Lupe Mendoza-Ceja | “FOR SALE”
This media file is attached to: Mixed Media / Collage
The materials I used for this are gouache water color and a basic paint brush. I searched up "we buy houses" signs and glued them on with some Jade 403 Acid-Free PVA Glue. After I was done putting them down in their designated area I would start choosing my colors for each layer and lay them out in order. I made sure to grab more water with the brush than paint so that the paint would drip down the piece into the deeper colors and to the bottom layer so that the orange-red and the dark brown would mix. I did this with every layer except for the bottom layer of course. The theme of this painting was gentrification within the BIPOC community and how it affects us people of color the most. That is why I had thought of the brightest colors on top to make it seem happy at the start and then have those happy colors drip down into the blue and the brown. I made this the process because when gentrification is taking place the dominant race thinks it is a good thing because they are "fixing" a neighborhood or "revitalizing it" when in reality they are causing homelessness and community resentment. The reason why I put the bottom the color brown is because when the dominant race (white people) take over the black and brown folk usually are the ones who get displaced from their childhood home and their neighborhood where they grew up. The first Layer is orange-red with signs that say "we buy houses" because that's how white people start to gentrify then the second layer is when they have the houses ready. Those signs say "houses for sale" in yellow because in the mind of a gentrifier they're "fixing the community" or they know what's good for us. In the next layer (the third) turns into sky scrapers in the color blue with signs that say "we buy culture" I made this the sign because after the neighborhood is taken over they want to still want that food that we make even though they kick us out of our community that we always identified with. Another thing that they do is that they take over our plates of food and change them up. For example, traditional tamales, they'll take that and make it into their invention and act as if they did something for the community. After that layer it comes down to the last one which is the brown one. This layer represents the after math of the gentrification after they "fix" the neighborhood and they make our food "better" and then they start to sell our culture and our main food plates. That is why I pasted the signs that say "culture for sale."
