I spent a good part of my youth in San Antonio, Texas, where Bihl Haus Arts exhibits the work of artist Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez. My grandfather owned a couple of Mexican curio shops on the River Walk. As a child I was given piñatas on birthdays and sugar skulls on the Day of the Dead. Like many, I am drawn to the bold colors and whimsical nature of Mexican folk art. Kuetzpal Vasquez’s exhibit translates the vitality of this tradition into a message about healing domestic violence. In an article for MySanAntonio.com, she calls her show “a healing exhibition.”
Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez also teaches art that heals. From the article by Elda Silva:
In an art class she teaches, Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez asks students to write down a bad memory in a journal, then paint over it in white. The last step of the exercise is to “paint something beautiful over it,” Vasquez says. The idea is not to gloss over the past, but “to try to move that memory into something different.”
Keutzpal Vasquez takes a similar approach to her multimedia show at Bihl Haus Arts. The exhibit was inspired by interviews with women about their experiences of domestic abuse. The installation makes up different rooms of a house. Like the art her students create, abusive words inscribed on walls leave traces in the paint that covers them.
Keutzpal Vasquez describes her exhibit as a “safe place,” and adds in her interview with Silva, “I always say if there’s anywhere in the world that you should be safe, it’s in your home.”
So true.
