Borinquen By Wilfredo menendez
Exhibition Text: This piece, inspired by Puerto Rican culture, is meant to show the diverse culture of the commonwealth. I wanted to make this piece because, even though Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States, the culture and history of the island and it's people, both in the island and here in the mainland.
Meaning: The reason why I choose to do this piece is to bring a part of my culture to the eyes of people from other cultures. That is where the names of these pieces and the objects of focus of these came from. First, "La Pava", a pava is the hat that the man riding the horse is wearing. This hat is a straw hat used as a symbol of Puerto Rican culture by many organizations and peoples in Puerto Rico, for example the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in Puerto Rico is many times referred to as "La Pava" because of them using the hat as a symbol for their party since even before the signing of the Puerto Rican Constitution. Second, "Mascara Patriota", or patriotic mask, is a mask commonly used during the Ponce parades that occur in the island. Many of these mask have the flag of Puerto Rico and that's why I choose to paint such mask. Thirdly, "Vejigantes", are the ones that wear the mask I described earlier, during the Ponce parades they walk with the parade in their suits with the mask. These are parts of the Puerto Rican culture that people here in the American mainland are very likely not to know, ajnd these things are what I wanted to portray through these pieces.
Process: This piece was originally supposed to be just a painting of the Ponce carnival, but as I made a rough sketch of the vejigantes I decided to add two more canvases. I wanted someone riding a horse carrying the Puerto Rican flag to represent the large farming industry and culture in the island, and to bring this out more I decided to add the pava. Also, when dealing with the vejigantes I was really attracted towards the masks. Something about them just caught my attention. So I moved towards giving it it's own canvas. Something that I wanted to make sure was in every piece was the Puerto Rican flag, to show a sense of pride in my culture.
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Inspiration: I used Ernst Ludwig, a member of the Die Brucke movement as my inspiration for the style of this piece. He has a sort of abstract and expressionist style in the figures in his painting Street, Berlin that I decided to use for my piece. His style was the only thing that I used in my piece. As far as the aspects of culture and meaning that are in my piece, I was inspired by Puerto Rican culture for these. One way that I used his style was in the buildings, in his piece his objects are very stretched out and they show minimal depth. I on the other hand decided to show some depth, through the elongation of the buildings I painted.
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Reflection: The main problem that I run into when painting, is actually adding the 3D aspect that makes a piece be able to hold more items than a 2D piece. Since I know that I'm not the best at appropriatly adding depth in a painting, I decided to use Ludwig as inspiration because of his unique approach to adding depth to a piece. Another issue I ran into when making this piece, was keeping the lines clean and straight. This is something that I've been working on, I decided to do multiple paintings this semester to better my craftmanship in painting. Something that I might change about these pieces, the Vejigantes piece in particular, is adding detail. I think the vejigante in the back of the piece could use added detail, since it looks flat.
ACT Questions:
- My inspiration is clearly reflected on my work. In all 3 pieces you can see aspects of Puerto Rican culture, for example you can see the flag in all 3 of them. You can also see in the vejigantes piece that the Ernst flat painting style is also the style I used in my piece.
- Both me and Ernst focused on an aspect of pre-World War I Germany for his piece, I focused on modern aspects of Puerto Rican culture. The difference though is that Ernst focuses on a more not so socially acceptable part of society, while I focus more on culture.
- During my research I have found that many aspects of Puerto Rican culture are a combination of aspects of other cultures, predominantly Spanish and African cultures.
- The major theme around my research was widely known elements of Puerto Rican culture, I also wanted aspects that are still visible in modern society in the island.
- While researching I found that Ernst, much like myself focuses on culture of his home country. Which I inferred is because, he is proud of where he is from and wants to share it with the world.
Research: Ludwig Kirchner, Enrst. Street, Berlin. 1913. Museum of Modern Art, New York.The Art Story. The Art Story Foundation. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.