Homenaje a Selena (Homage to Selena) pays tribute to the Mexican American singer Selena (Quintanilla Perez), who was killed by a fan in 1995 at the age of 23. Homenaje means "tribute" or "homage." For the Day of the Dead we build altars (homenaje) for family members, and even for a favorite boxer or movie star. This lithograph is really an image about life: Selena is singing and dancing, her mouth open, head thrown back, belting out a song. Her skirt billows as if the emotion of her song is so great it's blown around her. Even the floor undulates with the emotion of her pulsating song.

In Hispanic culture, the skeleton image, calavera, is both personal and cultural. Death is natural, but in America it's considered something to be feared. Most people do anything to pretend it's not happening. In Mexico, it's the other way. The Day of the Dead (October 31-November 2) is a time when the whole country becomes involved in a dialogue with death. Cemeteries are filled with families, candles, food and flowers; people stay all night. We make jokes about death. Our relationship is much more intimate. For us, death is just part of the cycle of life.

--Anita Rodriguez

 

Anita Rodriguez's brightly hued tribute to the Mexican American pop singer similarly reclaims the extensive history of Hispanic music and musicians in the West, as well as the traditional religious rituals and images particular to Southwestern faith communities. Born and raised in Taos--her father was a tenth-generation resident of New Mexico, her mother of Anglo-Irish heritage--Rodriguez in her large, colorful paintings (some up to six feet in height) embodies the mixed racial, ethnic, and cultural sensibilities of the American West.

The skeletal image is Selena herself, singing and dancing in death much as she did in life, posed in an archway evoking the space and sensibility of a church, or the kinds of elaborate shrines and home altars that Hispanic women traditionally build in memory of family members and beloved secular and sacred figures.

--Erika Doss

 



A PORTFOLIO of four limited edition prints is available for purchase.

The Women of the West Museum Expanded Visions Project involves four internationally renowned artists selected to work with master printer Bud Shark on a suite of original prints created exclusively for the museum.

The four artists include Emmi Whitehorse, Anita Rodriguez, Hung Liu, and Alison Saar. Offered in an elegant presentation case, the portfolio of four prints, in a limited edition of 75, is currently available at the price of $5,000.

Proceeds from this project will help support the museum's education programs.

Call the Women of the West Museum at 303-446-9378 for more information.

 

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