Commissioned as part of Year of La Chicana, History Colorado
What is Year of La Chicana?
In the spring of 2018, the El Movimiento Advisory Committee, comprised of Colorado Chicano activists who worked to direct the creation of the El Movimiento exhibit at History Colorado Center, hosted one Mexican American historical figure and two Chicana activists who voiced concerns that the El Movimiento exhibit did not adequately represent the role of women and female activists in the movement. Both History Colorado and the committee chose to respond to this critique with intentional planning and programming for Year of La Chicana. Part of the programming was the artist in residence program.
Arlette Lucero was selected by the El Movimiento Advisory Committee to be the Artist in Residence at History Colorado Center for 2019. She is a Denver native who grew up surrounded by the Chicano movement. Arlette earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from CSU in Fort Collins and has taught art education for over twenty years. She is a current member of the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council of Denver. Arlette says, “My paintings and sculptures are visual poetic expressions of my emotions, feeling and desires. Using a combination of realism, symbolism and vibrant colors, I try to capture the sensual mystery of my original concept. My pieces are illustrations of stories, poems, and personal obsessions. As a woman, I love to paint beautiful women of timeless ages in endless time. They are the Goddesses of many cultures or simple mothers.”
Arlette painted on-site in the second floor niches at the History Colorado Center during September 2019, creating three paintings that were then reproduced into large photos (in honor of three Chicanas selected by the El Movimiento committee) hung on the 4th floor atrium walls of the HCC for the Year of La Chicana. She also completed a community photo collage of additional Chicanas (not part of this accession).
The photo murals at HCC were part of the opening reception of The Year of La Chicana held on Saturday, September 21, 2019. The Year of La Chicana is/was to celebrate and honor La Chicana (past, present and future). The opening reception aim was to bring together Chicana activists and their communities from across the state of Colorado and engage a wide range of communities interested in the story of Colorado Chicanas., Arlette Lucero Biography
I am a professional visual artist in Denver, Colorado. My paintings and sculptures are visual poetic expressions of my emotions, feeling and desires. Using a combination of realism, symbolism and vibrant colors, I try to capture the sensual mystery of my original concept. My pieces are illustration of stories, poems, and personal obsessions. As a woman, I love to paint beautiful women of timeless ages in endless time. They are the Goddesses of many cultures or simple mothers.
Sometimes my painted images are powerful Icons. They are readily recognized as having some well-known significance or embody certain qualities that represent something else of greater significance associated with religious, cultural, or political statements. My favorite example would be “Chicana” It is a symbolic painting representing the unification of diversity within a single woman. She is an American first with cultures of Mexican, American Indian, and Spanish within her spirit and body. She is a warrior, proud of her heritage and free to be all who she is. The tree symbolizes the roots from which her cultures emerge. The Chicana holds her religious spirituality and faith in her hands and in her mind at all times, even as Huitzilopochtli, in the form of the hummingbird, whispers of her Aztec origins.
Other forms of fine art that I do are mask making, sculptures, mixed media, collage, tin, digital art and photography. Sometimes they are whimsical and fun. Sometimes they are contain deeper images to be individually contemplated on.
As a professional artist, I also have extensive experience doing commercial art. I have free-lanced as a Graphic Artist working with many clients making for them web pages, company logos, posters, prints, fliers, postcards, brochures, catalogs, advertisements, magazine covers, CD labels, T-shirt and other souvenir items, art pages, and Christmas cards. My favorite commercial art projects have been illustrating children books. I have three published books and am illustrating two others.
I am one of the lucky artists who get to teach art to children. I have done this through my Art Teacher jobs at Escuela de Guadalupe, Voz y Corazon and Journey Through our Heritage, ArtStreet ArtReach and as well as many other schools, organizations, small companies and institutions that are available through my community of Denver. Working with children is my greatest joy.
I work with a variety of mediums and styles when creating my own artwork for sale in local galleries. I am able to teach even more mediums and styles when working with children. I love to integrate school curriculum into the art projects when at all possible. Many times I am called to make a Mural with elementary school children. The murals are permanent fixtures at the school, group home, or center. Also, on my own, I designed and painted a very large Mural for the Escuela de Guadalupe's library with the title “Compassionate Leadership” with over thirty portraits.
© 2014 by Arlette Lucero. Please ask if you would like to use images. Proudly created with Wix.com, These works represent a contemporary Chicana Colorado artist. Lucero graduated from Colorado State University and Community College of Denver. She is an art educator, working artist and member of the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council. Her mother, Priscilla Salazar, was an activist in the Denver/Colorado Chicano Movement. See the R file and Attached Files tab for additional information.