Beachhead salutes Judy Baca on International Women’s Day
By Suzy
Williams,
Judy Baca, founder of SPARC,
that wild lavender deco ex-jailhouse on Venice Boulevard, has been painting
since she was little.
She was influenced to create by women: her
mother and two aunts, but especially her grandmother, an immigrant from Mexico.
At the age of six, she and her family moved over the hill to Pacoima in the San
Fernando Valley.
Judy keenly felt the
loss of her grandmother. She found solace in her art. She was fascinated by the
art of the Mexican Socialist Mural Movement, which included the works of David
Alfaro Siqueiros, Jose Clemente Orozco, and Diego Riviera.
Her murals are all over Los Angeles,
because of The Neighborhood Pride Program under the direction of Mayor Tom
Bradley when he was in office.
There
are no Judy Baca murals in our fair Venice. We can see her work at SPARC and at
La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra at USC. Right now she is doing a commemoration of
the great Cesar Chavez in San Jose.
She will be touching up her mile-long
Great Wall mural, in Tujunga, this July. As a working artist, Judy is hell-bent
to make sure the community is involved in each project. She interviews the
locals, finds out their talents, hopes and dreams and incorporates this into her
giant colorful emotional pieces.
Above: Triumph of the Hearts depicts
the beginning of any movement of a society towards peace: the individual taking
action. Completed in 1989.
On the front
page: The Future of Guadalupe, 1990, from The Guadalupe Mural Project, four
panels, each 8 by 7 feet, on the history of Guadalupe, California.
Posted: Tue - March 1, 2005 at 05:02 PM