February 4, 2002
Subject: Re: AztlanNet: courtesy to oromano
re Alma Lopez/ Pedro Romero exchange
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 10:28:52 EST
From: Sedeno7@aol.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
CC: almalopez@earthlink.net, oromano@tqsbooks, magu4u@hotmail.com, kaytiejohnson@yahoo.com,
joeyspouch2004@yahoo.com, lizz.romero@tedi.state.tx.us, TraveisaBlue@aol.com
In a message dated 2/2/02 oromano@tqsbooks.com
writes re Alma Lopez/Pedro Romero debate on AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com:
What is Art? And what is an artist? What is the sphere that constitutes
an artists domain? If I had an answer to these questions I would be better
able to follow and understand the exchange.
Oromano, "Art", like "love",
ia a word for a big category. Pertinent to this dialogue are questions about
the nature and role of religious or devotional art, and also that of political
or issue-oriented art The art being analyzed is derivative
of what is considered by many a religious icon that has influenced the cultural
identity and history of the Mexican/Chicano people, i.e. the original
image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Confusion exists in the artworld about
this religious icon because confusion exists about words such as God, deity,
and religion; and also because of the artworld's ignorance of Mexican and
Chicana/o culture and history. I also believe confusion exists in the
artworld about the word "freedom" in that the artworld is pretty
much dominated by secular totalitarianism in modern society. ( see my
posting to this listserve Feb 2: Secular Totalitarianism). This
confusion complicates the discussion about the art in question. The
discussion is also complicated because the work in question is a secular series
derivative of a religious image. .
What informs my personal answer to your question
is my belief that "Art results from wo/man's attempt to escape the lack
of beauty in her/his material environment". Art, for me, is a gesture
to the spiritual, the artist is the gesturer, the idealist attempting the
escape. False or true perception of what is beauty, freedom, spirit
can hinder or help the attempt. The viewer of the art decides
for his/herself if the attempt is successful.
I believe beauty is a spiritual value. So is
truth, so is goodness. Into this "domain" the artist must traverse
if the work is to prove to be progressive. I believe man and woman have
different "spheres" of influence which prevent total understanding
between the two. I think feminist art comes into its full power when
it acknowledges and upholds, rather than ignores, the maternal values of womanhood.
This conjecture of mine is a key, I maintain, to understanding
the differences between Alma Lopez's "La Lupe series" and the original
icon of "Our Lady of Guadalupe" , the goal of my participation in
this exchange.
-Pedro Romero Sedeno M.F.A.
Subject: Re: AztlanNet: Re: Alma Lopez/ Pedro
Romero debateon AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 21:13:39 EST
From: rosamwill@aol.com
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
Pedro,
You don't have to go to the library to use the computer, you can create special
characters for Spanish language using the standard key board. All computers
have this capability. Press and hold down the Alt key then type the corresponding
number of the character you want on the NUMERIC KEYPAD. For example: the virgulilla
ñ, or as Alma calls it "enye", in lower case--hold down Alt
and type 164; for capital Ñ = Alt+165. For the dieresis ALT+129. Or
do a search file "special characters" on your computer to access
all the special keys' corresponding number codes.
By the way guys, I think it was in 1996-7? there
was a big 5-6 day conference sponsored by the Smithsonian and UTSan Antonio
on La Virgen. Innumerable scholars, writers, artists, even priests, working
with the image of La Lupe from all over the world, Africa, Italy, South America,
Spain, were there; including Yolanda Lopez, myself, Alicia Gaspar de Alba,
Tere Romo, Antonia Castaneda, Arturo de la Madrid, Sandra Cisneros, Maria
Herrera-Sobek, Ines Talamantez. There were lots of papers presented, (in some
cases heated) discussions, poetry, film, several exhibitions, photography
you name it. The subject was discussed adnauseum. You may be able to obtain
audio tapes of the presentations from the Smithsonian; some really interesting
stuff went on. Keep on posting, love the discussions. . .
P.S. Last time I was in Santa Fe visiting family,
I stopped in to see Marianna Tey, she told me there had been a big mitote
over your work Alma. That it mostly came from some sour grapes artist who
was jealous at not having been included in the show. She said something about
the putz leaving kotex with red paint in protest and making a big pedo over
the show. Imaginate! Which I saw, by the way. I was particularly jealous of
the Santo Niño de Atocha with computer objects. That was sooo fine.
Damn it, I was going to make that sculpture! I almost thought it up, truly,
I almost had it. :-) Good Show Alma! and congratulations on the continuing
controversy, Ha! we should all be so lucky. Half the time one goes into an
exhibition and ten minutes later can't recall what one saw because the stuff
is so phenomenally forgetable. Not this one, I remember every bit of it, right
down to the way the graphics were designed on the wall. Look here, how many
months has it been and we're still on topic. Well, enough about you, lets
talk about me now.. . . :-)
Rosa M.