Title
La Smiley, 15 going on 30
Creator
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Description
Serigraph on paper, 29 in. x 21.5 in. Coronado Studios, Austin, TX. Serie Project. Chicano artist Gaspar Enriquez witnessed many young girls mature too quickly during his 33 years as a high school art teacher in El Paso, Texas. One of these students is the subject of this print. The girl's name is Priscilla, and she was 15 when Enriquez first painted her. As implied in this portrait, she did not smile, which is why she acquired the nicknamed "Smiley." A lifetime spent mostly in El Segundo Barrio, El Paso’s economically deprived neighborhood, has given Enriquez uncommon insight into those he chooses to represent in portraits. From pachucos to cholos, his work immortalizes "a lifestyle of attitudes…defined by mannerism" that is part of his daily life in a two-culture environment. His artwork serves as a record of his experiences, ideas, and feelings about the suppression of Chicano culture. He prefers red as the background because it appropriately conveys "the passion and the fury" of those who hail from el barrio. Priscilla is simultaneously a pretty little quinceañera, primped and donning a tiara, and a world-weary woman with a penetrating glare. Living in a world that is marginalized and riddled with poverty and crime, little girls in el barrio have fleeting childhoods. Gaspar Enriquez was born in El Paso in 1942. He has a fine arts degree from The University of Texas at El Paso and an M.F.A. in metals from New Mexico State University. He employs airbrush as his primary artistic medium in murals and paintings, but he is also well-versed in metalwork. Retired as an educator, he now works full-time as an artist. The artist defines his Chicano identity: “The form of my creations and their execution integrate both American and Mexican (Chicano) cultures...One is born a Mexican American, but one chooses to be Chicano.” — Gaspar Enriquez.
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