Fine Arts Programs

E6 | Sunday, March 15, 2020 | ExpressNews.com | Laredo Morning Times 50th Anniversary that’s in our backyard. That’s where international poster printers go and it’s like their Comic-Con.” And while TAMIU currently has a well-equipped printmaking lab, Shaw said it was important to teach students how to create prints with- out the equipment. After creating their prints, Shaw and his students traveled to Austin at the beginning of the semester to Print Austin, a printmaking show with over 100 booths, where the students were able to sell their own prints. Shaw’s goal is to go to these printmaking shows in the future and see his students there successfully selling prints. They are working on some top- secret projects, but in previous se- mesters, Shaw and his students pub- lished work by esteemed artists like Carlos Hernandez, who has worked with The Black Keys. However, these students are taught to work and produce work that fits the standards of the industry and artist. Shaw is working on the process of publishing these works and hav- ing the students be able to keep a print and sell the stock left by the original artists. The proceeds of the sales then go back to the school, which will allow Shaw’s classes to travel to more showcases. “The artist gets prints they can sell, the students get a piece of work and the experience of working on a print and putting that on a resume,” Shaw said. “We are in the process of getting that program off the ground.” Breaking down barriers with an art gallery TAMIU works to host two art gal- leries a year. Jose Villalobos’ art ex- hibit “J*** Fronterizo” is an exhibit where he juxtaposes distress with a feeling of comfort deriving from pa- triarchal and religious social struc- tures which marginalize gay iden- tity. He also said it explores and pro- tests machismo and toxic mascu- linity within the norteno culture. Villalobo was raised in El Paso and Ciudad Jaurez, and he tackled those issues his entire childhood life as a closeted gay man. The exhibit showcases sombre- ros, boots and other norteno culture items, and Villalobos said he uses these items because they are sym- bols of power. Items can be seen with homophobic language and articles of clothing embroidered with male-on-male sexual acts and phrases reinforcing Villalobos’ mes- sage. “Machismo is still a problem that exists,”Villalobos said. “All in all, what I hope that they take from it is that the fact that we are made up of the same blood and bones as any other person.” Villalobos said the exhibit was a personal decision to talk about very intimate and personal issues. This could have been seen through his performance, which addressed how machistas view men with rough hands as “real men.” In his performance, he stitches red letters that spell out a homo- phobic curse word onto a piece of leather. After each letter, he recites a phrase and then hits his back with the leather. “I feel that sometimes people don’t understand the power of art until they specifically see something that puts them in a place that they can relate to them or understand it.” Villalobos said. Villalobos received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Univer- sity of Texas at San Antonio. He was awarded the Artist Lab Fellowship Grant that same year for his work “De La Misma Piel” at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. In 2018, he was one of 25 artists from across the country to earn a $25,000 Painters and Sculptors grant from the presti- gious Joan Mitchell Foundation. Villalobos has exhibited and performed at Albright College, the Mexic-Arte Museum, the El Paso Museum of Art, El Museo de Arte The TAMIU Printmaking studio and the students and staff’s materials The TAMIU Printmaking studio includes prints made by TAMIU students from renowned artists