Clockwise from above:
Little Red Riding Hood and Falling Man, archival pigment print, 2007; Portrait of Mexican General Aldama with Decorative Scroll, acrylic on paper, 2008; Dancer, acrylic on paper, 2007 |
The series Spanish Lesson was begun in Mexico in 2007, first as a group of pigment prints that were followed by acrylic on paper paintings using similar -- or sometimes identical -- themes. My basic tactic was to combine images gleaned from wall decorations, folk crafts and other Mexican vernacular art with cartoons found in an old Spanish language book along with manipulated sections from the prints of the great Mexican satirist Jose Guadalupe Posada. I sought combinations that would set up clashes between humorous or plainly ludicrous situations and scenes of discomfort or distress if not outright horror. Decorative frames, overlays of shapes and other abstract devices were used as foils for somber or distressed subject matter.
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Mexican Angel In Early America, archival pigment print, 2014.