Project Statement - MY EX-VOTOS

“My Ex-Votos”

 PROJECT STATEMENT

My idea was to examine art from Latin American cultures and to make work influenced by that examination. The project was propelled by teaching at Mercy University, with a substantial Hispanic population, and partially funded by a Faculty Development Grant.

 My aim was not to become a Latin American Art scholar, nor attempt the impossible by researching everything out there. I simply wanted to gather more information. In many ways, this feels only the start of something.

 I knew at the outset that there was going to be some cross-over between my approaches and artistic interests, and what I was to find. The shared intersections were the nexus to this endeavor.

 Through travel, visiting museums and art centers, reading and latching on to various topics that happened to cross my path, the ideas in the work presented this show developed.

 Among the many art historical categories one can examine in Latin American art, those that stood out to me were: folk traditions, various colonial representations and contemporary artmaking.

 Through my examinations, artistic attitudes that I found over and over again included the following:

             Narrative: storytelling that involved family accounts

              Decorative: use of metallic, gold-leaf and brilliant color

  Iconographic: religious motifs, symbolic forms

This might seem like a simplistic breakdown, and it reveals where my eye was drawn to look, but these reoccurred throughout my investigation. Some specific examples follow.

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In Spanish folk traditions, ex-votos are small paintings that are created sort of like a prayer. They represent a miracle, an event or a desired outcome with a religious figure presiding, and oftentimes milagros positioned alongside. Milagros are small charm-like forms that symbolically represent the affliction or have a connection to the wish or prayer. They help with divine intervention. A frequent motif of this sort is a hand or a heart, representing benevolence, protection or love.

San Isidoro Labrador (Saint Isidore the Farmer, 1866) by Joaquin Castanon was an image that drew my attention. It represents the saint as a nineteenth century hacienda owner. In fact, when I approached the painting at the San Antonio Museum, I assumed it was a portrait of a landowner with his numerous acquisitions depicted in the background. In fact, these little scenes show his miracles. However, in its details the artist’s Bolivian world is represented. Some of the larger banner paintings in this exhibition were influenced by this work, especially for their contextual use of landscape.

 Carmen Lomas Garza (b. 1948) makes paintings about her family life, grounded in the traditions of her South Texan Latino culture. Her settings display memories of family experiences. Her compositions are laden with subjects specific to her culture. Family celebrations and activities are drawn with a simplistic charm. Some depictions remind me of my own memories: my father and I on our roof watching for falling stars, like Carmen and her sister looking at the moon. Or her brother watching their grandmother cook, reminds me of my mother’s kitchen and the many conversations while preparing dinner. Our family skiing, kayaking fits within this sort of shared endeavor that become fond memories. My daughter knitting is a skill she learned from her grandmother. Watching her gesture takes me back to watching my mother’s.

 Joaquin Sorolla’s virtuoso brushstroke and bright natural light reminds me of John Singer Sargent. At the National Hispanic Society, a large-scale mural “Vision of Spain” decorates a grand semi-circular space. It’s brilliant depictions range to include ceremonies, festivals and daily labors with costume and spectacle. I was able to come across his studies in gouache for this mural. This study felt like my artistic language – loose, figurative, searching.

 Contemporary artist Enrique Martinez Celaya (b. 1964) delivers multimedia painted presentations in which he juxtaposes different artistic languages. Some are pictorial, some coded motifs and others child-like scrawls. (The Word-Shimmering Sea seen at The Hispanic Society, NYC) These enchant our imaginations. He weaves his personal story with the sensibilities of a fable. The epic scale of his work, encompassing the viewer, helps convey the Homeric scale of the immigrant quest.

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 My heritage is northern and eastern European, and my family has been in the northeastern US for at least two generations. As I examined these various artists and tendencies, I found that though my cultural ancestry is a different tract, there are some shared ideas and certainly interesting notions I felt drawn to. As someone who was raised Catholic, I have great affinity for and familiarity with religious iconography.  My work tends to be figurative and emphasizes family and observations of daily goings-on. From my trove of photos to use as reference material, I chose ones that exemplified time spent together in a ritualized or celebratory way. 

 When we were in San Antonio, one thing that stood out immediately were the colorful cutout shapes decorating the river boats. These seem to echo patterning of the papel picado – decorative paper flags strung along backyards or various places in celebration. This sort of thing – as well as Mexican fabric patterns – influenced some of the framing devices I used in this batch of work.

 I’ve been drawn to milagros – little charms of protection – and included these as motifs or icons in all the paintings. Some forms read more symbolically; they all have something to do with the subject.  Many emerged to have a sort of personalized interpretation.

 I feel the paintings are an extension of ex-votos in my own way. They are prayers for the future, wishes for the present, meditations on the past.

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My Ex-Votos

Symbolism drawn from use of milagros. References from various cultural associations, in addition to my own personalized application.

BIRD ----freedom, spiritual transition, hope

 BLUE-JAY—backyard bird, protection

 BOAT -traveler, moving from one state to the next

 CROW- transform, liminal space

 EYE- watchful, see - illuminate

 FISH-[recreation]

 HAMSA HAND- hope, luck, protection

 HAND-god’s hand, benevolent, good luck, fortune

 HEART – good omen, blessing, understanding spiritual direction

 LOBSTER – [seashore]

 LUNGS- [my dad is sick]

 MARY – religious guide

 MOON – feminine, the soul, the unconscious – power in charge

 QUEEN – secular guide

 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD – luck, abundance, prosperity

 SACRED HEART – divine well-spring of love

 STAG – strength

 SWATCH – my mother’s scarf

 WATCH – time passing

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Excerpts from initial Grant Proposal:

Research for classroom experiences generally tend to influence my own fine art production; my identity as an educator has been intertwined with my development as an artist. This proposal is not a curricular one, but a broader one - an idea to more fully understand and engage with the population in which I am an extended part.

This project has three parts:

—Look at Collections of Latinx Art

—Create Artifacts

 —Exhibit Locally

The intent here is to look at syntax and theme of historical and contemporary Latinx art; cultivate experiences that contribute to my art historical knowledge, and that informs the production of my work.

Without cultural appropriation and reductivism, I would develop a body of work that is explicitly influenced by my findings. My work naturally gravitates to the experience of the family and the point of view of the female in the world.  

-Maura Doern Danko

Appreciation and thanks to Mercy University’s Faculty Development Grant, Martucci Gallery at Irvington Library, and the students at Mercy and NYIT.