By Eric Younan

A combination of well-known and emerging artists from metro Detroit, Ann Arbor and Lansing will combine their talents and works for a two-month exhibit at the Bagley Housing Art Gallery. The exhibit is titled “9Latinas One Spirit.” Nine women artists whose one spirit is that of self-expression through the visual arts will showcase 44 works of art. Ana Luisa Cardona, poet, art historian and cultural community activist, composed the poem “Mujeres Artistas” for them.

Sponsored by The Hispanic Art and Education Center of Ste. Anne de Detroit (THAEC), the exhibit will feature a diversity of media: paintings, photography, sculpture, jewelry, computer art, and recycled metal assemblages. The exhibit runs through May 5. The artists’ reception is Saturday, March 22 from 4 – 7p.m.

This exhibit will give the emerging artists, who are new to THAEC, a chance to show their talents along side some of Michigan’s best known and established artists.

Nora Chapa Mendoza has always mentored new and young artists. The 1999 recipient of the Michigan Governor’s Art Award is proud of her Mexican and Indian heritage. She will be showing three mixed media collages and two watercolor monotype prints. The collages show how the Indians of different Latin-American countries are related to one another.

“When I paint, I paint from my own experience of people and places I’ve seen,” Mendoza said. “I let people see what they want to see and experience.”

Nora Venturelli of Argentine descent is an adjunct faculty member of fine art at University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University and a painter in the classic tradition. She will be showing a large 28x40 inch painting of three pears and several small watercolors of female nudes.

“I am attracted by the similarities between a woman’s figure and pears, and how they both have personalities and attitudes,” Venturelli said.

Mary Laredo Herbeck will be showing five metal sculptures including three sculptural neckpieces. All of her work is hand fabricated and more of a personal matter than a social commentary. She strives to achieve “mark making” in all her work.

“I don’t go for perfection or precision, it’s important to leave a mark. I choose to leave marks made by the hammer or evidence of solder seams,” Herbeck said. “There is also a refinement to my work. It’s not sloppy,” she said.

Elsa Otero Kackley of Colombia is a journalist turned visual artist. She is showing a number of photographs of various sizes. Every photo will be accompanied by a short poem. Some of the photos are dramatic images inspired by the social and economic conditions of her home country.

“In the early 1990s, people were being murdered in Colombia with no explanation,” Kackley said. “Some of the photos are about the town people who don’t know why.”

She is very expressive through her work. “Through my photography I want to share my feelings about moments, shapes and ideas. Though it is not explicit in all my work, my culture definitely has a presence in how I capture the world through my lens,” Kackley said.

Andrea Rivera works with found metal from old garages and junkyards and recycles objects into new life with aesthetic and whimsical effects. She specializes in brazing using steel and copper joined by brass accents.

She became interested in metal sculpture when she found old metal in her father’s garage after he had passed away.

“I saw shapes that caught my eye,” Rivera said.

She went to the Center for Creative Studies for three years, taking welding classes. Now she just plays with metal pieces until they take shape. She dedicates her pieces to important people in her life.

“’Maestro’ is dedicated to my father and “Artist’s Palette” is dedicated to my mother and two artistic daughters,” she said.

Darcel Portillio Deneau is a relatively new painter of Mexican descent and will be showing three oil-on-wood and two oil-on-canvas paintings. She started painting five years ago after losing her father.

“I felt an urgency to do something that was important to me,” she said.

She will be showing paintings of urban landscapes of Southwest Detroit, her father’s hometown. “I have paintings of Mexicantown and Corktown. Both are places I visited with my father,” she said.

Deneau will also be exhibiting two portraits: one of her grandmother and one of her uncle.

Paloma, one, of three Lansing Latinas in the exhibit, is a Mexican muralist showing three new pieces. Two of them, “Feather Mask,” a watercolor and mixed media work, and “Misteriosas,” an acrylic painting, are similar to each other.

“Each portrays women using a veil or mask to partially hide their faces but they are not as shy as they might appear because they look directly at the viewer, suggesting there is more to them than you are permitted to know,” Paloma said.

Her third piece “Tonantzin of Tepeyac” is a block print of her version of the Aztec Fertility/Corn Goddess before she became transformed into Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“I used gold to honor her and a touch of red for her fertile blood. These colors are used over black, for out of the darkness comes life,” she said.

Teresita Regal Parker of Cuban heritage is a graphic artist with a special interest in computer art. Born in the Caribbean but moved to Lansing, Michigan at a young age, she continues to bring the island culture, sun and symbols to her public through her paintings and computer art. She travels regularly to Florida to visit family, and is recharged with Cuban cultural icons, sounds, tastes, and ambiance that she transforms into her unique images.

Theresa Rosado is a stateside born Puerto Rican who has lived in the Dominican Republic. Her paintings are known for their rich colors, natural flora, and a resounding symbolic energy that anticipates full political and cultural freedom. They are frequently selected to illustrate other projects.

She says: "At first, the vibrant colors and simplified human figures emerge in my paintings. But cultural cues allow a complex picture from which the human soul emerges, hopefully stirring the soul of the viewer."

Rosado’s “Picnic en el Coche”, will be featured with the vignette, “Smart Cookie”, by the well-known author Sandra Cisneros through the publishing firm Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Rosado’s mural-size poster “Viva Mexico”, on display at BHA, is copyrighted by Teachers’ Discovery. Currently she exhibits in Chicago and splits her time among teaching painting and drawing at a visual arts and performing school, her Lansing studio, and the Windy City.

“9 Latinas One Spirit” will be in Southwest Detroit throughout March and April, until Cinco de Mayo.

“We felt an all women artists exhibit would be appropriate, especially for March, Women’s History Month” said Ursula Murray, THAEC President. The all Latina exhibit also reinforces our original mission of showcasing Michigan Latino art.”

The BHA Gallery is operated by The Hispanic Art and Education Center, a non-profit organization, working through the historic church of Ste. Anne in Southwest Detroit. The Gallery is located at the offices of Bagley Housing Association, 2715 Bagley in Southwest Detroit.  Business hours are 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. weekdays, and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The phone number is (313) 964-5942.

Directions: From I-75, I-94, and I-96, exit at the bridge to Canada/Porter Street, take the east/left service drive to Bagley, turn right on Bagley, go 2 blocks and Bagley Housing Art Gallery is on the right.