Excerp from Field Observation 2

For our field observation report #2 Alina, Sonora, and I visited the New Mexico Hispanic Cultural Center where we went to see many of the art pieces on display that they had in the museum. When I arrived at the building I was amazed at how large it was and in fact actually got lost trying to find the museum section of the center. Once we were all together and we went inside of the museum there were many pieces of artwork that immediately showed incomers an element of Chicano/a culture. One of my favorites was the comic book cover of the “Tamale Man” by Eric J. Garcia. I thought that this was a humorous piece it really did show an element of Chicano/a culture but it was being displayed in a manner that I would never thought to exist. I am big fan of comic books and graphic novels and it was a nice surprise to see one being recognized as an art form being displayed in a museum.

            Another type of artwork that I really enjoyed looking at were the pieces of art that were in 3d. The museum had many sculptures and canvasses which displayed images that jumped off of the page. I thought that this was a very interesting way to combine painting on a canvas with sculptures. I had two that I found most interesting, one included “Destruction by Fire” by Rudy Fernandez, which I had perceived as an ecosystem being engulfed in flames. At first I didn’t know what to think of the painting I mostly only saw the fish in the middle but I really liked the 3d effect of the flames and the amount of effort that must have gone into painting them. Another painting I thought was really cool was the “Transmogrifier” by Nick Abdalla. I enjoyed this painting because it was almost like a “Find it” puzzle. After I read the description it told me what different kinds of images were seen in the sculpture and then I tried to find them myself.

            The largest exhibit of the museum was dedicated to works by the group Asaros. Many of the paintings were very dark images of revolutionary movements and liberty in Chicano/a communities. My group and I entered a smaller room where they had a slide show running of different paintings that the group had done. Looking through all of these paintings I felt very disturbed but also thought that they were very cool.