Families Belong Together: Elí's 4th Elephant and Piggie Bday Celebration

Last weekend we celebrated my wonderful little man's 4th Bday, Elephant and Piggie style! The birthday boy requested that we use his party to promote families belonging together. So we used Gerald, Piggie, Duckling, and Pigeon to tell the story of family togetherness. The beautiful photos were taken by Tequila Graphics.

Elephant and Piggie Cookies
The royal icing cookies always take the longest, so I made these 2 weeks in advance. This was my first time making the cookie cutters myself. I really like how they turned out. Will definitely continue to make my own cutters in the future.

Pigeon Cookies
I made these cookies the night before the party as a last-minute edition. They are chocolate-covered double stuffed Oreos. You can't get nearly the same detail as you can with the royal icing with melted chocolate, but they are still super cute and literally take 10% of the time it takes to make the royal icing ones.

Elephant and Piggie, Families Belong Together Painting
This painting was inspired by The Thank You Book by Mo Willems. I painted this in the days leading up to the party as my gift to Elí. I also made a slightly modified version of this, with less prominence to "Elías's bday" and added the big heading EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE, which I turned into 11x17 printed posters for the kids to decorate at the party and hang up at their own homes.

The Gerald and Piggie Band
This painting featuring Elephant, Piggie, Duckling, and Pigeon, was Adán, my wonderfully creative 6 yr old son's gift to his brother.

The Gerald and Piggie Band, Friends Belong Together Cake
At the request of Elías, I started by making his vanilla buttercream cake blue and then realized that it looked very similar to Adán's painting. So I decided to add grass, and then made cut-outs of his characters from his painting on my diecutter, and added them as toppers to the cake. Adán was so proud :).

Duckling Cookies

We hung up my children's posters from the last immigration marches by the art table where the kids made posters and puppets.

I made little Elephant, Pigge, and Pigeon cut-outs with little talk bubbles for the kids to color and turn into puppets. In some of them, the characters were happy and in some they were sad. Some of the talk bubbles were blank and some had pre-written statements matching the party's theme like Families belong together!, EVERYONE is welcome here! End family separation, and Close the camps!

The bday boy with his Abuelito

Elephant and Piggie Cake
A few days before the party, our ped put my son on a lactose-free diet (due to tummy aches) which meant he couldn't enjoy any of the royal icing sugar cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered Oreos, or the main cake, so I made him this extra special decadent lactose-free, gluten-free chocolate cake, with delicious vegan buttercream icing with Gerald and Piggie fondant cake toppers to match his painting. He LOVED it :).

ALL kids are welcome here!
I actually never finished this painting. I started it with the intention that it would be a photo backdrop for the kids. But I had open wall space and this fit perfect, so we went with it.

The party was a huge success! The birthday boy was delighted and many many critical conversations were had around our current immigration policies and ways that we as a community can and should be responding.

Nueva Exhibición en el Painted Bride Art Center Destaca la Importancia de la Documentación en la Sociedad Contemporánea

COMUNICADO DE PRENSA: Agosto 24, 2012Contactar a: Phil Sumpter, Director de Mercadeo y  Comunicaciones [email protected] 215-925-9914 x15

Nueva Exhibición en el Painted Bride Art Center Destaca la Importancia de la Documentación en la Sociedad Contemporánea

Filadelfia, PA.  Agosto 10, 2012— En colaboración con la organización cívica, cultural Acción Colombia, el Painted Bride Art Center será este otoño la sede de una exhibición que invita al cuestionamiento crítico con una docena de experimentos socio-visuales que incluyen dibujo, pintura, instalación, actuación, fotografía y otros medios de comunicación. Papeles: Are we what we sign? expone aspectos culturales, legales, y económicos que se encuentran detrás de las transacciones que procuran la participación y cohesión en la sociedad Americana.  La exhibición estará en muestra desde el 7 de septiembre hasta octubre 21, 2012, este proyecto es organizado paralelamente a la Conferencia de la Asociación Nacional de Artes y Cultura Latina (NALAC) que tendrá lugar en Filadelfia.Papeles incluye un extraordinario e influyente grupo de artistas  en Filadelfia—algunos ya conocidos y otros surgiendo.  La postura de los artistas parte de sus posiciones como inmigrantes y/o descendientes de inmigrantes de naciones Latinoamericanas. Cada uno de ellos interpreta esta identidad como una cualidad abstracta que puede ser fácilmente dada, tomada, impuesta o distorsionada en una variedad de contextos.  Del comentario crítico, la añoranza, la sátira, y la resistencia los artistas exponentes han encontrado fuentes de inspiración. Los exponentes incluyen: Andrea Rincón, Andria Morales, Carlos Nuñez, Doris Nogueira-Rogers, el duo Escobar-Morales, Erika Ristovski, Jonas dos Santos, Jorge Figueroa, Lina Cedeño y Pedro Ospina, Michelle Angela Ortiz, Paula Meninato, and Susana Amundaraín.Papeles: Are we what we sign? es una exhibición bajo la curaduría de Andreina Castillo, Consultora Independiente en Gestoría de Arte y Programas. “Este proyecto se convirtió en un lugar de encuentro para cada uno de nosotros al organizarlo, desde artistas y directores a líderes comunitarios” así lo expreso Castillo. “Cada uno de nosotros (y/o a través de nuestras familias) hemos estado expuestos a las satisfacciones y altibajos en el proceso de migrar. Nosotros invitamos al público general para que busque sus propias dicotomías cuando presencien las cualidades visuales y conceptuales de esta exhibición.”PAPELES: Are we what we sign? busca servir como un instrumento visual de exanimación al vinculo social con los documentos como símbolos legales de identidad que modelan nuestra ideología individual, aceptación cultural, igualdad de los sexos, acceso económico, oportunidades laborales y logros académicos. Al final, esta exhibición expone nuestra cultura ciudadana dentro de la sociedad Americana. Los conceptos entretejidos en esta exhibición se enlazan con las corrientes en los Estados Unidos, y el proceso global en busca del consenso en reformas, leyes, votos, resoluciones y otras formas contractuales que afectan la formación social como individuo y nuestra vida en comunidad.La recepción de apertura será durante “El Primer Viernes”, septiembre 7 de 5pm - 7:30pm en el Painted Bride Art Center en el 230 Vine Street, Filadelfia, PA.  En este evento, tendra la oportunidad de compartir con los artistas participantes, disfrutar de obras extraordinarias y de música Hispanoamericana en vivo. Ademas de deleitar de unos aperitivos especiales, amablemente ofrecidos por Positano Restaurant, Crudo & Wine Bar.  Para mayor información por favor comuniquese con el Painted Bride Art Center al 215.925.9914.Acción Colombia es una organización sin ánimo de lucro establecida para desarrollar el liderazgo en la comunidad Colombiana y Latinoamericana a través de las artes, cultura y participación ciudadana en el área tri-estatal de Pensilvania, Delaware y Nueva Jersey.  Esta exhibición refuerza el compromiso con las artes y las iniciativas ciudadanas relacionadas con la inmigración, temas con los que la organización ha estado trabajando desde su inicio en el 2004.Painted Bride Art Center es uno de los centros culturales más importantes en Filadelfia, y en el país.  Su misión es atraer artistas, audiencias y  comunidades rompiendo las barreras de como creamos y experimentamos el arte.  Esta institutición cultiva un ambiente de dialogo critico y un intercambio perseverante para transformar vidas y comunidades.Nosotros le damos la bienvenida a la Asociación Nacional de Arte y Cultura Latina (National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) a Filadelfia que tendrá lugar de octubre 17 al 21.  La conferencia nacional es una oportunidad para presentar la infraestructura artística de Filadelfia a una audiencia nacional de artistas, trabajadores culturales, curadores, y administradores del arte que de todos los rincones del país estarán participando en la conferencia.Univision 65 apoya esta exhibición como el medio de comunicación oficial. Por favor visite www.accioncolombia.org/papeles o www.paintedbride.org para conocer mas sobre este proyecto.

Escobar-Morales at The Painted Bride in Papeles: Are we what we sign?

PAPELES: Are we what we sign? aims to serve as a visual examination of our social bond with papers as legal signifiers of identity that shape individual mobility, cultural acceptance, gender and sexual-orientation equality, economic access, labor opportunities, and educational attainment.  Visual artists, community leaders, and arts administrators use this project to reflect upon the socio-cultural impact of documentation processes present in American society.This exhibition gathers twelve influential—established and emerging—artists working in drawing, painting, installation, printmaking, photography, and mixed media. Participating artists include Andrea Rincon, Andria Morales, Carlos Nuñez, Doris Nogueira-Rogers, Erika Ristovski, the duo Escobar-Morales, Jonas Dos Santos, Jorge Figueroa, Lina Cedeño, Michelle Ortiz, Paula Meninato, and Susana Amundaraín.  They propose social-visual experiments from their positions as immigrants and/or descendants of immigrants from Latin American nations. New and existing works in this exhibition illuminate the concept of documentation into powerful narratives of critique, ambiguity, longing, and resilience. The Painted Bride230 Vine Street | Philadelphia, PA 19106 | 215.925.9914September 7 – October 21, 2012Gallery hours: 12pm – 6pm, Tues – SatFirst Friday receptions: September 7, October 5 | 5-7:30pmGuest Curator Andreina Castillo | Co-Presented with Acción Colombia

Love is never too late.

I know it's almost April, but I would be remiss if I didn't share Rio Yañez's 2012 crop of valentines amazingness.Happy Valentine’s Day to all of my friends and lovers! El Rio’s Valentine’s Day Cards are back in the ring to take another swing! This is the 6th year of my cards and it’s turned into my longest running project. Enjoy!

As always, please post these cards on the pages of your online friends, real life enemies, booty calls, baby daddies, friends with benefits, people you're stalking on facebook, and people you would be stalking on Google + but don't want to go through the hassle of signing up with a new social network. 

AMerican MEdia Output in New Jersey

You saw Escobar-Morales as promo models in TX, "promoting" Arizona Tourism...And here we are as marketing executives in NJ.Andria was live at Gallery Aferro and I skyped in from Chicago.Stay tuned for more details on the performance and the results from AMerican MEdia Output's #targetaudiencesurvey.

AMerican MEdia Output in Texas

[youtube=http://youtu.be/CMDhowuCwDE]AMericanMEdiaOutput.com

women and water... what else are you looking for?

In the heat of the desert...women and water... what else are you looking for?visit http://americanmediaoutput.com/arizonawelcome.html

TAKE ACTION AGAINST ANTI-IMMIGRATION ARIZONA LAWS

visit: AMericanMEdiaOutput.com/arizonawelcome.htmlclick hashtags #SB1611 and #SB1070

embeddable images of the Arizona Welcome Promo Girls will be avaliable soon...

Internet Art & Activism- the #delValleMural

I am a Chicago-based digital media and performance artist. I created this grassroots, social media, portable mural in support of Miguel del Valle's campaign for Mayor.

follow hashtag: #delValleMural to see how the mural was created.

#delValleMural

The #delValleMural is finally complete!#delValleMural, 2011, Acrylic on CanvasI am thinking that after the elections a Chicago Public Library would be a really nice home for the piece.  What do you guys think?

putting final touches on the #delValleMural

The #ChicagoMayor elections are right around the corner...And I am happy to report that I am ALMOST done with the #delValleMural(the hashtag is silent)

#delValleMural in progress

As a community-based performance artist, I find the act of sharing the process equally important to the act of sharing the final product.Here are images from the last week of the #delValleMural unfolding.

THE WORLD IS WATCHING ARIZONA

(via guardian.co.uk article by Roberto Cintli Rodriguez)

Arizona's cultural genocide law

Legislators in Arizona are pursuing a white supremacist campaign to erase Mexican American presence from teaching

The onslaught in Arizona of reactionary and immoral racially-based laws has managed to attract worldwide attention. The brown peoples of this state are being relentlessly persecuted by a majority population that wants to forcefully remove us and suppress our rights and deny our humanity. Here, the state has even gone so far as to, via HB 2281, to prohibit the teaching of ethnic studies in Arizona schools.

Unquestionably, the brown peoples of this state are treated as less than human. Not everyone treats us this way – just the majority: mostly conservative Republicans, many of them with a supremacist ideology. Their general attitude is: if you're brown (read Mexican), get the hell out of our God-given country. And for those of you who remain, either assimilate and abide by our [contrived and unconstitutional] laws or face the full wrath of the state.

There is embedded hate against brown peoples in Arizona – the kind associated with the 1800s, a time when the United States forcefully annexed half of Mexico. All of it is thinly veiled under the guise of opposition to "illegal immigration" and "border enforcement". However, the battle here is actually civilisational: brown peoples, many of whom have been here for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, represent the unfinished business of Manifest Destiny. For conservatives, we represent a return to a past in which we are viewed as a conquered, subhuman species. This brazen attitude informs all the recent anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant bills, proposed laws that long for a return to an idyllic past, which, in fact, never existed.

Aside from HB 2281, other bills include : SB 1070 – the racial profiling law; SB 1097 – the proposed law that will require children to identify the immigration status of their parents; and HB 2561/SB 1308 and HB 2562/SB1309 – bills that seek to nullify birthright citizenship (guaranteed by the 14th amendment ) to children whose parents cannot prove their legal status.

And now, state legislators have introduced the most reactionary bill of them all: SCR 1010 (pdf). This bill seeks to exempt Arizona from international laws. With this bill, these legislators are acknowledging that all their anti-Mexican laws are also outside of international law.

click here for full text

AND read more about HB 2561/SB 1308 (via AlterNet article by Valeria Fernández)

Arizona Bill Would Create Second-Class Citizenship for US-Born Children of Undocumented Immigrants

A baby born in Arizona to two undocumented parents would have a birth certificate that indicates he is not a U.S. citizen under new legislation introduced in Arizona’s State Capitol on Thursday.

The bills (identical in House and Senate versions, HB 2561/SB 1308 and HB 2562/SB1309) will certainly be challenged in federal court and are already steering a polarizing debate in a state known across the nation as a laboratory for anti-illegal-immigrant policies.

click here for full text

CPS Students Campaign for Miguel del Valle, Video Goes Viral: PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (please forward or repost)

CPS Students Campaign for Miguel del Valle, Video Goes Viral

Tuesday, February 1, 2011, Chicago – High school students may not vote, but they can still impact elections. On Sunday, January 29, students from Sullivan HS in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the northside, wrote and starred in a campaign ad for Miguel del Valle that got over 1,000 hits in the first 48 hours on YouTube and Facebook.  Their message is clear, Del Valle is the candidate who will invest in public education for all students, who like them who do not go to selective enrollment or charter schools.  No press outlets caught Rahm Emanuel's slip up, played twice in the video, until today when the Huffington Post picked up the story.Christina Henriquez, Gerardo Aguilar and Alexandra Alvarez, in order of appearance, scripted the video in a neighbors living room before filming outside their school an hour later.  Their effort to mobilize their community to support Miguel del Valle has been developing ever since they went to the Mayoral debate for youth put on by Mikva Challenge last month.  Inspired by del Valle and angered by the other candidates they got together with the Latino Club, and tireless sponsor Jackie Rosa.Last week they stopped by the newly opened northside office for Miguel del Valle, to learn to canvass their neighborhood.The video uses a clip from the WGN Mayoral debate in which Rahm Emanuel wrongly states that "if you take away Northside Prep and Walter Payton, the seven best performing schools are all charters".   The next seven in fact, the top nine performing Chicago schools are all public. The video clearly questions anyone who would vote for a Mayor who does not care enough about the students in public school to even do his homework.  Delivered with passion and confidence, the last words the students leave us ring true "you want a real school turnaround? Invest in us!".Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afonAiiMTm8Press Contacts:Carlos [email protected] @cdrosaJackie [email protected] @floreciendo_coSandi [email protected] @floreciendo_co

NOW THIS IS GRASSROOTS!!

The Student's @DelValle4Mayor video just made it into the Huffington Post!!

Rahm Emanuel Hit On School Policy By High Schoolers For Del Valle

A group of Chicago high school students has decided to take Rahm Emanuel to task for his education policy.

Cristina Henriquez, Gerardo Aguilar, and Alexandra Alvarez appear in a YouTube video, uploaded Sunday, entitled "Invest in Our Public Schools." The spot attacks Emanuel for his praise of the city's charter schools, and backs rival candidate Miguel del Valle for supporting neighborhood schools.

"I go to Roger C. Sullivan High School," says Henriquez. "This is not one of the schools Rahm Emanuel cares about."

The students, who wrote the script for the video, according to its description on YouTube, also point out what they describe as a factual inaccuracy in Emanuel's portrayal of the city's charters. "When you take out North Side, and you take out Walter Payton, the seven best-performing high schools are all charters."

"Someone didn't do their homework," the video says, listing the seven top schools as reported by the Chicago Tribune. None of them is a charter school.

The video says it has no connection to any candidate, and judging by the del Valle camp's reaction, they seem to be telling the truth. Spokeswoman Joanna Klonsky didn't know much about the video's origins, except to say that "we didn't orchestrate it."

Watch the students take on Rahm:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afonAiiMTm8]

Invest in Chicago Public School Students

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afonAiiMTm8]On January 30, 2011 Chicago Public school students and graduates (from Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood) got together to film a grass-roots/guerilla campaign ad to "tell it like it is," and support the best candidate to improve our neighborhood public schools.The footage used is filmed outside of Roger C. Sullivan High School and from WGN's January 27th mayoral debate. The stars and script writers of this ad are Sullivan HS students (in order of appearance) Cristina Henriquez, Gerardo Aguilar, and Alexandra Alvarez.On February 22, 2011 vote to improve our neighborhood schools - Miguel del Valle!http://www.delvalleformayor.comThis ad was not paid for or endorsed by any candidate or candidate's committee. Labor & love donated.Source of top seven high schools: Chicago Tribune

Lady Gaga at the LGBT National Equality March

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNx95U1Q_vE]"Obama, I know you are listening... ARE YOU LISTENING... We will continue to push you and your administration to bring your words of promise to a reality."

Sarah Jones on TED 2 loves combined

My friend Jamie Aguirre  who you can visit here and here posted this wonderful  Sarah Jones video for TED on my facebook page.Jones asks to what extent do we self construct?[ted id=http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/527]I feel like a little kid in a candy store, really, I do.Here is another Sarah Jones video.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmaWDCH2tBg]Have I mentioned how amazing I think she is?Thanks Jamie!

Appropriating and Recontextualizing Google Image Search Results

Part 1 of an article I wrote for jewishinstlouis.orgEvery art student learns about the fair use principle, granting us permission to use any image in our artwork as long as we transform it so that it conveys new meaning.  But beyond that all-encompassing definition, we don’t know what transgressions, if any, we are actually committing.Recently in the news is the preemptive lawsuit artist Shepard Fairey filed against the Associated Press. According to Fairey the AP threatened to sue him unless he pays royalties for the image that he used as source material for his now famous campaign poster of Barack Obama. Fairey argues that he is protected by the fair use principle. He claims that his intention was not to reproduce any particular image,  but instead was to capture a specific gaze representative of the ideas of hope and change.In an interview on NPR, Fairey declared he was going forward with this suit on behalf of all artists, the thousands of artists that created their own campaign images in the same grassroots manner, pulling images from the web in support of the message of hope, change and a new administration in Washington.

screen shot of: first page of google image search results for "Barack Obama"

I am fascinated by Fairey’s implication that the process of appropriating and re-contextualizing Google image search results might be considered a grassroots action. As an artist, I frequently use images that that I find on Google. Like Fairey suggested, my motivation for using these images is to highlight the search itself, not the derivative image.Perhaps then, these cyber Robin Hoodian actions—using and transforming Google image search results—are capable of changing the structures that control the dissemination of information. After all, the order that information appears in Google searches is determined by the amount of people searching any given topic. And as a result of the Fairey’s appropriation, his campaign poster may be forever linked to Obama’s presidency.

email from President Obama

Obama’s popularity can be credited to his skillfully constructed presidential campaign that effortlessly linked his name to hope.  I was quick to jump onto Obama’s online campaign message of hope.   Like many others, I subscribed to his twitter, facebook, and YouTube pages. I now get weekly emails from him and I even have a blog on his site…

A Response to a Response to a Response

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=359HwupsY1s]This is the Jack McBrayer ResponseTo the Internet ResponseTo the Republican ResponseTo the President's Address to Congress[clearspring_widget title="Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - The Jack McBrayer Response To The Internet Response To The Republican Response To The President's Address To Congress" wid="4727a250e66f9723" pid="49a664282cffce66" width="384" height="283" domain="widgets.nbc.com"]Bobby Jindal Or Kenneth From 30 Rock?