Carlos Arredondo is a 24-year-old self-taught artisan who crafts papier-mâché figurines. He sees his creations as counterweights to crime and violence; there is beauty and enchantment in Mexico, he says.
art
Naco Ñewsday: ‘Naco art’ according to Instagram (photos)
Let’s define our terms: According to the Daily Texican, “naco,” not a nice word, is Mexican slang for a lower class, ignorant country bumpkin, and/or a derogatory term for an “Indio” or native.
“Naco art,” therefore, is the Mexican version of lowbrow “art” like Elvis paintings on velvet or sad clowns and/or big-eyed “Keene” people.
Remezcla’s Daniela Cabera reports:
Mas…Naco Ñewsday: ‘Naco art’ according to Instagram (photos)
Mexican artist Axur Eneas: Videogame icons and mascots (toons)
Comic artist Axur Eneas created a series of illustrations of videogame gear, characters, mascots, logos, icons, and glyphs for a gamer convention in Mexico DF. We captioned them all for your nerdy geeky pleasure.
Mas…Mexican artist Axur Eneas: Videogame icons and mascots (toons)
Mexican artist Hector Zamora: Reality and other deceptions (video)
Mexican artist Hector Zamora filled up an exhibit space in the French countryside with empty, boarded-up campers and RVs (they call them caravans over there).
Why, exactly? Julien Zerbone explains:
Mas…Mexican artist Hector Zamora: Reality and other deceptions (video)
I’m painting an Aztec skater to auction off – stay tooned!
I started painting an Aztec skater Tuesday afternoon for an a planned auction to benefit the mirth-making here at POCHO. Here’s how he looks so far:
Mas…I’m painting an Aztec skater to auction off – stay tooned!
What would Frida Kahlo grow? Exhibit shares her plants (video, photos)
Just opened at the New York Botanical Garden, this exhibition examines Frida Kahlo’s love for nature, as seen in her home and garden, as well as the complex use of plant imagery in her artwork.
Mas…What would Frida Kahlo grow? Exhibit shares her plants (video, photos)
Was Batman really BatMayan? One artist says ‘¡Si!’ (photos)
Long story short: Batman is 75 years old and Warner Home Entertainment Mexico and the Mexican Museum of Design commissioned local artists to make their own Batdudes — en estilo mexicano.
Mas…Was Batman really BatMayan? One artist says ‘¡Si!’ (photos)
X-rays prove Mexican Christ statue has human teeth (videos)
That awkward moment when an art restorer finds the teeth in an 18th Century Mexican statue of Jesus are human teeth. Y tambien en español:
Mas…X-rays prove Mexican Christ statue has human teeth (videos)
@SaraChicaD’s Virgen de Guadalupe nail art (video)
POCHO Subcommandanta del Ñews Sara Inés Calderón (@SaraChicaD on the Twitter) is like a Virgen, manicured for the very first time. She calls her video Guadalupe Nail Art – Decoración de Uñas Virgen de Guadalupe. Yes, it is a silent video.
La Virgen de Guadalupe: ‘I’m too sexy for your cover!’ (toon)
La Virgen de Guadalupe’s new Summer 2013 look — as seen on a recent cover of the Santa Fe Reporter — has gotten some people upset. Fox Latino reports:
“If your intent was to in effect slap Catholics across the face, by putting forth this public depiction of Our Lady as a party girl, during the very week that we honor her as our patroness, then I can only say that from my perspective, you succeeded,” wrote the Rev. Adam Lee Ortega y Ortiz, the rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, in a letter to the editor. “I must voice my outrage and disgust at the decision to depict Our Lady of Guadalupe in such a demeaning manner. I am personally and professionally insulted by the cover.”
POCHO wants to confess, too! Mea culpa, Padre. We have sinned with some of our recent illustrations, like this one of the Virgin contemplating a pregnancy test:
Mas…La Virgen de Guadalupe: ‘I’m too sexy for your cover!’ (toon)
Fresh off the Photoshop: ‘Girl with a parole hearing’ (toon)
Does this prison outfit make my butt look fat? [Illustration by jimwich]
MORE FROM JIMWICH:
Mas…Fresh off the Photoshop: ‘Girl with a parole hearing’ (toon)
It’s NAILZ Day — make nail art por la raza (photo)
The National Association for Immigration and Legalization (Zapatista) has designated today, February 20, NAILZ Day. Are your nails por la raza? [Nail art by Sara Inés Calderón.]
El Opera del Espacio turns public spaces into theater (video)
As Summer 2012 wound down, the Opera del Espacio troupe dispatched their live street theater squad to the Los Angeles Metro Gold Line, and video’d the amusement, amazement and astonishment that greeted their performances. You don’t have to take the train to see them, however. They’re on Twitter and Facebook, too.
Jesus Christos and His 12 Apostle-Luchadores: ‘The Last Fiesta’ (toons)
Jesus drinks Corona, of course, and tacos, taquitos and burritos are on the menu in this painting of the Last Fiesta by Pale Horse, a fine art illustrator. Who is that drinking Tecate?
Pale Horse writes:
The Last Fiesta’ is my 12-skateboard deck shout-out to Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ with Jesus Christos and his 12 Luchador apostles getting down one last time. This piece was created for my solo exhibit Saints & Sinners, here at the Pale Horse Studio. Hand-made shadow box by Casey Paquet.
Mas…Jesus Christos and His 12 Apostle-Luchadores: ‘The Last Fiesta’ (toons)
Eye of the beholder: A day in the life of an Eames chair (video)
DIEZ tells the story of a molded plywood Eames chair and its journey over the course of a few days in San Francisco, a journey that starts when the chair is momentarily left in front of an upscale gallery, and an older Mexican woman takes the chair, mistaking the modern design icon for trash. This random event sets in motion the chair’s journey and surprising transformation.
DIEZ deconstructs; literally and figuratively – an Eames chair. The story illustrates in a whimsical fashion how the value of material objects can have different, but no less important, meaning to different people. DIEZ shows the many different realities that exist in the same neighborhood and the contrasting values that accompany them. Ultimately DIEZ asks the question; when divided into its DIEZ (ten) basic components, what value does an Eames chair really have?
You have been warned: The Jefe-in-Chief will be at Comic-Con (video)
POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz is leaving Rancho Pocho in East Los to return his Olde Home Towne of San Diego this weekend for Comic-Con 2012. This video shows and tells how he plans to roll. Lalo’s site has the deets.
Everyone waits, time slows down and then there’s magic (video)
Everyone is waiting; time seems to have slowed down and the air is full of possibilities. As the boy walks home from school, all eyes follow. What comes next? This beautiful video, shot in L.A.’s Westlake/MacArthur Park neighborhood, celebrates the magic.
Letter from the Editor: Respect the pinche artist (*updated)
Yesterday I drew and subsequently shared on Facebook my syndicated editorial cartoon on Dolores Huerta receiving her Presidential Medal of Freedom (above.)
Many of you shared it, as was my request. Thank you! We are all proud of the living legend Dolores Huerta, and the respect she has garnered, especially this week.
However one person, an FB user named Steven downloaded my heartfelt artwork, defaced it and even removed my name and made his own anti-Obama and Dolores Huerta statement. His political opinion is not the issue here. I have held much the same anti-political parties opinion in the past. What has angered me is the disrespect to my work as an artist. Let me explain why, just to be completely clear.
Mas…Letter from the Editor: Respect the pinche artist (*updated)
When you can’t bear life without nachos, you need nachos tattoos
Some people can’t get through the morning with a cup of coffee, and others, apparently, can’t get through the day without delicious crunchy oozing-with-queso nachos:
We love nachos. Duh. We want to show it on our arms, legs, and face. Stains are not permanent enough, while permanent tattoos are against our religions.
So they made temporary nachos “tattoo” decals.
Would you get them? Wear them?
Thanks to BoingBoing for the link!
The Coachella art scene, home made by The Date Farmers (video)
East of Los Angeles via Interstate 10 lies the Coachella Valley, home of the desert oasis of Palm Springs, a famed music festival and acres of stately date palms.
On the wrong side of tracks, in the town of Coachella, there’s a group of Chicano artists who call themselves The Date Farmers. They make art out of love for themselves and their neighbors. This is their story. (Apologies to iOS users. KCET insists on using Flash.)
Lalo Alcaraz: Selected cartoons, posters, art and illustrations
Here are some of my recent favorite cartoons, posters, illustrations and propaganda.
I hope they’re your favorites, too!
Video Triple Feature! Cheech’s art + braceros + ‘Margarita’
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Sabado Pochonte Triple Feature! Cheech Marin’s collection of “small Chicano paintings” lights up the documentary Chicanitas, the black and white history of braceros comes to life in Harvest of Loneliness and the classic poem by Ruben Dario shimmers in the wordless animated Margarita.
Mas…Video Triple Feature! Cheech’s art + braceros + ‘Margarita’
The astounding ‘installation art’ of Ramiro Gomez, Jr.
Artist Ramiro Gomez, Jr. makes the invisible visible as he inserts paper images of hardworking Latinos into the landscape of Los Angeles — a gardener with a leaf blower, a housekeeper with a mop. There are many more images on his Happy Hills blog where he describes himself this way:
I live and work as a male nanny in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the Laurel Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills. Happy Hills is my body of work documenting the predominantly hispanic workforce, who work tirelessly behind the scenes to present the beautiful images of the ideal Hollywood Hills homes.