Update #10: Preparing for Satellite Installation, Launching a New Project

The meaning of the works is stated eloquently in the poetry of Berkeley elder poet Rafael Jesús Gonzalez, from his piece Huehuetlatolli: The Wisdom of Elders, which was a key inspiration for my murals. Here is a selection of one of his verses:                        

Huehuetlatolli for Juana Alicia’s Satellite Elders’ Housing Project
…Mensaje de sabiduría:
Escucha bien:lo más importantees saber amar.
Listen well:the most important thingis to know how to love.
Anciana a la joven:
La belleza, hija,viene del corazón.
Beauty, daughter,comes from the heart…
© Rafael Jesús González 2007

As the poetry expresses, the murals honor our nature and the natural world from which we come. They portray the five elements: air, water, fire, earth and the souI, with images of elder men and women speaking to young men and women. The human images emerge from the earth motif. This particular project has the goal of creating artworks at a grassroots level to promote environmental justice in underserved neighborhoods. This is a sustainable architecture program which serves low-income seniors. Thanks to everyone for helping make this project a reality!

Best regards,

Juana Alicia

The images below represent some of the prints and posters I have sent you as gifts for your contributions. Please see the Kickstarter site for more details:http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/juanaalicia/new-mural-installation-wisdom-of-the-elders-huehue

Mission Street Manifesto, poster of drawing for mural at San Francisco State University,, 1984©Juana Alicia

Don't Look Back, Giclee Print, 2006 ©Juana Alicia

Spill/Derrame, giclee print, Juana Alicia©2011

Tejedora de Sueños, silkscreen print, ©Juana Alicia and Miranda Bergman, 2010

March 7, 2011

HUEHUETLATOLI: WISDOM OF THE ELDERS: THE SOUL/EL ALMA, detail of relief sculpture for Satellite Senior Housing, Berkeley, California. 2’x4’, cast resin, Juana Alicia ©2007, World Rights Reserved.

Dear Community Supporters,

I am requesting your help to raise funds to complete the installation of ten monumental ceramic murals that I have created for Satellite Senior Housing’s Helios Corner Project in West Berkeley. In 2004, Satellite’s director at that time approached me to create site specific works for their anticipated low-income senior housing project for the corner of University Avenue and Sacramento Street. After a thorough community research project, many oral interviews with Berkeley elders, community leaders and environmental activists, such as the Berkeley Grey Panthers, community organizers Sol Levinson and Dr. Salvador Murillo, environmental biologist Dr. Ignacio Chapela, State Senator Lonie Hancock and many others, I designed a series of 2′ x 11′ and 2′ x 8′ ceramic bas relief murals for the facade of the now-completed building. Satellite then contracted me to fabricate my design, which I did over a period of two years, including during my Fulbright in Yucatán, Mexico, where I had studio facilities that allowed me to work on a larger scale than usual.

I worked for four years to design and fabricate the panels, and finished them in June of 2008. Since then, they have been sitting in boxes in a basement at one of Satellite’s facilities, waiting for installation. Satellite received a grant from Open Circle Foundation for $5,000 for the installation in 2007, but still needs to raise another $5,000 to pay for the complete installation. Although I have moral support from local Berkeley officials like Councilwoman Linda Maio and Civic Arts Commission Coordinator Mary Ann Merker, there is apparently no money in the City of Berkeley available for the completion of this project. I am requesting your support in the amount of $5,000 to make the installation of this work a reality.

HUEHUETLATOLI: WISDOM OF THE ELDERS: SHARING EARTH WISDOM, detail of relief sculpture for Satellite Senior Housing, Berkeley, California. 2’x4’, cast resin, Juana Alicia ©2007, World Rights Reserved.

This particular project has the goal of creating artworks at a ” grassroots level to promote environmental justice in underserved neighborhoods.” This is a sustainable architecture program which serves the poor. The new building is a “green structure”, featuring a  photovoltaic solar energy system, central hydronic heating system, passive solar layout, drought-tolerant landscaping and a transit-oriented location with supplemental van service (slide show:http://www.slideshare.net/ICF_HCD/satellite-housing-chdo-ee-in-home-workshop). Additionally, this work, entitled “Huehuetlatoli: The Wisdom of the Elders”, expresses this wisdom as embedded in the five natural elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Air and the Soul. In recent years, I have explored more permanent materials that integrate smoothly into the architecture for which I design.(See juanaalicia.com for images of SANARTE murals and sidewalk for UCSF Medical Center). These ceramic panels are nearly maintenance-free. I have now lived in Berkeley for fifteen years, though most of my body of work is found in San Francisco and Latin America. Although I was paid for my work, it saddens me to have it languishing in boxes. It is my strong desire to see this work completed and given to the City of Berkeley’s low-income seniors and community at large.

Thank you for helping us meet our goal.

Best regards,

Juana Alicia

Tile waiting for a home at Helios Corner, Satellite Senior Housing in Berkeley

Bryant Valentino Salvador Rodriguez's Detail of Mural Design

Visions of Peace and Justice prf

Inkworks Mural in Progress May 14, 2010

Allison Connor's Detail of Mural Design

Support Youth Arts: THE INKWORKS MURALDonate Today to Support the Youth Arts Program and Make the Mural a Reality

See below for information on tax deductible donations to this exciting project. After months of brainstorming, rough drafts, long discussions and many revisions, the True Colors mural arts program at Berkeley City College has finalized an amazing piece of art that is set to be painted on the facade of the Inkworks’ building in early 2010. True Colors is a project of renowned muralist Juana Alicia and will be partnering with the Streets Alive project of the Earth Island Institute to complete this epic and inspiring mural. Featured here are final sketches competed by the students that detail various sections of the mural design. We are also using this opportunity to ask for your valued participation in making this all happen through a generous donation. The vast majority of the work that it will take to realize the vision the students of True Colors have for this important piece of public art will be on donated time. However there are certain costs that are unavoidable, such as paint and scaffolding, and that is where your support comes in! Inkworks’ role as a long term sustainer of activism and organizing makes it a perfect match for True Colors use of mural making to educate students in critical social and environmental issues that face our local and global communities. Juana Alicia has facilitated a semester long process with the students of brainstorming, sketching and consulting with Inkworks in order to develop a beautiful final design for the mural. It will stretch across the entire front facade of the Inkworks building facing 7th street and encompass many of the important movements and campaigns that have organized in the Bay Area and beyond during the past 35 years. This colorful piece of public art is a contribution to the street life and character of the West Berkeley neighborhood that Inkworks calls home. It will be a historic piece of art, an educational tool and an additional landmark in the spirit of Berkeley’s uniqueness. May 28th is our scheduled finish date so mark your calendars for an inaugural celebration! For previous coverage of the mural project please click here. DONATE TODAY! Painting is set to begin in early 2010 so this is a perfect time to help make this vision a reality. All donations are tax deductible and will be directly used to ensure that this vibrant and valuable community endeavor is completed. Follow the link below to make a secure online donation: http://eii.org/contribute IMPORTANT please paste the following line into the Comments and Questions section of the online donation form: Donation for Streets Alive/True Colors Mural Arts Program on Behalf of Inkworks Press The black and white sketches of the mural were created by Kwesi Acquaa, Joel S. Beaird, Sabrina Collins, Allison Connor, Diego Mendoza Cordero, Nube Cruz, Olivia Levins Holden, George Lippman, Amalia Gaspar, Maya Montoya, Ajene Moss, Amy Ortiz, Smokie, Heather Reaney, Valentino Rodriguez, Vanessa Verdin. Directed by Juana Alicia  © 2009 World Rights Reserved. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TRUE COLORS: http://truecolorsmuralproject.wordpress.com/

SANARTE: DIVERSITY’S PATHWAY, mural environment at UCSF Medical Center,
400 Parnassus Avenue. Ceramic tile murals and embedded sidewalk by
Juana Alicia ©2005 World Rights Reserved. An original work, owned and
commissioned by the University of California, San Francisco.
Photography: Anobel Odisho ©2005 World Rights Reserved

Detail of Traditions Mural previous to installation

Map of Traditions Mural for Installation

Left to Right: Karen Knewhouse of UCSF EOP, JW Nickel of Rocket Science and Michael Adams of UCSF EOP and the Diversity Art Committee in front of Ollin Mural.

JW Nickel of Rocket Science Inc., grouting the Ollin Mural

La Llorona (The Weeping Woman), Juana Alicia’s latest mural project, picks up where Las Lechugueras left off. This time Juana Alicia takes a look at environmental struggles involving women around the world. The new mural takes its title from the much-debated Mexican myth of the woman who allegedly drowned her children and is damned to weep for them. La Llorona weaves the stories of women in Bolivia, India, and at the U.S. Border together. It highlights Bolivians in Cochabamba who have fought to keep Bechtel Corporation from buying the water rights in their country; Indian farm workers in the Narmada Valley protesting in the flooded waters of their homes against their government’s irresponsible dam projects; and the women in black protesting the unsolved murders of women in Juarez, in the shadow of the Rio Bravo and the maquiladoras (sweatshops).

Juana Alicia believes that globalization is not inherently bad, but when it takes the form of corporate forces trying to sell people their own water, or when it begins to spread poverty through women, then she must raise her brush in protest. Collaborative mural projects, such as Maestrapeace and Si Se Puede, demonstrate how Juana Alicia participates in a communal and politicized artistic praxis. Seven muralists researched, designed, and painted, Maestrapeace, the mural that colors the sides of the Women’s Building. The artists completed the year long project with 100 other volunteers from the community, and from this effort, which began in 1993, sprang an artists’ collective, Maestrapeace Art Works. Many of the muralists who formed this collective around the motto that art is a catalyst for social change are also educators have presented lectures about the process behind and the history reflected in the mural. In just one section of the wall, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchu holds Yoruba and Aztec deities in her hands, and her face can be seen shining above many buildings in the city. With this project, the artists colored outside the lines of who can be an artist and what history lessons get told. In 1995, together with local artists such as Susan Kelk Cervantes, Juana Alicia collaborated, on Si Se Puede, the mural on the front of Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Francisco. For this project, the school community participated in the planning process and youth from the surrounding community lent hands while together they painted life into its walls.

With her eye turned towards the international connections between peoples’ and women’s struggle, Juana licia continues to ask the question of what the tangible results of her art are. Making murals, especially in groups, enables participants to gain valuable research and technical skills and enhances their abilities in communication and team work . Certainly it is not only the participants that gain, but residents often experience a heightened self-consciousness to the environment that promotes pride and ownership of their neighborhoods, and perhaps even of themselves. As she admits the difficulty of making a case for the tangible results in movement politics, she credits hip hop as the model. The hip hop generation gets it. True that. This generation is making art political and politics artistic in a way that previous generations have not been able to, and this is one of many sources of inspiration for Juana Alicia.

Painter says to writer,
spoken word is the vital water of revolution.
hip hop artists know
spoken word is the vital water
of revolution.

Writer says to painter
your informed images of the past
brought to us in a bold bright palette
are the vital waters
of poetry.

Perhaps, the immediate effects of her long list of mural projects are not easily measured, but they certainly have an impact. Many of those painted walls, such as Las Lechugueras and Cease Fire/Alto Al Fuego have been published as movement text, in films, and have defended ideas, as part of the new vocabulary that forms arguments for change. Juana Alicia sees a dialectic between her art and the language for change. The language to name ourselves, our movement, our goals, is a deep source of power. The education and altered reflection that her murals offer certainly participate in the construction of this visual language. A pedestrian learns a history lesson by walking into a painted building, a protester in the street passes the faces and images behind her cause, a child knows from the get-go who Rigoberta Menchu and Cesar Chavez are–art makes a difference, no doubt.

This is my Guernica. If Picasso’s testimony to war challenges the heroic and victorious concept of war, then Juana Alicia’s La Llorona challenges the idea that women cannot be heroic or victorious. Chalchiuhtlicue, Mexica goddess of lakes and streams who wears a skirt of jade, towers in the center of the mostly transparent blues of the mural. La llorona, a big woman whose limbs are drawn in strong lines, holds a child and her tears are not sad, but seem to nourish and comfort. La pintora limited her palette to shades of blue under a red sky in the interests of preservation. The mural’s color scheme is also part of the transparency and liquidity that characterizes Juana Alicia’s painting technique–transparent colors that emphasize layers. Water, her element of choice, has always provided the spring from which she sees and paints. She uses transparency to show the invisible woman or man, to paint what is underneath the surface of things.

Juana Alicia is not just a painter, but an investigator, so as a researcher and our teacher, she uses paint as the medium for communicating a critical perspective, a revised interpretation, of what she sees in this case, the state of the world’s ecology. Yemaya, the spirit of a woman, holds the weight of middle passage in the folds of her skirt, Oshun, the spirit of a woman, washes our skin, residue from the fingertips of restless dead leaving faint tattoos. The spirit of a woman, la Sirena’s currents guide desperate rafts leaving El Caribe and ghost ships that sail from China. Wandering souls are thirsty for their stories. The clear commitment to multiculturalism that comes through in the hues and topics of her painting is natural to this artist who’s ancestry hails from Odessa, Russia and Odessa Texas, a Jew-xican. She grew up amidst the language of Motown, hearing three languages at home–Spanish, Yiddish, and English. The inspiration that colors Juana Alicia’s palette ranges from the words of Eduardo Galeano, Genny Lim, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Francisco Vazquez to the paintings of Betty Mora and Alfredo Zalce to the bold strokes of the Maestrapeace artists. Listing so many influences that names don’t fit on the page, Juana Alicia demonstrates her perspective regarding art. Everyone has a hand in it from beginning to end. It isn’t only hers; it belongs to everyone.

La Llorona, is another example of her communal approach to art; the project began as a collaboration. Odilia Galvan Rodriguez wrote words for the initial drawing of la llorona, and then came the rest flowing like the waters of Lake Texcoco that move along the seams of Chalchiuhtlicue’s jade skirt. Two years ago, Juana Alicia received a commitment to funding from Mayor Willie Brown’s Neighborhood Beautification Fund for La Llorona, and she continues to raise funds for the project that is due to be completed by the Spring of 2004. This project falls within a tradition of rewriting the Mexican mythology of women ongoing since the 70′s by Chicana artists and writers such as Yolanda Lopez, Martha Cotera, Ana Castillo, Cherrie Moraga, and Gloria Anzaldua, to name a few. This archetype of the weeping woman is being recast in a celebratory manner; her open hand extending towards Bolivia, India, and to all of us. Juana Alicia’s brush aims to counter negative images of women and show the truth about our strength and accomplishments. Funny that Juana Alicia mentions that Chalchiuhtlicue was said to be a consort of Tlaloc. I think back to la Siguanaba and at how this artist is rewriting many more stories than she even imagines. Her palette frees the spirit of women from roles as monstrous creatures of folklore to warrior women of history. The waters of Juana Alicia Montoya’s paintings cleanse us, give birth to us.

Ashe. Word.

These are the images for a suite of five new mural pieces for the Parnassus Campus of UCSF Medical Center. These drawings were originally conceived as two murals on either side of Millberry Union, but the site has changed; so too will the drawings. The fabrication of my new design began in January of 2005.

The mural project celebrates and symbolizes diversity is based on unity through diversity, and the notion that dualities create a whole, vibrant and ever changing world. Therefore, I have elected to design a bas relief, ceramic tile suite of murals for the four walls on the Ambulatory Care Elevator Building, as well as on the walkway leading from the sidewalk to that building. The suite will use the central unifying theme of the DNA molecule, the symbol of the key to the structure of life itself.

I will also include imagery inspired from wave theory, such as damped and orthogonal oscillations as motifs in the designs. I will create imagery that reflects the dynamic balance that natural and social movements seek to achieve in order to maintain a healthy and diverse world. The murals will represent healing traditions throughout the world, self-care and the internal work we do to heal ourselves, as well as the social and natural movements that have brought about diversity, with a focus on the special history of UCSF. The images emphasize the excellent work of the medical center, which has been supported by and diversified through the efforts of students, staff and community. I am using much of the original imagery presented in my proposals to the University, but it has been re-designed to accommodate and fully exploit the potential of the bas relief medium and changed dimensions of the walls for which it is intended.