Art is so many things
to a society. An artist not only
expresses their own individuality in a piece, but also a part of their
culture. I grew up in Whittier,
California, a suburb of Los Angeles County, just east of the city of East Los
Angeles. There are a lot of street
murals in my area that I grew up seeing.
I loved to stare at the murals and try to find all of the meaning that
the artist put into them. My favorite
mural is a piece that is in an exhibit near Olvera street by the artist David Alfaro Siqueiros called
the America Tropical. It is a mural that
depicts the racial inequality in the 1930s.
Standing next to the mural, I felt very small. It was such a powerful piece that really made
me think about its implications and how it still relates to the issues that are
still present today. This is the America
Tropical, taken from the LA Times website.
America Tropical, Siqueiros, acrylic and aerosol, 1932
We have a huge graffiti
problem in the Los Angeles area. Some of
it is senseless. It is a way for gangs
to mark their territory, and people lose their lives over it. But there is also street art. I love street art. I believe that it is such a raw expression of
our people and it makes our cities and neighborhoods so much more
beautiful. One of my favorites pieces is
done by the artist El mac. The faces
that he paint have so much life in them.
I can really see the emotions that his work expresses. This one is my personal favorite of his work.
Untitled, El Mac, acrylic and aerosol, 2007
El
mac also painted a piece called the la Reina de Thaitown. I like this one because of the way that the
girl is looking downwards. It shows us
a lot about the area that the artist is representing in his work.
la Reina de Thaitown, El mac, acrylic and aerosol, 2010
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