Explore the relationships and influences Mexican and American craft artists have on each other and on our cultures. The program features traditional weaving and the creation of paper jewelry.
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This article is part of a series on the history of graphic design and social activism in California from Artbound. Produced in partnership with Hyperallergic.
California s culture and art movements have long enjoyed a unique freedom from East Coast and European dogmas. This manifests itself in social, creative and aesthetic realms characterized by experimentation, openness and independence. Graphic design is a key element of defining this California way of life, from the clean, unencumbered lines of mid-century modernism to the flamboyant psychedelia of counterculture posters and publications, and the post-modern graphics of the 1980s and 90s. A mecca of consumerism, it is also a place of great creativity, freedom and social consciousness, where the status quo undergoes constant renovation, writes Louise Sandhaus in Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936-1986. Without solid ground, tradition lacks secure footing; old r
Print
If you drew a Venn diagram that brought together Charles Eames, Pop Art, commercial printing, social justice movements, the Second Vatican Council and 1960s Los Angeles, only one person could inhabit the space where those areas intersect: Corita Kent. A nun in the order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for more than three decades, Sister Mary Corita was a well-known educator and artist dubbed the “Pop Art nun” by the press. A key mentor was Eames; she went on to mentor Sister Karen Boccalero, who founded the Chicano art center Self Help Graphics & Art in East L.A.
Historic sites for women are rare, but Kent's printmaking sat at the nexus of art, activism and politics. Her work and message couldn't be more timely.