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Pics from the Oakland Museum Screenprint Demo for Political Poster Exhibit

I did a live printing demonstration today with fellow designer, Querido Galdo, at the Oakland Museum of California, as part of the All of Us Or None social justice poster exhibit. I was recently interviewed for this powerful exhibit in Oakland Local, and you can see what I said about the show here.

I had a blast doing live printing and talking to folks about the creative process, the process of making posters, and even about the message in the poster itself. I was especially inspired to see so many girls and young woman inquire about what we were doing. I learned how powerful it was to demistify the process of art making in a museum setting. Much props to the organizers of the exhibit who really pushed the boundaries of the Oakland Museum and were able to get us to do live art in the gallery itself. That's unheard of in many museum spaces. It's pwerful when people learn about how things are made.

And finally, it was extremely rewarding to give away the posters to the public! Here are some photos from today's event. 

Me and Querido printing. You can see his work here.

 

Our two designs drying on the racks!

 

Meeting up two awesome women.

 

My final posters, booyah! You can download a more colorful version of this on the Occuprint website, click here.

Special thanks to my great friend, Jesus Barraza, who taught me how to do this.

Occupy Sisterhood Poster - The War on Women is a War on All of Us - Free Download

Here is my latest poster for the Occuprint Print Portfolio that will be available soon to collectors and art-fans. I developed this piece as a response to the ongoing attacks on women's reproductive freedom and the patriarchy that is alive and well in all branches of our government. 

You can download this piece by clicking here.

Spread it far and wide.

New E-book features Bay-Area Social Justice Media Makers and Pioneers

My friend, Peter Maiden, just released an ebook, Media Workers for Social Change, that includes a profile about me and the events that shaped the artist I am today. He even put me on the cover- WOW!

Other media workers profiled in the book include Elizabeth Gonzalez, JR Valrey, Tracy Rosenberg, Greg Landau, Maureen Gosling, Josh Wolf, and Jose Manuel Martinez. 

In an eye-opening look at the creative lives of twelve San Francisco Bay Area media pioneers, Maiden documents the existence of a progressive social consciousness that was “hidden in plain sight” during years when no one thought there was a movement. Written incisively and illustrated with well-crafted photographs, this volume can be an inspiration to anyone seeking to start or strengthen a media career outside the corporate mainstream.

You can order the ebook here.

Here is an excerpt:

It was a struggle for Rodriguez to get a decent education in the Oakland schools. She went to Catholic School until the seventh grade, when her parents sent her to Mexico City for junior high so she would be in a better and safer learning environment. After returning, she broke the rules to go to San Leandro High School while living in Oakland, got caught, and then finished high school at Oakland’s Skyline High. 

She likes Oakland, but is concerned about the pervasive violence there... “I grew up in Oakland, attended Oakland schools, I was scared as a child, I was scared as a teen, and now as an adult, I am still scared at times.” Despite the fear, and the sub-par instruction she received in high school, she excelled and took Saturday and summer school classes for teens at UC Berkeley. When she graduated, she was admitted to Cal with a number of community scholarships. 

In 1999 she met a Chicana artist who saw her talent, and suggested she should make a trip to Self-Help Graphics, a well-established barrio art center in Los Angeles, and participate in putting together a portfolio of prints done by women. She went, and was the youngest artist there. The effort changed her perspective. “I was introduced into the world that is Chicana art,” she said, “and from there I decided to focus on my art. I really felt like I could succeed at it.” 

Screenprinting poster demo on May 26, part of Social Justice Poster Exhibit at Oakland Museum

I recently was interviewed by Oakland Local for the groundbreaking social justice poster show on exhibit now at the Oakland Museum. The article explains: 

“Political posters don’t have this value of being these one-of-a-kinds that you have to handle delicately; they’re art pieces that are meant to be in people’s homes, that are meant to have this message that you take away … it’s something that you can touch and interact with and wrinkle and fold up and share and give away and rip up if you want." (read full article)

If you have not seen the show, you should come see the fabulous posters on display through August 19th. I wrote about the show here.

I will be doing a screenprinting demo on Saturday, May 26th from 2:00 - 3:30 pm with my friend, Querido Galado.

Come meet me and get a free poster! I'll only be doing 50 posters, so come on time!

Experience printmaking in action—in the middle of the Oakland Museum's Great Hall! Learn about screen printing techniques and take the experience home with you with a custom print. (Included with Museum admission)

click here for more info

Note: This picture is of me doing a woodblock, not a screenprint... just wanted to clarify in case you were confused.

 

Latina Artist Panel in San Fran. Sat. May 12, featuring Juana Alicia, Amalia Mesa Bains, myself & more!

I will be speaking at this event. Please come early if you are interested in attending. Galeria de la Raza is a small space.

Daughters of the Shaking Earth: Bay Area Latina Artists

Sat. 12 May 2012 - 11:45am - 5:15pm

Symposium Participants: Juana Alicia, Luz Calvo, Melanie Cervantes, Ana Fernandezm, Jennifer Gonzalez, Ester Hernandez, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Laura E. Perez, Celia Herrera Rodriguez, Favianna Rodriguez, & Tere Romo 

Meet the UndocuArtists: Using art & culture for immigrant justice, & much more!

I'm really honored to be able to collaborate with some off-the-hook undocumented artists and writers who are not only making waves in the immigrant rights space, but also in the arts and culture space overall. If you are in San Francisco, you will the opportunity to meet some of these artists at the upcoming Undocunation event on May 3.

Last year, I had heard about Julio Salgado, an undocumented artist who was posting images all over Facebook in support of the DREAM Act and about undocumented youth coming out of the shadows. I had seen the images around but hadn't actually met Julio, until last may when he visited the Bay and I invited him over for lunch. (Art below by Julio Salgado)

Empowered by both his queer and undocumented identities, Julio was following the tradition of using art as a tool to fight anti-migrant laws. I was so tremendously inspired by him that I committed to supporting his creative work and I invited him be a part of a delegation of artists that went to Tucson, Arizona, last September.

Julio eventually introduced me to his collaborative media project, DreamersAdrift.com. Along with Jesus Iñiguez, Fernando Romero and Deisy Hernandez, the four undocumented college graduates had started DreamersAdrift.com as a way to combat the negative language used by the media when they talked about undocumented folks in this country. Using video, art and music, DreamersAdrift.com has been a creative outlet for other undocumented students and allies to speak out about their immigration status. You can see some of their hilarious work here.

It was refreshing to see these artist take on serious subjects with humor and sarcasm. I also was really impressed that everyone involved in the production, down the video editor, was undocumented. This demonstrated to me the importance of art, culture and media coming directly from the folks most impacted by a given issues, in this case, our country's failed immigration system. I believe that as radical artists, we have to recognize our priviledge and be able to strongly support other artists who do not have the same access we have. The fact that I was born in this country grants me access to a host of grants, public money, and artistic opportunities that undocumented artists dont' have. 

The "Undocumented and Awkward" series by DreamersAdrift.com have gone viral within pro-migrant activists who have used the videos to share the realities of being an undocumented immigrant. 

They've also collaborated with other undocumented artists as well, such as Yosimar Reyes, who was featured in one of the "Undocumented and Awkward" videos that touched on the subject of being undocumented and queer, or "Undocuqueer." Yosimar, a self-described "two-spirit gangsta" and author of "For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly," has used his poetic talent to criticize the current state of immigrant politics. Issues of race, borders and "joteria," are abundant in his work. 

Julio also connected me with Felipe Baeza, a fierce, undocumented artist from New York who not only has he been actively creating art about being UndocuQueer, but has also been at the forefront of a migrant movement led by a lot of women and queer youth. Last year, Felipe participated in a sit-in in Gerogia and risked deportation. Check him out here:

These artists are a huge inspiration for me, and I'm excited to be working with them on national projects, like this print portfolio project here, and like "UndocuNation: An Evening with Artists for Immigrant Justice," which opens tomorrow, May 3 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. 

Political posters as forms of resistance. Interview with Favianna about Bay Area poster history.

“The Bay Area has created a network of artists from different generations and these artists have been very supportive to each other. This is exactly what the essence of the show is: That beyond these being great works of art there’s an entire ecosystem in which these posters flourish, and that ecosystem is made up of people who support each other - collectives, print shops, radical people from all walks of life, all ethnicities.”

- Favianna Rodriguez, Click here to read the full article

This is a quote from the recent article published in Oakland Local about the amazing social justice poster exhibition at the Oakland Museum of CA, running through August 19, 2012. This poster show includes work from some of the artists have shaped my aesthetic style, including Juan Fuentes, Emory Douglas, San Francisco Print Brigade, and my good friends, Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes of Dignidad Rebelde. 

I recently was interviewed for this show, and I am really happy with how the article accurately reflected my love for this format called the political poster. The article explains:

Rodriguez places such urgency on understanding the history of political posters because she believes this knowledge is essential to the future of the art. Understanding the organizational structures that facilitate the production of prints is vital; so too is understanding the role posters have played in galvanizing public sentiment. 

But even as she urged for political posters to be considered an art, she made a point of differentiating them from traditional art forms. She described them as necessarily public and mass-produced. By her definition, a political poster must be created with the intention to be shared, not sold in a gallery. 

This article is spot on! I highly encourage you to not only read it, but to visit the show itself! Below are some images from the show.

If you come on May 26th, you can catch me doing live screenprinting from 2:00 - 3:30 pm and giving away posters. more info here

Click here to read the full article

Poster by 1970s Berkeley Workshop, more info

Poster by People's Press Workshop, more info

Poster by Favianna Rodriguez (one of my really early ones!), more info

 

UndocuNation: Artists for Immigrant Justice - Exhibit, Performances and more in SF on May 3

I'm really excited to announce an upcoming event in San Francisco on May 3! The event has been long in the planning, and I'm excited to finally see it come to fruit.

Last year, I helped launch a pro-migrant project called CultureStrike, an artist-led initiative whose mission is to cultivate innovative and urgent collaborations between artists, writers, musicians, and other cultural workers to shift the national imagination on immigration. Please join us on May 3, 2012!

UndocuNation: An Evening with Artists for Immigrant Justice
Thursday, May 3, 2012 , 6-9 pm
Art • Music • Peformances • Free • All Ages • Food & Drink
@ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission St (Mission & 3rd) in San Francisco

*** Fist 100 guests receive a free pro-migrant poster ***

Hosted by Favianna Rodriguez and Jeff Chang, join us for an evening of culture jamming, visual art, and performances addressing the devastating consequences of our country's broken immigration system.

At a time when severe anti-migrant laws are being passed around the country and when deportations are breaking records, artists from different racial backgrounds, immigration history and documentation statuses will be sharing art works, and cultural interventions about the current immigration crisis.

CultureStrike, Center for New Community and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will host an evening of culture jamming, visual art, and performances responding to the devastating consequences of this country’s anti-immigrant movement. The evening will include performances, film excerpts, art installations, music, readings, and cultural workers speaking about their art and working to shift the national imagination on race, migration, and what "America" should look like.

ART, PERFORMANCES & READINGS BY:

• Janine Brito & Nato Green, comedians from Laughter Against the Machine
• Yosimar Reyes, two-spirit poet &activist
• DJ Sloe Poke
• Dignidad Rebelde, Melanie Cervantes & Jesus Barraza, artists
• Daniel Alarcon, award-winning writer
• Julio Salgado, artivist & co-founder of DreamersAdrift.com
• Jesus Iniguez, spoken word artists & co-founder of DreamersAdrift.com
• Oriana Bolden, filmmamer
• Cloee Cooper, organizer with the Center for New Community
• Walidah Imarisha, writer & performer
• Sean San Jose, playwright
• Imin Yeh, visual artist

and many more!

Above: Oriana Bolden

Above: Daniel Alarcón

 

 

The American Dream is a Lie...New Art Pieces

I am an artist, and like any creative person, I sometimes hit major blocks in my creative flow. I believe this is due to me spending long periods of time NOT doing art. Whether its having a day full of meetings, or a day full of emails - when I don't make art, I suffer inside.

(above: The American Dream is a Lie, 2012, Art by Favianna Rodriguez)

I notice that when I create on a daily basis - whether its doing drawings, or paper cutouts, or creating new characters on the computer - I am able to have a place to channel my inspiration and let my art manifest. I am, afterall, inspired by so many things that I see on a daily basis - by people around me, by stories of people who are oppressed, by what I see in my own community.

I notice that when I maintain a routine of doing art at least 1 hour a day, I am able to hit some high creative peaks. Like how the waters in the sea gear up to create a large wave, there is energy that builds up to create that ripple in the water that comes crashing down. My creative process is like the wave. Out of monotonous things - like sketching and doodling - I am able to hit high creative crests.

What makes these crests even better is intense focus. And so I have to create conditions in my life to not only create on a daily basis, but also to focus.

And this is VERY challenging for me when I have loads of email, phone calls, meetings, and the daily demands of being an activist and an artist engaged in social change. It requires me to have strict boundaries and say no.

While being involved in political organizing is what fuels me, it is also what drains me, and takes time away from me being the creative being I want to be. Politics is a fast-paced world that absorbs me, precisely because I'm passionate about an issue. So when I need to focus, to get in touch with my creative center again, I leave town and disappear for a few days.

I recently did this to prepare for the solo show at Betti Ono Gallery. Anyka Barber, the gallery owner, encouraged me to get funky and experimental for the exhibit.

I had an artist residency lined up in Montreal, so I took advantage of this session to develop work for the exhibit. My artist residency took place at Atelier Circulaire, the largest printmaking center in Canada! There, I studied under a master printer, and I busted out what I believe to be my hottest shit ever!

If you are in the Bay Area, you can see these works for only 3 more days at Betti Ono Gallery, located at 1804 Telegraph Avenue in Downtown Oakland. The show ends on Saturday, April 14, 2012.

 

Above: Encounter with Self (2012), Art by Favianna Rodriguez

Above: Mi Vida Loka (2012), Art by Favianna Rodriguez

Above: The End of Greed (2012), Art by Favianna Rodriguez

Pics from Opening in Downtown Oakland at Betti Ono Gallery! Thank you!

I had an excellent closing celebration at Betti Ono Gallery in Downtown Oakland this past Friday, April 6th.

If you did not make it, you can still catch the show for 1 more week.

The show runs until Sunday, April 15th. The location is: 1804 Telegraph Ave. Downtown Oakland.

Many thanks to all the lovely people who came out. Thank you to the awesome sisters I spoke to who shared their knowledge and gifted me with their love. Thank you to the people who spoke to me about how different art pieces touched them. Thank you to the strangers I met, who are now friends and supporters of my work. Thank you to those who bought my work, and will enable me to continue doing what I do. 

And thank you of course to Anyka Barber, owner of Betti Ono Gallery, for her vision and fabulous coordination of a great space and great event. Anyka is tirelessly working to develop a space that is welcoming, and inclusive of the ALL communities. She is a forger of new paths, a movement builder - a woman that will make a mark in Oakland for years to come. I encourage you to get to know her gallery, if you have not already. 

And finally, thank you to the staff that made the event a great one. Julio Salgado and Oree Originol, for spending hours and hours sifting through my piles of artwork, labeling stuff, pricing items. And to Neil Magdamo and David for the beats and vibes they shared with the crowd. Thank you to Anyka's family, who were shuffling back and forth to ensure that every visitor felt welcome. 

Friday's celebration was not just about art on a wall, it was about the energy we create when we organize to establish our own spaces, when we foster a culture where we can celebrate who we are - our victories and struggles. It's about creating a environment where people feel welcome, where they can ask questions and be their creative selves. Art is after all, something that engages all of us and that empowers us to be critical thinkers in the world.

So often, people assume that I make things happen on my own. But that is far from the truth. I flourish thanks to a community that holds me up and empowers me to be my authentic self. I surround myself by talented artists, culture makers, lovers of justice, and radical thinkers - who help me carry out my vision and give me the love I need to keep doing what I do.

Thank you!

Above: Two of my new pieces.

Above: Me and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan.

Above: Monotypes, woodblocks, and linoblocks.

Above: New Monotypes

Above is the new limited edition print produced for this exhibit. There are only 75 prints! You can grab yours by clicking here.