Linda Vallejo

Lives and works in Topanga, CA, USA

Artist statement

LINDA VALLEJO The Brown Solo Project The Brown Solo Project evokes a dialogue about some of most important questions of this time in US history; How do color, class, culture, and power define our status? How do the politics of color and class affect US Latinos engagement in American society? Do the politics of power determine US Latino contributions to American economy and culture? Is it possible to contribute to the dominant culture as a person of color? Project Genesis – “Make’ Em All Mexican” and “The Brown Dot Project.” Since 2010 I have produced hundreds of sculptures, paintings, and works on paper entitled “Make ‘Em All Mexican.” I purchase pricey antiques (plaster and porcelain figures, magazines, and postcards) and paint their skin brown. There is a “brown” Elvis Presley, Fred Flintstone & Barney Rubble, Marie Antoinette & Louis Auguste, the Rose Parade Queen, Queen Mother, Greek and Roman gods. This process has become an obsession and I continue to hunt through antique malls for more images to repurpose. In 2015 I produced “The Brown Dot Project,” a series of “data pictographs,” images on gridded architectural vellum where brown dots represented actual data. The works portrayed various data sets including US Latino populations; professional numbers in health, education, and business sectors; and Latino contribution to the US Gross National Product. The brown dots resemble designs in ancient weaving and architecture; others mirror computer-generated images...

Artwork