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She began her lecture with her most well-known painting, "Pomegranate,"
which features a woman sitting in black lingerie holding a dripping
pomegranate in one hand and a skeleton in the other. Gonzalez said
despite some feminists' critiques that the woman's posture and dress
suggest a masculine version of female sexuality, the painting's
subject is in actuality asserting her own sexual independence.
"We
need to respect one another's sexual power however it manifests
and let it have its full beauty and respect that femininity in all
of its parts is a beautiful thing," Gonzalez said.
"La
Mula" is a visual description of growing up racially mixed, Gonzalez
said. The painting depicts a girl dressed in bright yellow standing
erect atop a mule. Gonzalez, whose mother is white and whose father
is Mexican, said that as a little girl she was constantly called
"mulatto" but did not know the meaning of the word.
"Girlhood with Snake" features a young girl standing in front of
a large bed wearing a short blue dress with a picture of a snake.
The snake's tongue points to the girl's face, while the outstretched
tail points to her vagina. Gonzalez said the painting is an illustration
of herself in her favorite childhood dress, and that it also reflects
the girl who would grow into the woman featured in "Pomegranate."
The window in the background provides a view of Lancaster, Calif.,
where Gonzalez grew up.
Gonzalez said her move from California to Oregon at a young age
proved to be a culture shock. In an area of mostly white residents
she was called things like "exotic," which inspired her to express
herself first as a writer, and later as an artist, she said.
Gonzalez received no formal art training, a fact that impressed
some in attendance.
"I liked seeing the way that she paints and the fact that she has
had no formal training and the way that she has not struggled, but
certainly gone in the direction that she wanted to go," senior College
of Creative Studies studio art major Robert Wechsler said.
Senior anthropology major and women's studies minor Isabel Millan
said she was impressed by the artist's connection to her work.
"I think she is very personal about her work," she said. "I really
like the way she was very specific in her descriptions but nonetheless
was able to convey the meaning she put into her work."
Gonzalez has been the author and illustrator of 17 children's books.
One of these, entitled Prietita and the Ghost Woman, includes a
retelling of the classic Mexican folktale known as "La Llorona."
Though versions of the story vary slightly, it consists of a woman
who drowned her children and then herself, causing her ghost to
wander nightly and wail for her lost children.
Gonzalez said that, due to health problems, her art style has changed
from bright paintings to mostly black and white ink drawings. She
said her paintings require tremendous energy, which she is now incapable
of.
"All the color has washed out of my work," Gonzalez said, adding
that she would focus her energy on children's books from now on.
The lecture was co-sponsored by several groups, including the MultiCultural
Center, the Dept. of Chicana and Chicano Studies and the University
Art Museum. |
