Carmen Lomas Garza was born in rural Kingsville, Texas, in 1948. Her mother, a self-taught artist, and her father, a craftsman who worked in sheet metal and wood, both influenced Lomas Garza in her aspiration to become an artist herself. Traditional loteria tablas (playing cards), which her mother painted, especially inspired Lomas Garza's graphics. These hand-drawn or commercially-painted playing cards for a game of chance fused letters and small traditional figures which explored the "Chicano Universe." ("Chicano" is a term of "self-designation for a politicized individual of Mexican descent in the United States."¹) Lomas Garza explores the universe of Chicano values, which one writer describes as including the issues of healing and recovery, traditional ceremonies, family nurturance, transformative adolescence, and allegorical stance.² The titles of her drawings, lithographs, etchings, aquatints, and gouache paintings are simple and descriptive of their subjects. (See attached sheet for other works.) She became inspired by handicrafts and folk-art productions such as home altars, ex voto paintings on tin, quilts, embroideries, paper cut-outs, and crepe paper flowers dipped in wax. Lomas Garza also studied the career and artistic production of Consuelo Gonzalez Amezcua and folk artists of New Mexico who documented everyday experiences.³ In 1973 Lomas Garza received her Master of Education from the Juarez-Lincoln/Antioch Graduate School in Austin, Texas. In 1976 she took up residence in San Francisco and in 1980 received her Master of Art from San Francisco State University. Although she had much formal training, her work retains the candor of what is known as Art Naive.

In the fall of 1992, Carmen Lomas Garza came to the Smith College Museum of Art to install Homenaje a Tenochtitlan: An Installation for the Day of the Dead. 1992 was a year of remembrance, the quincentennial anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival into the "New World." His arrival caused change and often destruction in many indigenous cultures. The installation included homemade altars with fresh flowers, offerings of food and drink to deceased ancestors, as well as photographs and cherished memorabilia of these ancestors. In addition, large colorful paper cut-outs with intricate lacework and streamers were suspended from parts of the Dalrymple Gallery. The installation was meant to represent the valued relationships with departed loved ones as well as to explore Pre-Hispanic and colonial roots.

Lomas Garza grew up at a time when racism was prevalent. In many instances she and her brother, as well as other Chicano children, were punished for speaking Spanish. Her grandparents would speak to her only in Spanish, while her parents tried to speak to her only in English. In high school, it grew even more confusing when the white students were allowed to practice their Spanish in the hallways, while she and her own fellow Chicano classmates could not. The Chicano movement in the late 1960s and 1970s inspired her.⁴ During her college years she gained voice, reclaiming Chicano history. Many Chicano artists try to serve their community by searching for meaning and beauty in Chicano culture. Since 1971, Lomas Garza has used painting for self-healing: "I feel very responsible to communicate through my artwork, I get pleasure from doing these, and Chicanas and Chicanos can relate to them and start their own healing process, be proud of who they are."

The Artwork

The Blessing on the Wedding Day by Lomas Garza is a narrative, or monito (little people painting), meant to delight, instruct and provide visual aid for oral tradition. This imagery from her personal past also depicts culturally specific social environments that describe the collective experience of Chicanos in the United States. The Blessing on the Wedding Day depicts the preparation of Lomas Garza's cousin, who can be identified by the traditional white bridal gown. The maid of honor and bridesmaids wear royal blue, while the flowergirl wears light blue. The artist depicts herself as the woman in red and black hemming the gown. Some of the family members can be identified as follows: on the left, the bride's mother and grandmother; towards the back, her sister and her father; to the right, Lomas Garza, the "seamstress." The other characters -the flowergirl, the women combing the flowergirl's hair, and the women using the mirror-may be other sisters or cousins.

Stylistically, the naive perspective characteristic of Lomas Garza's generally small format painting is deliberately studied, but the coloring is faithfully rendered from reality as she remembers it. Lomas Garza makes use of what is authentic in her culture and in her traditions and she communicates it in her work through her great powers of observation and her artistic sensibility.

1. Griswold del Castillo, Richard et al., eds., Chicano Art, Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985, Los Angeles: University of California, Wight Art Gallery, 1991, pp. 361-362.
   

2. Lomas Garza, Carmen, Pedacito de mi Corazon, Austin: Laguna Gloria Art Museum 1991, pp. 20-24.

3. Romo, Terecita and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, The Marvelous/The Real, San Francisco: The Mexican Museum, 1987, pp. 8-9.

4. Lomas Garza, pp. 11-12.