Artist Bio
Melanie Gatica (b. 2000 in Salinas, California) is a multidisciplinary artist with an emphasis in painting. She received her Bachelor's degree in Visual and Public Art from California State University Monterey Bay.
Artist Statement
My work centers on mythmaking. I translate my memories, daydreams, and fragments of quotidian life into paintings that combine the ordinary and the glamorous. I often focus on the mundane, overlooked details of Latino working-class life and portray them in a light that reveals their quiet, nostalgic beauty. I achieve this through elements of kitsch and other aesthetics often dismissed as lowbrow, drawing visual influence from pulp comics, pin-up posters, Catholic retablos, and retro films.
Much of my practice is also about idealization. I construct figures and scenarios that serve as personal archetypes, drawn from my own desires as well as from the captivating qualities of people I’ve encountered. In this way, my paintings have become a blend of aspiration, memory and invention. Whether rooted in personal history, observation or fantasy, the throughline is always the same: to build myths out of the ordinary, to glamourize what is often dismissed, and to create images that carry both beauty and complexity.
Artistic Practice
My practice is rooted in reclamation. Reclamation of materials, aesthetics, places, and people that are often overlooked, dismissed, or undervalued.
Influences
I’m particularly influenced by the rasquachismo art movement. Reclaiming the word “rasquche” which means tacky or kitschy, the movement focuses on creatively reusing trash or unwanted items and turning them into something completely new and different. I often use repurposed materials in my practice. This use of found materials reinforces the central tension in my work between beauty and hardship, dismissal and reclamation & memory and reinvention, as well as incorporating sustainability and resourcefulness.
Visual Language
An important theme in my work is “low class glamour”: leopard print, gold hoops, long nails, glitter, maximalism and outdated retro neon signs. Common settings in my work have been motels, gas stations, convenience stores, strip malls… places tied to nostalgia and lived experiences growing up in a small town. These elements, which are often devalued by society, become symbols of power, identity and reclamation within my work.
Philosophy and Identity
In the art world, Latinos are often portrayed as resilient workers. Art tends to celebrate us as farm workers, maids, construction workers, paleteros, etc. There is absolutely power in that work. However, I want my work to deviate from the notion that Latinos are valuable to society only through our labor and productivity. I make the conscious choice to portray Latin American women at rest and leisure, in ways that have been reserved for the white upper class in the history of art: women laying down, hanging out or just existing. I choose to focus on our emotional depth, history and autonomy instead of the labor we provide to make the lives of others more convenient.
Creative Process
My process for coming up with a painting usually begins with emotion rather than image. I often ask myself what kind of woman I am embodying or exploring in a given moment: a powerful woman, an angry woman reclaiming something, or a mournful woman sitting with her sadness. From there, I begin sketching and building compositions. The women I depict are imagined but deeply inspired by myself and the women around me.