La Mujer

Mosaics

Jan 10

6ft x 24ft x 8in (two-sided), 2019–2022

Glass and ceramic mosaic mural

Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, Austin, TX

Working with the Caminos program’s LatinX teen interns as a mural mentor and project lead for the 2018–19 year, I began by giving the teens 12in x 12in take-home mosaic projects to give them a crash course in mosaic making. Thereafter, we as a team developed the concept and specific ideas for the imagery present in our mural. The title of La Mujer and the theme were decided upon as we realized a need to revere and preserve and celebrate the strong and iconic female figures in the Hispanic community, with a specific focus on recent history, the Austin locale, and the arts.

Depicted, just to name a few, are Dolores Huerta: a labor leader and non-violent civil rights activist, Emma S. Barrientos: a long-time leader of the Austin Arts community which the center is also named after, and the Queen of Tejano music: Selena Quintanilla-Perez. Woven throughout are cultural themes represented by color and iconography such as the monarch butterfly and marigold flowers. All stages of the project from concept design to layout and fabrication have been completed as a team with myself as lead artist and 12–15 interns and volunteers from the community working on the project each Saturday for a 6-month period. After some delays due to the pandemic, La Mujer was finally installed in late 2022 at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin, TX.