Artist Statement: El Mozote:

We walk collectively, passage of unfamiliar territories adapting like rivers, to unfamiliar spaces. Art gives us citizenship in a borderless territory. Our art is the testimony of our personal histories, and interpetation of other peoples lives.

--Claudia Bernardi

In the face of the enormity of the wanton murder of nearly and entire village (El Mozote in El Salvador) of innocent indigenous people in the name of politics, I find myself taking solace in the fact in quoting other artists.

I find resonance in Claudia Bernardi's words. And, perhaps I should point out to the viewer that Claudia is closer to the event which we are all collectively considering. She comes to the San Francisco Bay Area from Argentina. I had found reward in looking at her art, for it is both beautiful and expressive, long before I was further moved to learn that she went to El Salvador to help in the horrendous task of disinterring "the disappeared"...

The chair, which is so oftern an object evocative of human presence, can be equally eloquent of a poignent absence. I also hope, in some small way, to restore some of the human identity to the " disappeared" of El Mozote with this child's chair.

"My work frequently springs from the narrative impulse which reflects my susceptibility to literature as well as visual art, a love for language and ideas as well as line and color.

I am a lapsed easel painter who has gladly relinquished the picture plane to explore other spaces. As a mixed media artist, I assemble, construct, model, carve, write, illuminate and draw as well as paint.

Frequently a piece will become a small theatre where the actor/objects (or symbols) will demand resolution as much as any asthetic consideration. I feel like I am both spectator and author/director as the miniature dramas unfold."

-Sandra Ortiz Taylor

"Mi Alma, Mi Tierra, Mi, Gente: Contemporary Chicana Art." opens October 6, 2000 and runs to November 3, 2000 in the Little Theatre Gallery--Moreau Hall.

The group exhibition was planned in conjunction with this year's academic theme; "Chicana 2000: Emerging Voices." The exhibition, curated by a committee of Saint Mary's students and faculty will consider the political, domestic and spiritual themes of five celebrated Chicana Artists.