Visitors of the San Antonio Central Library’s Gallery Room can find a new extensive solo exhibition engulfed in an amber yellow. The mixed media art collection titled “Plantcestors” is on display from Feb. 28 through Mar. 29. Plancestors was created by Assistant Professor and Program Head, Suzy Gonzalez, who is part of the visual and new media arts program at Our Lady of the Lake University.
“Plants sustained our ancestors and they continue to sustain us—through food, medicine, clothing, housing, to provide the very oxygen we breathe,” Gonzalez’s artist statement reads. “Every plant is sacred and we could not survive without them. Plantcestors depicts the portraits of artists, activists, and culture workers based in Yanaguana/San Antonio, Texas that bring inspiration to the community through their art, leadership and social justice work.”
Each portrait’s panel has the subject’s name and their recollection of how certain plants, herbs, fruits and vegetables have connected them with the earth or with their ancestry. People are painted at the center of each artwork, framed with a black glossy border visually capturing an intertwined relationship with the subject painted with oil paint while resin and a variety of dried botanical objects are overlaid behind them.
Shades of blue, purple, green and yellow are used throughout each portrait. These hues are mostly utilized in the models’ clothes or jewelry. All the portraits depict silhouettes that vary in translucency; there are prominent transparent elements as well as opaque with each art piece. The faces and hands tend to be opaque compared to the models’ faces and center bodies, which are consistently transparent in color.
The portrait “Karla” resembles her as a saint with her head leaning down casting her eyes to look at her hands. A depiction closely associated with Christian art with Karla’s hair covered with what looks like a scarf painted in light blue and purple oil paint, with corn husks shining overhead similar to a halo most practiced in Catholic and Orthodox traditions. These nods to religious practice suggest the artist is relating the ancestral connection with plants to be a worshipping and spiritual connection.
Deer corn is scattered behind Karla’s oil portrait and shines through transparent parts of her figure in her chest and hair. The chest holds hearts and what most would like to consider souls as well. A symbolic conscious connection with the passion the subject may have for corn. Hair being one of the transparent parts in the portrait may represent the artist’s motivation to connect a deliberate part of Karla’s identity to corn as hair inherently represents self and spiritual expression as well as strength.
Besides the artwork, a panel in full Spanish is displayed of the subject’s remarks about her connection with corn. A particular line reads, “Mi raíz es maíz, gran maestra colorida sus enseñanzas como sus sabores sin fin la que nos une con su simple naturaleza.” Which translates to, “My root is maize, a great teacher, colorful, its teachings like its endless flavors, the one that unites us with its simple nature.”
Other pieces from the exhibit consist of the “Sacred Symmetry” of herbs, wildflowers and other botanical elements embellished in resin on various panels. The “Sacred Symmetry” portraits are plant studies discovered by the artist with both actual and painted plant elements; which she then references cycles of life, death, preservation and decay.
“Plancestors” is a metamorphic experience waiting to welcome any artistically inclined botanist or individual who appreciates dynamic pieces of art. For those interested in the exhibit, one can visit SA’s Central Libraries Gallery Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will also be a Meet the Artist event hosted by the Central Library on March 29 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. with Gonzalez.
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Spanish