{"id":3864,"date":"2012-05-27T16:43:21","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T23:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/?p=3864"},"modified":"2023-05-05T17:20:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T00:20:01","slug":"libros-no-bombas-books-not-bombs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/libros-no-bombas-books-not-bombs.html","title":{"rendered":"Libros No Bombas – Books Not Bombs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Libros
“Libros No Bombas – Books Not Bombs.”\u00a0 Mark Vallen \u00a9 6″ x 11″ inch postcard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My painting, Libros No Bombas<\/em> (Books Not Bombs), was one of two canvases I premiered at the exhibition, \u00a1ADELANTE! Mexican American Artists: 1960s and Beyond<\/em><\/a>, which took place at the Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale, California from September 9, 2011 through January 1, 2012. The painting is available as a 6″ x 11″ inch full-color postcard reproduction (pictured above); the same card sold in the museum gift shop throughout the duration of the exhibit.<\/p>\n

At first glance Libros No Bombas<\/em> seems only a simple portrait of a teenage girl, but the background story of the artwork and how I invite viewers to consider it, is what gives the painting its socio-political significance. Witnessing thousands of youthful antiwar activists at the 2010 Chicano Moratorium protest in East Los Angeles inspired me to paint this portrait of a young Mexican-American student toting a backpack. I wanted my canvas to give a picture of the idealism of youth striving for decent education in these times of economic collapse and endless war.<\/p>\n

“Books Not Bombs!” was a slogan written on placards and chanted during LA’s 2010 Chicano Moratorium protest, however the catchphrase belongs to people everywhere who work for an end of illiteracy and under-education as suffered in underprivileged working class communities. My artwork reminds viewers that ill-equipped schools, shrinking education resources, and austerity budgets are the social costs of an economic system tied to empire and war.<\/p>\n

At the time of this posting, a US sailor became the 3,000th<\/a> US-led “international coalition” soldier to have died in the Afghanistan war since 2001. During that same period the National Priorities Project estimates the US has spent over $532,475,000,000<\/a> on the Afghan war. As Detroit city officials literally begin to turn off nearly half of the city’s streetlights<\/a> for lack of cash, the Obama administration talks of a “partial withdrawal” from Afghanistan by 2014. It is time for the wars to end, the soldiers to come home… and for America to turn the lights back on.<\/p>\n

\"
“Libros No Bombas – Books Not Bombs” (Detail) Mark Vallen \u00a9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My painting, Libros No Bombas (Books Not Bombs), was one of two canvases I premiered at the exhibition, \u00a1ADELANTE! Mexican American Artists: 1960s and Beyond, which took place at the Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale, California from September 9, 2011 through January 1, 2012. The painting is available as a 6″ x 11″ inch full-color postcard reproduction (pictured above); the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists-and-the-afghan-war","category-chicanarte-chicano-art"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}