While I enjoy a day off I thought I’d contribute to the latest meme going around facebook. A lot of my friends have been tagged in images compiling cartoon characters distinguishing them with labels like “the flirt” or “the funny one”. I thought I’d add to the madness with an image for anyone out there who can appreciate the icons of Chicano sensibilities.
Have at it!
Rio
Ps. I’ve seen Watchmen twice since it opened. I think it’s brilliant and would be down to see it again with anyone out there who is so inclined. Hit me up!
I should be sleeping right now. In about six hours I’m boarding a flight for Los Angeles to attend this event at UCLA for my mom , Yolanda Lopez. Before I sleep for a quick second I wanted to share this latest video from Ask a Chola featuring my recent portrait of her.
I hope y’all tune into Chola’s show tonight. She’s hands down my favorite performance artist and I’ve tried to support her work with my own art on many occasions. I thought I’d share my contributions to her presidential campaign of 2008.
If anyone I know is going to be around UCLA this Wednesday and Thursday give me a call and we can hang out.
When I began blogging through my myspace page all the way back in 2005 my blog was essentially a personal journal that talked about living life between art school in Southern California and San Francisco. Once I graduated from Calarts and returned to the Bay Area it transformed into a soapbox to talk a lot of shit and chronicle all the changes that had taken place in the Mission District in my absence. Once I found my footing as a professional in San Francisco and began to launch my art career it turned into a forum to present my latest artworks. The shifts in my blogging haven’t been planned or consciously thought out and I sometimes question if I’m on the right track. I seldom write about anything too personal anymore and I wonder if it’s for the better or worse now that my life is now a little more public as an artist.
Tonight I’m going to drop all pretenses get into some chismosa subject matter.
This past weekend Mariela and I met up at Good Vibrations for a night that changed our lives. We were attending a party to celebrate the recent releases and collaborations from artists and sex-positive super heroes April Flores and Carlos Batts. I’ve been following April Flores work and writings for about a year now and her public persona is fascinating to me, she’s a sex-positive, politically active Latina that approaches her work as art. Latinas can have such a strong cultural stigma of shame when it comes to sexual pleasure and I think the work and activism of April Flores is revolutionary. In order to show my appreciation for April Flores’ work as an artist I created the portrait above to portray her as the prolific hero she is. I started and finished it during the hours of 3:00AM and 6:30AM after getting home late from a long day at work. Despite those short crazy hours, I’m really happy with the end results.
When April approached Mariela and I at Good Vibrations and chatted with us, I presented her with a framed print of it. To my dorking-out fanboy delight she loved it. She even showed it to the crowd that gathered for her Q&A session later on in the party. Hearing April and Carlos talk about working together and the story of how they met and fell in love was inspiring. Apparently they met over ten years ago while Carlos was shooting images for his book Wild Skin. The book’s editor selected April for the cover without knowing that she had just started dating Carlos. Hearing them relate their story, and seeing some parallels in my own relationship, I couldn’t resist plunking down the $75.00 it took to buy the book.
Click here to see our photos from the party
The rest of the night was filled with great music, hanging out with Carlos & April, and people coming up to me and talking about the print. It was a night of inspiration and accomplishment for me that I won’t ever forget.
This post is a test of flickr’s new HD video and how well it fits into wordpress. In this video, recently shot with my new flip mino HD, Audra and Rocky wax on Culture Clash’s show at Brava and Herbert’s party. Then Herbert and Richard call us out on the street! It was on and crackin’!
I spent the other night listening to my favorite performance artist Ask a Chola on her brand new radio show. Between the gully banter and crazy music I loved every second of it. I wanted to do what I could to support Chola’s new endeavor so I thought I’d create a new portrait to help get the word out.
My first portrait of Ask a Chola, circa March 2007, is a good marker for how far my technical skills in illustration have evolved. I wonder sometimes if I’ve gotten too far away from my original style but I’m really happy with the direction the tablet has taken me in. There’s even a noticeable difference from my first couple of piece with it. Things are looking up!
Alas, I’m triste because I’ll be in LA next Wednesday and will be away from a computer to listen to the show with. Someone will need to fill me in on the jams Chola throws and if there are any more breathless phone calls from the mysterious Anonima. Radio Chola airs Wednesdays from 7:30pm to 10:00pm at Kill Radio.
Life is good. My first solo-curated exhibit is a success, my Andy Warhol programming launches at the de Young Museum this Friday, and the reception to this year’s Valentine’s Day cards has been amazing. Sitting here at my computer tonight I feel like a lot of toil and hard work is really starting to pay off. The icing on the cake has been the warm welcome my Valentine’s cards received. I got them out a little later than usual amidst my crazy schedule but was really happy to see everyone get into them. Many thanks to everyone who posted them around and shared them with their special someones. I really want to send a special thanks to Sacred Yoli and Cindylu who have been great advocates of my work and have both put in extra effort to get the cards out there.
Speaking of Cindylu, the last post I wrote detailing our colloborative project was actually started months ago but I left it unfinished in hopes that I would create some additional artwork out of the images. I’ve been carrying those intentions with me for some time and I finally caught a break to get some work done after Hybridity finally opened. I sat down and created the piece below. I worked with a slightly different color aesthetic that de-emphasizes solid blacks and I’m really happy with the results. It gives this portrait of Cindylu a look like that of a silkscreen print. The final layout is styled in the flavor of 90’s era indie comics. I hope ya can dig it.
Recently my homegirl and esteemed peer Cindylu came into town. Cindylu has been a subject of a good number of portraits I’ve created in the last couple of years. I credit the autobiographical narrations on her blog and flickr page for inspiring me to becoming active with my work online. I’ve always wanted to do something collaborative with Cindylu and her afternoon in the city was the perfect opportunity.
Our original concept was to photograph Cindylu with a deck of Loteria Cards amidst the backdrop of the Mission District. We spent a lot of our time dodging the rain. After ducking into the Revolution Cafe to hide from the weather we quaffed some ale and brainstormed on what to do next. We came up with an idea to do a Loteria scavenger hunt in the Mission. We hit the streets and shops looking for analogs to what each card represented.
The results can be seen in our Loteria Scavenger Hunt series: Part 1 and Part 2
Our other series Loterialu features Cindylu and symbolic combinations of Loteria cards: Check it out here
I should be working on some artwork right now but I came across this amazing photo of Verbal and Kid Cudi. These are two of my favorite artists working in music right now and I was both shocked and amazed to see them in the same photo. Taken from Verbal’s blog: http://ameblo.jp/m-flo-verbal/
For the record, Kid Cudi’s mixtape Plain Pat & Emile Presents a KiD named CuDi was my favorite album of 2008. Download it for free at http://sharebee.com/3194c039
As always, Verbal and m-flo continue to amaze and inspire me after ten years.
What’s up to all my friends and lovers? El Rio’s Valentine’s Day Cards are back in the mix for 2009! This is the 3rd year of my cards that celebrate love and culture and I’m determined to keep the series going.
As always, please post these cards on the pages of your friends, enemies, shorties, sanchos, and booty calls. To see an archive of cards from years past CLICK HERE.
My RadioBettyYo Chuck!In My SightsAmor ProhibidoMoz LoveFrida Obsession
Recently my homegirl and esteemed peer 
Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking 