Holy Guadalupe! September 11, 2008

Look closer...

 Select an image of Guadalupe and write an aesthetic interpretation.

 Account for items such as: expressive of emotional significance, the specific character of lines, shapes, textures, values, colors, scale, space and volume; other sensory properties; elements that appear to be dominant, potential sense of unity, sense of symmetry or asymmetry.

 Rely on Azaldua’s use of Guadalupe in order to contextualize your interpretation.

 The picture I have found of La Virgen Guadalupe is an optical illusion; look closely and you can see her face is a church, her hair the curtains, her headdress is formed of angels, the divine rays around her head are the brick and mortar of the edifice, her eyes are the beards of pious men visiting the holy man (maybe an archbishop?) who comprises her neck, whilst sitting on her neckline, and cushioned, claw-foot stool, her nose is the hand of her left eye/man. If you focus only on the Holy Mother’s face, she looks serene, unworried and peaceful. She is looking down at an a disenfranchised, hungry, forgotten, unloved dog who stares into the detailed picture with opened mouth. Her lovely face takes up much of the usable space within the frame. Certainly the fact that there are two picture within one influences the color palette, but all the hues used are fairly neutral; brown, beige, tan, white, black. She is multifaceted, much like Anzaldua’s Guadalupe: she is La Llorana; the Coatlalopeuh, She Who Has Dominion Over Serpents; the Virgin Mary.

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