Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking

My favorite Chicana artist Zulma Aguiar has thrown down the gauntlet. Are there any other Chicana New Media Artists out there? This is an exciting question.

Get that paper (I mean grant) Zulma and do your thing!

Rio

This weekend performer/writer/director Marc Pinate asked me to document a series of performances that his troupe would be staging on BART trains. I excitedly agreed and had a very fun time photographing his performers as they both shocked and amused riders on the trains the boarded. Some photos are below.

For the complete set CLICK HERE

I also shot a series of behind the scenes photos of the performers getting ready and hanging out. To see that set of photos CLICK HERE.

Peace,

Rio

So many of my friends are either pregnant or having children. I’ve always considered myself waaaaaaay too young to have kids, I’m just not there in my life at this point. That said, I was stopped dead in my tracks by this photo of Manda Rin holding Sci-Fi Steven’s newborn daughter. Bis was one of my favorite bands as a teenager and I’ve aged and grown up concurrently with its members. My mind is adrift…

Peace,

Rio

I just got back from Oakland’s Red Door Gallery. The Great Tortilla Conspiracy held an event during the reception of Death is Easy; Comedy is Hard and it went great. Jos, Rene, and I continued with our recent practice of making quesadillas with our tortilla art and serving them as something to eat to the public. This time we took it a step farther and created a menu for the event.

Things went really well tonight, especially considering how wet the weather was. The menus were a big hit and we served over 150 tortillas and quesadillas to the public during the four hour event. The images that we silkscreened this time were created by Jos and Rene and I created the menus. They had labor and immigration themes to concide with the May 1st related events happening around the city. Check out some images and artwork below.

Last but not least I wanna give an extra-special shout to my homegirl Cindylu. She was in town from L.A. and surprised me at the gallery. In between me serving up quesadillas we got a chance to catch up a little bit and check out the exhibit. While we were walking around I shot this photo of her standing under part of an installation and it’s my favorite photo of the night.

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy will make their return during this event on Thursday, May 7th. More details on that coming soon!

Peace,

Rio

Come one come all! Now with Menus!

My homegirl Melanie Cervantes just sent me a link to work she did recently with her organization Dignidad Rebelde. As part of marches and activities centered around May 1st she produced a series of bandanas to be worn by protesters that feature my mom’s “Who’s the Illegal Alien Pilgrim” artwork. Quite a stylish way to stay anonymous if I do say so myself.

Melanie’s photo and explanation are below.

Huaxtec invited us to be part of their banner and art making party and BBQ in preparation for May 1st (the art not the BBQ).  We were able to support the production of bandanas using classic images like that of Yolanda Lopez’s “Whose the Illegal Alien Pilgram?” and slogans like “We didn’t cross the borders, the borders crossed us”. Young people also produced silkscreened posters, stenciled posters and graffiti style banners.

Peace,

Rio

I had a productive day yesterday. I met with Guatemalan writer/performer Maya Chinchilla to craft a plan of collaborative world domination. I’ve been a big fan of Maya’s writings and performances about online culture and Central American identity politics. We sat at Mission Kitchen on 23rd & Mission and plotted a good number of collaborations that I’m really excited about.

First up, I’m really looking forward to creating graphics and illustrations to accompany some of her writings. We’re going to get the ball rolling really soon and I can’t wait to see what we come up with together. Stay tuned!

Peace,

Rio