features more worried or somber. I started adding poetry and additional imagery the next day. I woke up after several anxiety dreams where I firmly believed I had misread the electoral votes. That Hilary won, or it was a draw, or that maybe this was a joke? I came to work and had little to do with the classes that day so I got to work on getting all the feels out. I eventually toned the paper with coffee and am finishing up the details as I type. Below is the most recent state. I've added transfers of YLP marches, traditional Puerto Rican mundillo patterns, and a ghost image of Atabeira's face over the virgen. 

The piece below is playing with imprints of a Vejigante mask with YLP imagery again. Still working on more of these mini-prints. I'm thinking a lot about radical activism lately.

The polaroids and holga images are the beginnings of my mythology and sacred space idea. They're from Castle Hill projects where my family grew up and I lived for a short period of time. I'm interested in spaces that I lived in and that formed me as a child that other see as "ghetto" or blighted. We'll see where these go in the future!