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Gary Sweeney Interviews Mari Hernandez
Mari Hernandez is a multidisciplinary artist whose recent Southwest School of Art photography installation "What Remains" was a knockout exploration of identity and construction of the self. A San Antonio native, Hernandez received a BA in English Literature from UTSA, but began to use art as a means of exploring her Chicana aesthetic. She and several women artists founded the art collective Más Rudas, which challenged the lack of representation of women of color in the local art community. Inspired by appearance-altering photographers and early Mexican-American artists, she began experimenting with self-portraiture to address questions about identity. Hernandez's work is currently featured in "The Other Side of the Alamo: Art Against the Myth," a group exhibition on view at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center through September 29.
Do you remember your first experience with art?
I consider my first experience with art my exposure to the murals made by San Anto Cultural Arts on the West Side. Sure, I looked at art before then, but to experience and realize a piece of art is different from simply looking.
Was there one particular artwork or artist that inspired you to become an artist?
There was no one artist or artwork but the communities I was involved in that inspired me to become an artist. At the same time, I was learning about muralismo through San Anto Cultural Arts, I was also being introduced to contemporary art via Artpace. It was the clashing and meshing of these two seemingly...