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Posts Tagged ‘Alexcia DeVásquez’

Black Boots Ink Exhibition at Exposure Gallery

Exhibiting until April 30, 2010

BBI Promo Card


Introductions/Introducciones Alexcia DeVasquez

n635597474_584169_2192I introduce Alexcia DeVasquez

Alexcia’s website also Mexico, Spaces Between Places, Love Politics, Mexico 2008

Tell me about your photographic series Nursery Rhymes

I really heard my first nursery rhyme in first grade.  My memory of it is that  the teacher was teaching us all a  new song, but I realized after a few verses, that everyone else knew “Three Blind Mice” but not me.  While sorting out the words, I became very confused, did we know the farmer’s wife? Was a “carver’s knife” really sharp? And why does this class full of people I like, want to kill anything?

I never understood the point of nursery rhymes, and quickly found out that they were to teach a lesson that nobody seemed to really remember from a long, long time ago. The Nursery Rhyme project is an exploration for an explanation and reflection of these old messages.  I wanted to illustrate my own book of Nursery Rhymes showing both the comfort and the unease that these stories can bring.

How has your photography developed since you left school?090622_0005

Wow, I don’t know where to begin. In school, I didn’t know if I wanted to focus more on the image or the message that I wanted to send. I was lost  between what the camera captured and what I could create with what it captured. Since I’ve left school, I defiantly want to show more of a straight image than an image between reality and memory or imagination.

How has your mind- set changed from finding your style to solidifying what you photograph today?

I’m just glad that you didn’t ask “how did your style change while you solidified what you photograph today,” because I don’t know if it has solidified. My mind-set let go. My mind learned how to relax and my mind was able to settle into focusing on what I wanted to share with people. I still want to share the gamut of emotions, but I’m more comfortable sharing it in a body of work instead of trying to capture it into one image.
Honestly, I let it go, I left my apartment, I left my city, I left the only state I had lived in, I left  my country to live with my fiance, dog, cat  and his family, who I barely knew,  in a country I’d never been to, with laws I didn’t know, with customs I hadn’t learned.Picture 5
I learned what  American values I had because I was American and learned what were mine because I’m me. I left the importance of credit reports and gained a true understanding of the importance of a reputation (despite not really having one). I turned strangers into friends and learned how to answer the question “What is really important?”

Photographing so many things so that I could compile them later wasn’t an option anymore. I didn’t have the dual monitors, the printers, the hard drive space or  more importantly the cultural understanding of my subject for that to work.  I realized the value of what will never happen again not only what I would like to create.

What are you working on now?

I’m working my way off the boat.
I recently came back to America and have been going through culture shock being here. To my surprise, it was much stranger moving BACK here than it was leaving. I’m working on a project of some of the things that are the everyday and normal here but seem so strange to me after being away for a while. I’m considering including text with the images some how. I’m not sure how, but I’ll find a way.

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Love Politics

images by:

Emilio Bañuelos, San Francisco | Jorge E. Barragan, Guadalajara | Juan Carlos, Mexico City | Elena Carrasco, San Francisco | Ed Chow, San Leandro | Alexcia DeVásquez, San Francisco | Lydia Gonzales, Oakland | Pernilla Persson, San Francisco | Colt Peterson, Alamo | Unni Raveendranathen, San Francisco | Diana Sánchez, Oakland

Love Politics
by Ruby Cymrot-Wu

How can activism be a practice in love? I believe it must be, because activists need to learn how to love themselves and trust themselves to do the work that is necessary. Activism requires love to be sustainable. Whatever underemployed activist you are – an artist, a teacher, a community organizer – love can be the basis of your work. Not anger or frustration, but a passionate love of change, of your own self, and of the people around you.

As activists, our mission is to love the whole being of every individual, and work to improve each person’s quality of life by moving forward comprehensively and holistically.  It is strange that many of us believe this, but forget to include ourselves.   We are not pardoned. How can we fight for the improvement of the quality of life for others and simultaneously forget to leave room for our own feelings of elation and grief? As our society ignores the realness of emotional and mental stress for everyone, we feel that we must suppress our own experiences and struggles in order to be true, efficient leaders. There is a silencing of our needs, and we are forced to push ahead, perpetuating the cycle of our pervasive mental health crisis. Instead, we can combat the pandemic by doing our work passionately and forming our own practice of loving ourselves.

A fulfilling project, not to mention a paycheck, is a privilege not many are afforded.

And at the same time, we cannot take this privilege and turn it around into a guilt-ridden drive to ignore passions and needs that are not directly linked to an end goal.  We cannot give and expect nothing in return. The work can feed you in some way.

How can we bring our whole self to activism? By loving ourselves as well as the people directly affected by our activism. In the old Jewish teaching from Hillel “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me.” We must perpetuate a sustainable model for activists, or else our actions and movements in the present will fail in the future.  If we do not take this moment now, there will not be anyone to carry on the work, or even worse – no one to mentor the next generation of activists.

I charge each and every person to take a moment and reflect on what you can do to support yourself. Even if you take 10 minutes out of your day to drink a cup of tea, I encourage you to try it. It might just be the change you need to make change in our world.

more:

Spaces Between PlacesPublic PlacesMexicoIssue No. One | Mexico 2008 | Love Politics


Workshop 2: Mt. Shasta

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Workshop No. Two: Mt. Shasta

BBI & NRCPA | Workshop The Visual Narrative and Landscape as Portrait
Instructors: Emilio Bañuelos | Elena Carrasco | Tim Gonzalez-Mena | Kija Lucas | Rika Noda | John Rickard
April 18- 20, 2008


WORKSHOP NO. TWO: MT. SHASTA PARTICIPANTS:
Chi Kwong Chow
, San Francisco | Alexcia DeVásquez, San Francisco | Rami Hyun, San Francisco | Michele Kagele, Pleasanton | Meghan McKay, Saratoga | Afton Moman, Lafayette | Cristina Martinez-Canton, Davis | Craig Neilson, Mt. Shasta | Victor Prieto, San Francisco | Theo Slavin, San Francisco | Colleen Virgilio, Oak Run

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In collaboration with the Noda Rickard Center for Photographic Arts and Earth Day as inspiration, Workshop No. Two is designed to help students maximize their understanding of the landscape as a portrait of the place. We will also discuss the visual narrative, editing and presenting your work to galleries.

The resulting images were published in Issue No. Four and exhibited at the Rostel Gallery, in Dunsmuir, CA.

more:

IAC 2008Landscape as Portrait: Mt. ShastaWorkshop Mexico 2007


Mexico

images by Workshop Mexico 2007 Participants :

Isrohan Alvarez, Zapopan | Emilio Bañuelos, San Francisco | Elena Carrasco, San Francisco | Ivan Cruz, Guadalajara | Alexcia DeVásquez, San Francisco | Gustavo Espino, Zapopan | Eric Fullmer, San Francisco | Perla Gomez, Guadalajara | Lydia Gonzales, Bakersfield | Tim Gonzalez-Mena, Oakland | Kelly Koehler, San Francisco | Kija Lucas, San Francisco | Foppé Mallory, Pinole | Cristina Martinez-Canton, San Jose | Cecilia Monroy, Chiapas | Colt Peterson, Alamo | Genaro Ramírez, Zapopan | Jorge Roa, Zapopan | Jorge Romero, Guadalajara | Diana Sánchez, Oakland

The ‘REAL’ Mexico
by
Lydia Gonzales

As a Mexican-American (very American), I was curious about what the real Mexico was like. Guadalajara was an introduction to a culture similar to my own upbringing and the experience of a traditional yet cutting-edge city vibe. Some residents say Guadalajara, in Jalisco, is like an adolescent that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up. With a history going back nearly 500 years, Guadalajara should have surpassed adolescence by now. Yet, as growth continues, the urban seams of the city are bursting open even farther.

Litter, traffic and American corporations such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Burger King, Wal-Mart and 7-Eleven can be found in abundance throughout the city.Yet Guadalajara firmly preserves its historic city structures and traditions including churches, music, people and ways of life.

What many profess to love about their communities despite rampant urbanization are the generous, goodnatured and friendly attitudes of the people who reside there. From the youth of the city to the residents of the small towns that flank Guadalajara, many consider the good-will attitudes of the people to be the area’s greatest assets. People remain amigable or friendly, and the environment remains beautifully humble.

 

more:

Love PoliticsSpaces Between PlacesPublic PlacesMexicoIssue No. One | Mexico 2008


Workshop Mexico 2007

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Black Boots Ink | Workshop Mexico
June 17-23, 2007
Instructor/Photographer: Emilio Bañuelos

WORKSHOP MEXICO 2007 PARTICIPANTS
Isrohan Alvarez, Zapopan | Elena Carrasco, San Francisco | Ivan Cruz, Guadalajara | Alexcia DeVásquez, San Francisco | Gustavo Espino, Zapopan | Eric Fullmer, San Francisco | Perla Gomez, Guadalajara | Lydia Gonzales, Bakersfield | Tim Gonzalez-Mena, Oakland | Kelly Koehler, San Francisco | Kija Lucas, San Francisco | Foppé Mallory, Pinole | Cristina Martinez-Canton, San Jose | Cecilia Monroy, Chiapas | Colt Peterson, Alamo | Genaro Ramírez, Zapopan | Jorge Roa, Zapopan | Jorge Romero, Guadalajara | Diana Sánchez, Oakland


COURSE DESCRIPTION

Black Boots Ink is about the curiosity that makes you walk into a new situation. It is about wandering in the company of strangers, about stopping, walking, working, protesting, progressing–it is about all of us.

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The first Black Boots Ink Workshop takes place in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, with photographer Emilio Bañuelos. The seven-day workshop culminates with a public exhibition of the final images and a selection of the images will be considered for publication in blackbootsink.com.

Workshop Mexico, participants will have the opportunity to make images that show relationships between people and their environment.You will learn to photograph people and landscapes while creating a visual narrative. Workshop sessions are designed for practical use with instruction for daily shooting, personalized working critiques and editing.

Morning workshops will be held at Instituto Cultural Cabañas a cultural center designed by Manuel Tolsá in 1810. The Instituto’s106 rooms and 23 flower-filled patios house art exhibitions and the main chapel displays 57 murals by José Clemente Orozco from1938-39, including The Man of Fire.

Afternoons will be set aside for daily trips to visit Guadalajara’s neighboring towns. We will travel by bus to visit the Basilica de Zapopan, which dates back to 1730, the Zona Rosa, and the village of Tapalpa, Jalisco, where you will have time to make photographs and learn about contemporary Mexico.


more:

IAC 2008Landscape as Portrait: Mt. ShastaWorkshop Mexico 2007