About: Resume

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Credentials and Degrees

Masters in Fine Arts, Drawing and Painting, San Francisco Art Institute, May, 1990
B.A. in Teaching Aesthetic Awareness from a Cultural Perspective, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1979
Single Subjects Credential in Art Education, 1980
Bilingual Cross-Cultural Emphasis Credential, U.C.S.C., 1979
Fifth Year Certificate in Bilingual Education, 1983
Passed the CBEST (California Basic Educational Skills Test) in 1998

Awards and Honors

National Endowment for the Humanities, BIRTH MURAL Best Visual Art Work with a Chicano/Mexicano Theme, through the University of California, Santa Cruz, 1982.
Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center, Master Muralist Award, 1992.
Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center, Best Collaborative Project Award, for MaestraPeace, 1994.
NACS (National Association of Chicano Studies), for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts, Academia and Our Communities, 1993.
Woman of Fire Award, Women of Color Resource Center, Berkeley, Ca 2000
California State Senate, Outstanding Contributions as an Oakland Arts Educator, 2004.

Bibliography

Triumph of Our Communities, Gary D. Keller et al, Bilingual Press/Editoria Bilingue, Tempe, Arizona, 2005.
Art, Women and California, Other Landscapes, Angela Y. Davis, 2000.
Imagine: International Chicano Poetry Journal, Volume 3, 1986. Imagine Publishers.
Feminist Geographies: Explorations in Diversity and Difference, Women and Geography Study Group of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, Addison Wesley Limited, 1987
Yesterday and Tomorrow, California Women Artists, Edited by Sylvia Moore, Midmarch Press,
1989
Cover Image, Signs from the Heart: California Chicano Murals, SPARC, The Social and Public Arts Resource Center. 1990
Paper Angels and Bitter Cane, Two Plays by Genny Lim, Kalamaku Press, 1991, cover artwork.
Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985, Wight Art Gallery, UCLA, 1991
Barrio, George Ancona, 1995
Regeneration, Galeria de la Raza, Armando Rascon, Curator. February 1995
Homeless Not Helpless, An Anthology Edited by Barbara Paschke and David Volpendesta, 1991
Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective, by Michael Kearny, Westview Press, a division of Harper-Collins, 1996.
Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies, by Jose David Saldivar, University of California Press, 1997, cover artwork.
Feminist Geographies: Explorations in Diversity and Difference, Women and Geography Study Group, Addison Wesley Longman Limited 1997, cover artwork.
San Francisco Murals, by Timothy W. Drescher, Pogo Press, 1998
Painting the Towns, by Jim Prigoff and Robin Dunnitz, RJD Enterprises, 1999, back cover image,
We Are the Ones We???ve Been Waiting For, Women of Color Organizing, front cover, edited by Rinku Sen, U.S. Urban Rural Mission, 1999.

Murals (Public and Institutional collections)

2004

LA LLORONA’S SACRED WATERS Acrylic mural on stucco. 24th and York Streets, San Francisco Mission District.

2001

LA VIRGEN DE LA LIBERTAD, ceramic handmade tile mural, 6?? x 9 feet, private commission. Mural mounted on plywood and installed in garden.
ALL LIFE IS INTERRELATED, portable mural for Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, CA. Acrylic on canvas, 10?? x 15??.

2000

A WOMAN’S PLACE/EL LUGAR DE LA MUJER, acrylic mural on panels (installed), 54?? x 10??, at the United Electrical and Machine Workers Union Hall, Local 506, Erie, Pennsylvania. ??2000.
MAESTRAPEACE 2000, additions to the re-modelled Women’s Building, San Francisco, CA. Additions to entryway at new cafe and childcare center, as well as above the main front entrance.

1999

SANCTUARY/SANTUARIO, fresco painting and sculptures for San Francisco International Airport, with Emmanuel Catarino Montoya, 19??? x 23???. International Terminal G, Gate Room 99.

1998

THE BROKEN CORD / EL CORDON ROTO. Acrylic banner mural on canvas, 6′ x 18′, exhibited at Amnesty International’s Art and Human Rights Conference, and at “No More Scapegoats”, at the San Francisco Unified School District.

1997

TU ERES MI OTRO YO: MARIN’S INTERDEPENDENCE. Acrylic mural on sheetrock, 14′ x 115′, for Whole Foods Market in San Rafael, CA.

1996

CROSS-POLLINATE, at Whole Foods Market in San Francisco. 6′ x 80′ acrylic on sheetrock.

1995

POSITIVE VISIBILITY, directed students and HIV positive women in mural at Haight and Scott Streets, San Francisco.

1994

MAESTRAPEACE, mural on the San Francisco Bay Area Women???s Building, front (north) and side (east) facades, each 150′ x 60′. Acrylic on stucco. A collaboration with Miranda Bergman, Edythe Boone, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton, and Irene Perez. San Francisco Mission District, 18th Street @ Valencia.

1992

LA PROMESA DE LOMA PRIETA: QUE NO SE REPITA LA HISTORIA (THE PROMISE OF LOMA PRIETA: THAT HISTORY NOT REPEAT ITSELF), at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Oakes College, Main Classroom and Administration Building. 21′ x 21′ acrylic interior mural, commissioned as part of a “Visiting Distinguished Professor” appointment, through a grant from the U.C.S.C. Alumni Association.

1991

REGENERATION/REGENERACI??N, portable mural on panel, 12′ x 24???, exterior mural on panels.Commissioned by MACLA (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latinoamericana) for their newly-acquired cultural center on First Street, downtown San Jose.

1990

THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL/EL LENGUAJE MUDO DEL ALMA, exterior acrylic mural on the facade of the Cesar Chavez (formerly Hawthorne) Elementary School, 32??? x 350???, Shotwell Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets, San Francisco Mission District. Designed and painted in collaboration with Susan Cervantes.
MISSION STREET MANIFESTO/MANIFIESTO DE LA CALLE MISI??N, acrylic mural on panels, 16??? x 25???, commisioned by 20th Century Fox for the movie, Class Action, with Gene Hackman. On long-term loan to San Francisco State University, installed in the Student Union Building.

1988

CEASE FIRE/ALTO AL FUEGO, Politec and Novacolor acrylic mural on cement wall, 9??? x 13′, Mission Street at 21st, San Francisco.
CULTURA SIN FRONTERAS/CULTURE WITHOUT BORDERS, Politec and Novacolor acrylic mural on stucco. Hispanic Cultural Center of Novato, 1530 South Novato Boulevard. Juana Alicia with student artists Rosario Alc??zar, Concha Marina Aparicio, Julia Coyne Niles and Kiana Thompson.
PUENTE DE LA PAZ/BRIDGE OF PEACE, interior acrylic mural on sheetrock, World College West, Commons Building, 101 South San Antonio Road, Petaluma, Ca.
MUJERES DE FUEGO (WOMEN OF FIRE), Politec acrylic mural, Stanford University, 9′ x 10′. Palo Alto, California. Mural painted with Stanford students in a workshop taught by the artist: “Mural Art: Enfoque Femenil” (Womanist Focus).
EARTH BOOK, Politec and Nova Color acrylic mural, 10′ 6″ x 16′, entrance to library, Skyline College, San Bruno, California. Student Apprentices: Barry McGee and Sia Yang.
NEW WORLD TREE OF LIFE, 69′ x 25′ acrylic Politec and Nova Color mural at the Mission Pool, 19th and Linda Streets, San Francisco, California. Designed and executed in collaboration with Susan Cervantes and Raul Mart??nez.

1986

EL AMANECER, a collective mural project with Miranda Bergman, Hector Noel M??ndez, Ariella Seidenberg and Arch Williams. 700 square foot acrylic mural on the facade of ANDEN (Asociac??on Nacional de Educadores de Nicaragua-National Teachers Association of Nicaragua), in El Parque de las Madres, Managua, Nicaragua.
A LETTER TO THE FUTURE/UNA CARTA A FUTURO, mural project at San Francisco’s Good Samaritan Community Center. Directed student project as California Arts Council Artist in Residence at La Raza Graphics. Politec paint, 150 square foot interior. Destroyed after 1989 earthquake.

1985

FOR THE ROSES/PARA LAS ROSAS, San Francisco Mime Troupe Building mural, solo project. 930 square foot Politec acrylic mural, at 855 Treat Street, Mission District, San Francisco.
TE O??MOS GUATEMALA (WE HEAR YOU, GUATEMALA), 80 square foot politec acrylic mural for PLACA Mural Collective in solidarity with the people of Central America. Balmy Alley, San Francisco Mission District. A solo project designed in harmony with thirty other murals in a block-long community arts environment. (Replaced by Una Ley Inmoral…”)
BALANCE OF POWER, a collective mural project with Susan Cervantes, Raul Mart??nez, Emmanuel Catarino Montoya, and nine students. A community youth education project, through San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Department and Mayor’s Youth Fund. 2,210 square foot Politec acrylic mural.

1983

UNA NOCHE EN VERACRUZ (A NIGHT IN VERACRUZ) and LA OAXAQUE??A, two Politec acrylic murals, 120 and 70 square feet, respectively. At Pablo’s Restaurant, 4166 24th Street, San Francisco (destroyed).

1983

LAS LECHUGUERAS (THE WOMEN LETTTUCE WORKERS) 1500 square foot Politec acrylic mural, at York and 24th Streets, San Francisco Mission District. A commission from the Mayor’s Office of Community Development and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
A VIEW OF 20TH CENTURY U.S. HISTORY/UNA VISTA DE LA HISTORIA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EN EL SIGLO 20. Directed student mural at Watsonville
High School. 420 square foot Politec mural. Watsonville, California. Destroyed in the 1989 earthquake.

1982

BIRTH MURAL design awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Award for Best Visual Art Work with a Chicano/Mexicano Theme, through the University of California, Santa Cruz. Series of seven life-size panels on the theme of childbirth, pastel and collage on paper.

Illustration

Mother???s Day/El d??a de las madres, illustrated by Juana Alicia, written by Ana Matiella, published by the Children???s Museum of Boston and Modern Curriculum Press

Selected Publications

Imagine: International Chicano Poetry Journal, Volume 3, 1986. ImaginePublishers.
Feminist Geographies: Explorations in Diversity and Difference, Women and Geography Study Group of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, Addison Wesley Limited, 1987
Yesterday and Tomorrow, California Women Artists, Edited by Sylvia Moore, Midmarch Press, 1989
Cover Image, Signs from the Heart: California Chicano Murals, SPARC, The Social and Public Arts Resource Center. 1990
Paper Angels and Bitter Cane, Two Plays by Genny Lim, Kalamaku Press, 1991, cover artwork.
Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985, Wight Art Gallery, UCLA, 1991
Barrio, George Ancona, 1995
Regeneration, Galeria de la Raza, Armando Rascon, February 1995
Homeless Not Helpless, An Anthology Edited by Barbara Paschke and David Volpendesta, 1991
Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective, by Michael Kearny, Westview Press, a division of Harper-Collins, 1996.
Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies, by Jose David Saldivar, University of California Press, 1997, cover artwork.
Feminist Geographies: Explorations in Diversity and Difference, Women and Geography Study Group, Addison Wesley Longman Limited 1997, cover artwork.
San Francisco Murals, by Timothy W. Drescher, Pogo Press, 1998
Painting the Towns, by Jim Prigoff and Robin Dunnitz, RJD Enterprises, 1999, back cover image.
We Are the Ones We??ve Been Waiting For, Women of Color Organizing, front cover, edited by Rinku Sen, U.S. Urban Rural Mission, 1999.
Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Take on the Global Factory, Miriam Ching Louie, South End Press, 2001, cover artwork.
Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives, Second Editon, by Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 2001, Mayfield Publishing, 2001, front cover image.
Other Landscapes”, Angela Y. Davis, from Art/Women/California, Parallels and Intersections: 1950-2000, 2002
Migratory Birds: New and Noted Poems, an upcoming collection of poetry by Odilia Galvan Rodriguez, Prickly Pear Publishing, Oakland, CA, 2002.
Arte y Minor??as en los Estados Unidos: el ejemplo chicano, Jose de la Nuez Santana, Edita: Instituto Universitario de Documentaci??n y Gesti??n de la Informaci??n (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), 2001

Selected Exhibitions

2000

JUANA ALICIA: PRESENCIA MONUMENTAL, Coyote Gallery, Butte College, Oroville, CA.
MAESTRAPEACE, The Euphrat Museum, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA.
HECHO EN CALIFAS: THE LAST DECADE, curated by Richard Lou, touring California cultural centers and museums.

‘98-’01

EL PAPEL DEL PAPEL, THE ROLE OF PAPER, AFFIRMATION AND IDENTITY IN CHICANO AND BORICUA ART, an international touring exhibit presented by the Guadalupe Art Center of San Antonio, Texas.

1997

FROM WITHIN: AN EXHIBITION ABOUT MOTHERHOOD AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS, Works Gallery, San Jose, CA. Curated by Mel Adamson. Catalog.

1995

10 X 10: TEN WOMEN, TEN PRINTS, The Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA

1994

TRES CARAS/THREE FACES, The Red Mesa Gallery, Gallup, New Mexico

1992

WOMEN OF THE FOUR DIRECTIONS:NATIVE AMERICAN LAND ISSUES EXHIBIT, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
THE FOURTH R: ART AND THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN, The Euphrat Gallery, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA.

1991

WOMEN WITH ATTITUDE/MUJERES CON GARBO, at La Raza Graphics Center, San Francisco.
WAR???PEACE ART, organized by the Mexican Museum of San Francisco, international exhibition schedule.
JUANA ALICIA???CARLOS LOARCA???DARRYL SAPIEN???RICO SOLINAS???EVA GARCIA, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.
LAS FRONTERAS: SUENOS, COMADRES Y MANOS, Channing Peake Gallery, Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.
CHICANOS, Moss Gallery, San Francisco.

1990

BODY/CULTURE: CHICANO FIGURATION, organized by the University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, national exhibition schedule, October 1990 through February, 1992, catalogue.
CHICANO ART:RESISTANCE AND AFFIRMATION (CARA) 1965-1985, Wight Art Gallery, U.C.L.A., national and international tour, 1990-1994, catalogue.
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE MASTERS IN FINE ARTS EXHIBITION, Fort Mason, San Francisco, catalogue.1989
LA PISTOLA Y EL CORAZON: PAINTINGS BY JUANA ALICIA, Galer??a Posada, Sacramento, CA.
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS EXHIBITION, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago,
LA MUJER EN LA RAZA, Museo de la Estampa, Mexico City, group exhibit, catalogue.

1988

VISIONES CONTEMPORANEAS., Santa Rosa City Council Chambers, Santa Rosa, CA.
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS EXHIBITION, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago, Illinois, group exhibit.
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS EXHIBITION, The Alternative Museum, New York, New York group exhibit.

1987

LATINA ART : SHOWCASE “87, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago, Illinois. Group show. Artist’s work used for cover of catalogue, posters, cards. Curator: Juana Guzman.
MEXICAN – AMERICAN SHOW, Loteri?? Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico. Group show sponsored by Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Institute of Fine Arts). Catalogue.

1986

SHE , group exhibition on the theme of women and water, Berkeley Art Center. Michael Bell, curator.
CONTENT: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES, Euphrat Gallery. De Anza College, Cupertino, Jan Rindfleisch, curator. Catalogue

1985

WOMEN X WOMEN, group exhibit at La Galer??a de la Raza, San Francisco,CA.

Teaching Experience

2002-2003

San Francisco State University: ??? Raza Art History??? and ???Women as Creative Agents??? (College of Ethnic Studies and Women???s Studies)

2001-2002

University of California, Davis, Chicano Studies, Visiting Lecturer: ???Chicanas, Politics and Public Policy??? and ???Political Economy of Chicano/Latina Communities???
San Francisco State University, College of Ethnic Studies and Department of Women???s Studies, Visiting Lecturer: ???Raza Art History???, ???Raza Oral History and Tradition??? and ???Woman as Creative Agent???
California State University at Hayward, supervisor for student teachers. Berkely Arts Magnet, visual art teacher. Public speaker for Speak Out, a progressive speaker???s bureau. Richmond Art Center, Art 10 Program, Richmond, CA,

2000

Stanford University, Visiting Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese: Chicana/Xicano Muralism.

1995-99

Co-Founder and Co-Director, The East Bay Institute for Urban Arts, Oakland, CA.

1994-95

Atelierista (resident art teacher) at the San Francisco Charter Early Childhood School.

1990-95

Core faculty, New College of California, graduate and undergraduate Visual Arts Coordinator of undergraduate Interdicsciplinary Art and Social Change Program.

1992

Distinguished Visiting Professor, Oakes College, University of
New College of California, Core Faculty in Drawing and Visual Arts Program Coordinator.

1990-93

California College of Arts and Crafts, classes in drawing, Latin American history and mural painting.

1990-95

New College of California, classes in drawing and Latin American art history. Cooridinator of Visual Arts Program, Fall

1990

San Francisco Art Institute, Watercolor, spring extension program.

1989

San Francisco Art Institute, Watercolor, summer extension program.

1989

California Arts Council, Artist in Residence, Artist in Schools Grant for Hawthorne Elementary School, San Francisco.

1987

California Arts Council, Artist in Communities Grant for 1987- 88, at the Hispanic Cultural Center of Novato and World College West.

1985

Artist in Residence at La Raza Graphics for one year, in various student mural projects, both at the La Raza site and at Good Samaritan Community Center

1985

Directed student mural project at the Mission Pool and Playground. 19th and Linda Streets, San Francisco. Worked in collaboration with aforementioned colleagues.

1984

Directed high school student mural project through the State Department of Migrant Education’s Yo Puedo Program at Stanford University: Assisted students in design and execution of mural at Stanford’s Chicano Centro.
Artist in Residence at Potter Valley School. Potter Valley, California, directing mural project with forty elementary school students. Painted 1,000 square foot Politec mural on exterior wall of school.

1981

Taught art to elementary and secondary level migrant students in a two-year program designed and administered by the artist (funded through the State Office of Migrant Education) in P??jaro, California, featuring workshops in ceramics, drawing, design and mural painting.

About: Artist’s Statement

Statement on Mural Making
© Juana Alicia 2000 World Rights Reserved

Declaración Artistica sobre Murales en español

I make murals with groups because of the learning that process provides me. It forces me to think and see from other minds and eyes, and to stretch my emotional capacities and communication skills. I also learn new techniques from other muralists and artisans. Naturally, a group allows one to take on a more monumental work, and lightens the burden that the individual artist would also have to bear, vis a vis community relations, administration, documentation and the actual execution of the work.

Through the process of creating a mural, people acquire the following skills, knowledge and growth:

The change that the group itself experiences in the process of creating a mural is remarkable, in every instance of my personal experience with collectives. As stated above, the organism itself takes on a life of its own that leaves each member changed. It forces the rugged individual to surrender to a different kind of knowledge and way of being/creating. It forces everyone to trust each other, like in a ropes course, and to depend on the others for safety and vision. It teaches us to share and to listen more carefully to each other, and ultimately, to realize that when we allow the wisdom of a democratic group to power the project, we become more concious artists and citizens.

Murals affect communities by bringing a level of self-consciousness to the environment, by making their interior lives, their historical legacies, their cultural heritages visually explicit. They also reveal those conditions in the artists that create them, so that it¹s not just the community that is being represented, but through the filter of the artists that respond to it, and vice versa.

With regard to the possible negative affects of the group/community mural process, the potential always exists for a poorly researched project, where communication shuts down and people refuse to engage in democratic processes and active listening. The potential for failure can come at any point in the process: it is a very complex, multi-pronged and political process. As in any large undertaking, community mural making requires much energy, planning, coordination, care, respect, love, and the will to participate in a political process that is often challenging and frustrating. Devotion and hard work are required to create a positive affect.

Photo of Juana Alicia’s fresco in progress: Marvin Collins ©1998

Declaración Artistica sobre Murales
© Juana Alicia 2000 World Rights Reserved

Yo hago murales como proyectos colectivos por el proceso de enseñanza que me proveen. Me obliga a pensar y ver por medio de otras mentes y ojos, y a desarrollar mis habilidades de comunicación y capacidades emocionales. También aprendo nuevas técnicas de otros muralistas y artesanos. En obras colectivas, es natural, poder desarrollar obras más monumentales, incluso disminuye la carga de un individuo artista, por medio del hecho que provee relaciones comunitarias, administrativas, documentación y ayuda con la ejecución de la obra.

Individuos adquieren las siguientes habilidades, conocimientos y madurez durante el proceso de la creación de un mural:

En cada instancia de mi experiencia con proyectos colectivos, el cambio que se produce en cada uno de los participantes es increíble. Como mencioné anteriormente, el organismo (el proceso y la obra) en si, toma vida y deja a cada participante cambiado. Obliga aun a los individuos mas difíciles a entregarse a un nivel diferente de conocimiento y una forma diferente de ser o crear. Requiere que confiemos en nuestros colegas y dependamos en los demás para nuestra seguridad y visión. Incluso nos enseña a compartir y a escucharnos mutuamente. Finalmente, nos enseña que cuando dejamos que la sabiduría de un grupo democrático tome poder del proyecto, nos convertimos en artistas y ciudadanos mas concientes.

Los murales afectan a nuestras comunidades al traer un nivel elevado de conciencia a nuestro medio ambiente, convirtiendo nuestras vidas personales, herencias históricas, herencias culturales en imágenes publicas. También revelan esas condiciones en los artistas que las crean para que no sea solo la comunidad la que será representada, pero filtrada por la manera que un artista responde a ella y vise versa.

Con respecto a la posibilidad de efectos negativos en el proceso de un mural colectivo/comunitario, siempre existe la posibilidad de un proyecto que no ha sido investigado ampliamente, donde la comunicación se ha debilitado y en que los miembros se niegan a participar en un proceso democrático y a escucharse mutuamente. La posibilidad de una derrota puede venir a cualquier momento en el proceso creativo porque es un proyecto muy complejo, multidisciplinario y político. Como en cualquier otro proyecto grande/monumental, los murales comunitarios requieren mucha energía, coordinación, cuidado, respeto, amor, y la voluntad de participar en un proceso político que muchas veces es frustrante y difícil. La devoción y dedicación al trabajo son requeridas para crear un resultado positivo.

Foto de la creacion de un fresco por Juana Alicia: Marvin Collins ©1998

About: Biography

Biografia en español

I am a muralist, printmaker, educator, activist and painter who loves to draw. I have been teaching for twenty-five years, working in many areas of education, from community organizing to migrant and bilingual education to arts education, from kindergarten to graduate school levels.

I feel that it is my responsibility as an artist to be an activist for social justice, human rights and environmental health, and I see the work of parenting and teaching akin to being an artist. I began working as an artist in my teens, coming of age in the human rights movements that included the United Farm Workers and that protested the war in Vietnam.

I work in many forms and traditions, with a particular dedication to the fresco buono, an ancient painting technique that, practiced all over the world, has endured many centuries. The majority of my public works are in the Bay Area, but I have also painted murals in other parts of the world, including Managua, Nicaragua. Some of my works are individual and others are collaborative.

In 2000 I completed a large fresco mural as part of a collaboration with sculptor and printmaker Emmanuel C. Montoya, who created a bas relief sculpture that surrounds the painting. Entitled “Sanctuary”, this new work is located in Gate Room 99, Terminal G at the newly constructed San Francisco Airport International Terminal. I have also recently completed a mural in Erie, Pennsylvania: A Woman’s Place: As a Warrior in the Struggle for International Solidarity. The work is an expression of the cooperation of two different union organizations: El Frente Auténtico de Trabajadores and the United Electrical Workers Union. Among my most recent work is a ceramic tile mural of the Virgen de Guadalupe, my homage to the Brown Earth Mother of Aztlan. In this case, she is the Virgen de Liberación, with the key to the prisons in her extended hand.

I frequently lecture at Stanford University, San Francisco State University and the University of California at Davis. I have recently completed a new mural on women, water and globalization, entitled La Llorona’s Sacred Waters, located in San Francisco’s Mission District. My current work-in-progress is a suite of bas relief tile murals for the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, on the theme of healing and diversity, which will be installed later this year at the Parnassus Avenue campus, near the Ambulatory Care Clinic.

Foto of Juana Alicia: Victoria Alvarado ©2000
* A project of the San Francisco Art Commission and San Francisco Airport Commission.

En Español

Biografía

Yo soy una muralista, grabadora, maestra, activista y pintora Chicana, a la cual le encanta el dibujo. He trabajado como maestra por más de veinticinco años, en muchas ramas de la pedagogía, desde la organización de comunidades, educación de niños migratorios, programas bilingües, y en la educación de arte, desde el kindergarten al nivel universitario.

Yo creo que es mi responsabilidad como artista luchar para la justicia social, para los derechos humanos y la conservación del medio ambiente. En mi opinion, la enseñanza es un proyecto creativo. Comencé a dibujar y pintar cuando era muy joven, inspirada por los movimientos de derechos humanos y civiles, me involucre en el Sindicato de los Campesinos de César Chavez (United Farmworkers Union), y en el movimiento contra la guerra en Viet Nam.

Trabajo con múltiples formas y tradiciones, con un amor especial hacia la pintura del fresco, una técnica antigua que se ha practicado en todas partes del mundo y ha perdurado por siglos. La mayor parte de mis obras públicas se encuentran en el área de la bahía de San Francisco, California; pero he pintado murales en otras partes incluyendo Managua, Nicaragua. Algunas obras son proyectos individuales y otras son proyectos colectivos o comunitarios.

Hace poco completé un fresco monumental como parte de una colaboración con Emmanuel C. Montoya, un grabador, pintor y escultor que ha creado una escultura en alto relieve que rodea mi mi mural. La obra entera se titula <<Santuario>> y está ubicada en la nueva Terminal Internacional del Aeropuerto de la ciudad de San Francisco. También, acabo de pintar un mural para el Sindicato de Electricistas <<UE>>, en la ciudad de Erie, Pennsylvania. El mural titulado <<El lugar de la mujer: Como una guerrillera en la lucha para la solidaridad internacional>>, la obra es una expresión de la solidaridad entre este sindicato Estadounidense y el Sindicato Colectivo del FAT (Frente Auténtico del Trabajo) de México. Mi obra más reciente es un mural de azulejos que sirve como homenaje al La Virgen de Guadalupe, la madre tierra, Tonántzin de Aztlán. En esta obra, ella representa la liberación, y tiene la llave de las prisiones en la mano extendida, como liberadora de los presos políticos.

Actualmente, vivo y trabajo en la ciudad de Berkeley, California. Enseño en varias universidades, entre ellas: La Universidad de Stanford, La Universidad Estatal de San Francisco y La Universidad de California en Davis. Acabo de completar un nuevo mural sobre la mujer, la globalización y la importancia del agua, en el distrito de la Mission de San Francisco. Mi proyecto actual es un mural de azulejos para el Centro Medico de la Universidad de California en San Francisco. El mural es acerca de el tema de la salud y la diversidad, y será instalado a fines de año en el campus de la Avenida Parnassus, cerca de la Clínica de Salud Ambulante.

Foto de Juana Alicia: Victoria Alvarado ©2000
* Un proyecto de la Comisión de Arte de San Francisco y la Comisión del Aeropuerto de San Francisco.