Families Belong Together: Elí’s 4th Elephant and Piggie Bday Celebration

Last weekend we celebrated my wonderful little man’s 4th Bday, Elephant and Piggie style! The birthday boy requested that we use his party to promote families belonging together. So we used Gerald, Piggie, Duckling, and Pigeon to tell the story of family togetherness. The beautiful photos were taken by Tequila Graphics.

Elephant and Piggie Cookies
The royal icing cookies always take the longest, so I made these 2 weeks in advance. This was my first time making the cookie cutters myself. I really like how they turned out. Will definitely continue to make my own cutters in the future.

Pigeon Cookies
I made these cookies the night before the party as a last-minute edition. They are chocolate-covered double stuffed Oreos. You can’t get nearly the same detail as you can with the royal icing with melted chocolate, but they are still super cute and literally take 10% of the time it takes to make the royal icing ones.

Elephant and Piggie, Families Belong Together Painting
This painting was inspired by The Thank You Book by Mo Willems. I painted this in the days leading up to the party as my gift to Elí. I also made a slightly modified version of this, with less prominence to “Elías’s bday” and added the big heading EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE, which I turned into 11×17 printed posters for the kids to decorate at the party and hang up at their own homes.

The Gerald and Piggie Band
This painting featuring Elephant, Piggie, Duckling, and Pigeon, was Adán, my wonderfully creative 6 yr old son’s gift to his brother.

The Gerald and Piggie Band, Friends Belong Together Cake
At the request of Elías, I started by making his vanilla buttercream cake blue and then realized that it looked very similar to Adán’s painting. So I decided to add grass, and then made cut-outs of his characters from his painting on my diecutter, and added them as toppers to the cake. Adán was so proud :).

Duckling Cookies

We hung up my children’s posters from the last immigration marches by the art table where the kids made posters and puppets.

I made little Elephant, Pigge, and Pigeon cut-outs with little talk bubbles for the kids to color and turn into puppets. In some of them, the characters were happy and in some they were sad. Some of the talk bubbles were blank and some had pre-written statements matching the party’s theme like Families belong together!, EVERYONE is welcome here! End family separation, and Close the camps!

The bday boy with his Abuelito

Elephant and Piggie Cake
A few days before the party, our ped put my son on a lactose-free diet (due to tummy aches) which meant he couldn’t enjoy any of the royal icing sugar cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered Oreos, or the main cake, so I made him this extra special decadent lactose-free, gluten-free chocolate cake, with delicious vegan buttercream icing with Gerald and Piggie fondant cake toppers to match his painting. He LOVED it :).

ALL kids are welcome here!
I actually never finished this painting. I started it with the intention that it would be a photo backdrop for the kids. But I had open wall space and this fit perfect, so we went with it.

The party was a huge success! The birthday boy was delighted and many many critical conversations were had around our current immigration policies and ways that we as a community can and should be responding.

Nueva Exhibición en el Painted Bride Art Center Destaca la Importancia de la Documentación en la Sociedad Contemporánea

COMUNICADO DE PRENSA: Agosto 24, 2012
Contactar a: Phil Sumpter, Director de Mercadeo y  Comunicaciones phil@paintedbride.org 215-925-9914 x15

Nueva Exhibición en el Painted Bride Art Center Destaca la Importancia de la Documentación en la Sociedad Contemporánea

Filadelfia, PA.  Agosto 10, 2012— En colaboración con la organización cívica, cultural Acción Colombia, el Painted Bride Art Center será este otoño la sede de una exhibición que invita al cuestionamiento crítico con una docena de experimentos socio-visuales que incluyen dibujo, pintura, instalación, actuación, fotografía y otros medios de comunicación. Papeles: Are we what we sign? expone aspectos culturales, legales, y económicos que se encuentran detrás de las transacciones que procuran la participación y cohesión en la sociedad Americana.  La exhibición estará en muestra desde el 7 de septiembre hasta octubre 21, 2012, este proyecto es organizado paralelamente a la Conferencia de la Asociación Nacional de Artes y Cultura Latina (NALAC) que tendrá lugar en Filadelfia.

Papeles incluye un extraordinario e influyente grupo de artistas  en Filadelfia—algunos ya conocidos y otros surgiendo.  La postura de los artistas parte de sus posiciones como inmigrantes y/o descendientes de inmigrantes de naciones Latinoamericanas. Cada uno de ellos interpreta esta identidad como una cualidad abstracta que puede ser fácilmente dada, tomada, impuesta o distorsionada en una variedad de contextos.  Del comentario crítico, la añoranza, la sátira, y la resistencia los artistas exponentes han encontrado fuentes de inspiración. Los exponentes incluyen: Andrea Rincón, Andria Morales, Carlos Nuñez, Doris Nogueira-Rogers, el duo Escobar-Morales, Erika Ristovski, Jonas dos Santos, Jorge Figueroa, Lina Cedeño y Pedro Ospina, Michelle Angela Ortiz, Paula Meninato, and Susana Amundaraín.

Papeles: Are we what we sign? es una exhibición bajo la curaduría de Andreina Castillo, Consultora Independiente en Gestoría de Arte y Programas. “Este proyecto se convirtió en un lugar de encuentro para cada uno de nosotros al organizarlo, desde artistas y directores a líderes comunitarios” así lo expreso Castillo. “Cada uno de nosotros (y/o a través de nuestras familias) hemos estado expuestos a las satisfacciones y altibajos en el proceso de migrar. Nosotros invitamos al público general para que busque sus propias dicotomías cuando presencien las cualidades visuales y conceptuales de esta exhibición.”

PAPELES: Are we what we sign? busca servir como un instrumento visual de exanimación al vinculo social con los documentos como símbolos legales de identidad que modelan nuestra ideología individual, aceptación cultural, igualdad de los sexos, acceso económico, oportunidades laborales y logros académicos. Al final, esta exhibición expone nuestra cultura ciudadana dentro de la sociedad Americana. Los conceptos entretejidos en esta exhibición se enlazan con las corrientes en los Estados Unidos, y el proceso global en busca del consenso en reformas, leyes, votos, resoluciones y otras formas contractuales que afectan la formación social como individuo y nuestra vida en comunidad.

La recepción de apertura será durante “El Primer Viernes”, septiembre 7 de 5pm – 7:30pm en el Painted Bride Art Center en el 230 Vine Street, Filadelfia, PA.  En este evento, tendra la oportunidad de compartir con los artistas participantes, disfrutar de obras extraordinarias y de música Hispanoamericana en vivo. Ademas de deleitar de unos aperitivos especiales, amablemente ofrecidos por Positano Restaurant, Crudo & Wine Bar.  Para mayor información por favor comuniquese con el Painted Bride Art Center al 215.925.9914.

Acción Colombia es una organización sin ánimo de lucro establecida para desarrollar el liderazgo en la comunidad Colombiana y Latinoamericana a través de las artes, cultura y participación ciudadana en el área tri-estatal de Pensilvania, Delaware y Nueva Jersey.  Esta exhibición refuerza el compromiso con las artes y las iniciativas ciudadanas relacionadas con la inmigración, temas con los que la organización ha estado trabajando desde su inicio en el 2004.

Painted Bride Art Center es uno de los centros culturales más importantes en Filadelfia, y en el país.  Su misión es atraer artistas, audiencias y  comunidades rompiendo las barreras de como creamos y experimentamos el arte.  Esta institutición cultiva un ambiente de dialogo critico y un intercambio perseverante para transformar vidas y comunidades.

Nosotros le damos la bienvenida a la Asociación Nacional de Arte y Cultura Latina (National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) a Filadelfia que tendrá lugar de octubre 17 al 21.  La conferencia nacional es una oportunidad para presentar la infraestructura artística de Filadelfia a una audiencia nacional de artistas, trabajadores culturales, curadores, y administradores del arte que de todos los rincones del país estarán participando en la conferencia.

Univision 65 apoya esta exhibición como el medio de comunicación oficial. Por favor visite www.accioncolombia.org/papeles o www.paintedbride.org para conocer mas sobre este proyecto.

Escobar-Morales at The Painted Bride in Papeles: Are we what we sign?

PAPELES: Are we what we sign? aims to serve as a visual examination of our social bond with papers as legal signifiers of identity that shape individual mobility, cultural acceptance, gender and sexual-orientation equality, economic access, labor opportunities, and educational attainment.  Visual artists, community leaders, and arts administrators use this project to reflect upon the socio-cultural impact of documentation processes present in American society.

This exhibition gathers twelve influential—established and emerging—artists working in drawing, painting, installation, printmaking, photography, and mixed media. Participating artists include Andrea Rincon, Andria Morales, Carlos Nuñez, Doris Nogueira-Rogers, Erika Ristovski, the duo Escobar-Morales, Jonas Dos Santos, Jorge Figueroa, Lina Cedeño, Michelle Ortiz, Paula Meninato, and Susana Amundaraín.  They propose social-visual experiments from their positions as immigrants and/or descendants of immigrants from Latin American nations. New and existing works in this exhibition illuminate the concept of documentation into powerful narratives of critique, ambiguity, longing, and resilience.

 

The Painted Bride
230 Vine Street | Philadelphia, PA 19106 | 215.925.9914

September 7 – October 21, 2012
Gallery hours: 12pm – 6pm, Tues – Sat
First Friday receptions: September 7, October 5 | 5-7:30pm
Guest Curator Andreina Castillo | Co-Presented with Acción Colombia

Love is never too late.

I know it’s almost April, but I would be remiss if I didn’t share Rio Yañez’s 2012 crop of valentines amazingness.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of my friends and lovers! El Rio’s Valentine’s Day Cards are back in the ring to take another swing! This is the 6th year of my cards and it’s turned into my longest running project. Enjoy!

As always, please post these cards on the pages of your online friends, real life enemies, booty calls, baby daddies, friends with benefits, people you’re stalking on facebook, and people you would be stalking on Google + but don’t want to go through the hassle of signing up with a new social network. 

AMerican MEdia Output in New Jersey

You saw Escobar-Morales as promo models in TX, “promoting” Arizona Tourism…

And here we are as marketing executives in NJ.

Andria was live at Gallery Aferro and I skyped in from Chicago.

Stay tuned for more details on the performance and the results from AMerican MEdia Output‘s #targetaudiencesurvey.

AMerican MEdia Output in Texas

AMericanMEdiaOutput.com

women and water… what else are you looking for?

In the heat of the desert…
women and water… what else are you looking for?

visit http://americanmediaoutput.com/arizonawelcome.html

TAKE ACTION AGAINST ANTI-IMMIGRATION ARIZONA LAWS

visit: AMericanMEdiaOutput.com/arizonawelcome.html

click hashtags #SB1611 and #SB1070

embeddable images of the Arizona Welcome Promo Girls will be avaliable soon…

Internet Art & Activism- the #delValleMural

I am a Chicago-based digital media and performance artist. I created this grassroots, social media, portable mural in support of Miguel del Valle‘s campaign for Mayor.

follow hashtag: #delValleMural to see how the mural was created.