San Jose State students learned how to use painting as a means of activism in an “arts and craftivism” event in the Student Union on Thursday.
This is the second event of the Activsim in Action series held by the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center.
Arts and craftivism is the connection of various art mediums with commentary on social justice issues, according to Museum of Design Atlanta.
Guest speaker and painter Pedro Rivas Lopez said expressing a desire for change through art can allow dialogue around a social justice issue to live on while protesting sparks change for a brief moment.
“I think visual art, there’s no time capsule on it because it’s going to continue to live,” Rivas Lopez said. “If it’s about a social issue it can still remain itself and then, a month later, it could be exhibited in museums, it could be exhibited in community centers, it can be taken to a coffee shop.”
He led with icebreakers where students ran across one side of the room to the next, loosening them up and cutting some of the crowd’s tension.
Some students painted on wooden monarch butterflies provided by Rivas Lopez.
He said the monarch exemplifies transformation, one of his favorite characteristics in life.
“We see the butterfly, it transforms from this thing and then it becomes this beautiful [butterfly] that I think everybody loves and knows it’s majestic,” Rivas Lopez said. “I love [monarchs] for that main reason.”
He said butterflies resonate with him because he had to transform into a different person because of his life experiences.
“I can identify a lot with [butterflies] just because of where I come from and the challenging moments I’ve had to endure,” Rivas Lopez said. “Me migrating from Mexico and other transformations that I’ve had to go through to finally spread the wings and be comfortable with who I am.”
Forensic science freshman Evelyn Aceves said art might be easier for people to digest.
“The difference between protest and art – the art really sticks with you and is something you can always remember and it really makes a connection with other people,” Aceves said.
Aceves painted her butterfly orange and planned to put a fence along the top of her canvas.
She said it was hard to narrow down one issue she wanted to convey in her piece, but chose to represent problems at the United States-Mexico border.
Aceves said art can stand out to people and stick with them longer when they connect the art they see with real-world issues.
“[Immigration] is pretty close to me because that’s part of the community I’m a part of,” Aceves said. “I have a lot of family members and I’ve heard stories about what goes on on the border, people trying to cross.”
Diana Garcia Rodriguez, Cesar Chavez Community Action Center department coordinator, said the Activism in Action series is a way to allow students to voice their concerns about the world through a creative outlet.
She said pre-pandemic workshops were informative but weren’t as therapeutic as this series.
“Art is something that’s very healing, so even when those issues come up, in the arts it can be very therapeutic for students to engage in art and not just leave them in this state of despair,” Garcia Rodriguez said.
She said before the pandemic, students were becoming aware of deeper issues going on in their world.
“We’re seeing students that are coming in and they know about these issues,” Garcia Rodriguez said. “And they’re not looking for ways to dive necessarily deeper, but they’re looking for ways to do something about it.”
She said her main objective is to let people know that change can start in their own hometown rather than thinking globally.
“That’s one of the big things to remember when it comes to grassroots organizing and getting civically engaged,” Garcia Rodriguez said. “A lot of that change comes locally versus nationally.”
