| Growing up in Hollywood, Gloria
Marie V. was ambivalent about her Mexican heritage, refusing to learn
Spanish, rolling her eyes at car trips to Ensenada, and making faces at the
chilaquiles that occasioned the family dinner table. She had no idea
she would wind up living in Mexico—she has spent the past 11 years here in
Todos Santos—and through her art reworking many of the icons and myths of
Mexican culture.
Her latest work is a series of oil paintings based on the popular Loteria cards. You’ve probably seen this bingo-like children’s game, with numbered pictures of, say, a rooster (labeled “el gallo”), a ladder (“la escalera”), a drunk (“el borracho”), etc. Gloria has made up her own cards, and arranged them, often four to a painting, in a way that is almost Tarot-like. The Loteria series can be seen at Galeria de Todos Santos... The simple power of these colorful images is the result of techniques learned from a lifetime of drawing, painting, and sculpting. Their wit and feeling speak to a reluctant Chicana rediscovering her roots, and making them her own. |
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--from El Calendario