Final SIP Reflection

Abstract

The artist writes "The purpose of this project is to explore and examine the Virgen de Guadalupe, and how her image is an icon that is circulated and utilized to conceptualize gender and sexuality within Mexican culture. It addresses how the Virgen and the ideology she represents is present in personal, formative, sexual, and ‘feminine’ spaces. The task of my SIP extends beyond the examination of these spaces as it seeks to address and reject the harmful ideologies the icon imposes on those who inhabit these spaces, as well as reconstruct the icon and the individual’s relationship to it in a different, more empowering way. As someone who grew up in a culture where the Virgen de Guadalupe is an ideal type of womanhood one should aspire to, I felt like it was within these spaces where I was taught to fear my own body and sexuality, and to prescribe to a very restrictive type of femininity for fear of being ‘othered’ within a dichotomy in which women could either be bad/whore or good/virgin. By moving beyond simple examination and into a process of rejection, the goal of this project is to move forward and discover a very personal process of reclamation and empowerment. My SIP consists of seven paintings: Still Life I, Still Life II, Circulation I, Circulation II, Crucifixion, Slut, and Carmen. Of these seven paintings, Circulation I, Circulation II, Still Life II, Crucifixion, and Carmen best exemplify what I call a process of examination, “killing,” and re-conceptualizing."