printmaking. history books. overlapping histories. prose. food. walking to work. sunshine. playing with my students. cultivating genius. picture-making.
my new goal is to move to europe by age 35.
artists worth emulating:
elizabeth catlett
ben shahn
leon golub
charles white
stuff that reminds me of being a kid in highland park, my tios playing soccer and wendy with punch stains on her face.
hable con ella. lucia y el sexo. the mission. la science des reves. amores perros. soy cuba. o que e isso, companheiro? el laberinto del fauno. viridiana. machuca. ma vie en rose. ...so goes the nation. mar adentro.
i would much rather eat.
Memory of Fire Trilogy: Genesis, Faces and Masks, Century of the Wind (a comprehensive history of the western hemisphere). Advice to Young Artists in a Post-modern Era (will revolutionize the way you think about cultural production).
Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations (ditto).
La Batarde and Mad in Pursuit (double memoir).
The Little Prince. The Happy Prince. The House of the Spirits. Beyond the Fantastic (art theory). Artist's Monographs (jacob lawrence, manuel manilla, frida kahlo etc.). The poetry of Roque Dalton, Alfonsina Storni, Anne Sexton and June Jordan. Play it as it Lays. The Bluest Eye.
Of Love and Other Demons. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Frieze Magazine. various essays. Lies Across America will teach you about reconstruction. you don't know enough about reconstruction. i guarantee that.
Charles Alston and the various educators in Harlem during the WPA projects of the 30's.
Without them, Jacob Lawrence would not exist.
Latin American Modernists who brought to the forefront the mestizaje that has always existed in Latin American culture: the futurists of Brasil and the muralists of Mexico, to be specific.
Maria Izquierdo for so eloquently stating the obvious when she said: it is a crime to be born a woman, it is an even greater crime to be a woman and have talent
Taller de Grafica Popular in Mexico for spreading the word on printmaking (Leopoldo Mendez, Elizabeth Catlett, Pablo O'Higgins, etc.).
Robert Blackburn for bringing art back to Harlem 30 years after the WPA projects ceased to exist.
Philosphers/theorists like Mariategui for believing in the sovereignty of indigenous people in Peru.
Poets like Alfonsina Storni, June Jordan, Roque Dalton, Anne Sexton, Otto Rene Castillo and Jimmy Santiago Baca for politicizing their daily lives, whether those lives were seemingly "mundane" or outright "revolutionary". and politicizing them so beautifully.
Malcolm X never stopped learning or growing as a human being.
The black panthers for putting the community first, giving themselves the right to be angry about what was becoming of their communities and then defending those communities tooth and nail.
upton sinclair for so beautifully and empathetically capturing the plight of the worker in his wonderfully captivating stories.