Patricia "Pat" Gomez (born 1960) is a

Chicana Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American iden ...

visual artist based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

best known for incorporating text within her art. She is currently the Civic Art Project Manager at

Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

Biography

Pat Gomez earned

Bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...

and Master's degrees in

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

. Gomez worked with

Self Help Graphics Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc. is a community arts center with a mix Beaux-Arts and vernacular architecture in East Los Angeles, California, United States. The building was built in 1927, and was designed by Postle & Postle. Formed during the cul ...

, a community nonprofit arts organization in

East Los Angeles East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...

wit
roots
in the Chicano Movement. During her tenure as the City of Los Angeles Murals Manager, Gomez spearheade
significant restoration efforts for murals
by several iconic muralists, including David Botello, Kent Twichell and Wayne Healy, a co-founder of

East Los Streetscapers East Los Streetscapers Public Art Studios is a muralist art collective and fine art studio based in East Los Angeles, California. Its members have executed over twenty murals and large-scale public artworks, primarily in the Los Angeles area. Histo ...

. Gomez also managed conservation of th
1984 Olympic Freeway Murals

Art

Several works by Gomez have been acquired by museums and cultural institutions. Her prints are included in the permanent collections of the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

(LACMA) and the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA) at the University of California- Irvine. Langson IMCA’s holdings currently include over 4,500 works representing a wide array of genres and mediums that span late 19th century California Impressionism and plein air painting to Post-War and contemporary art.

''War Stories''

In 1991, Gomez created her first

silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

print at

titled ''War Stories''. In this print, Gomez included printed personal accounts of her uncle and her cousin's respective experiences in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

. ''War Stories'' was specifically created in response to the first Gulf War and was Gomez's attempts at “tearing off the fabric of a million people’s stories”. Within the text, Gomez explains how her uncle could not pursue college or a white collar career because of social and economic reasons and he eventually joined his local gang. Upon being caught and tried for a crime, Gomez's uncle was given a choice of either being imprisoned or joining the war effort in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. Six months after enlisting in the army, her uncle was killed in action. The second story inscribed in ''War Stories'' is a story about Gomez's cousin who grew up in a similar environment as her uncle and how he aspired to be the first one in his family to go to college and the only way he could financially accomplish this was through enlisting in the army.

''The Trappings of Sor Juana''

Created as part of an art gallery exhibition about Juana Inés de la Cruz in 1999, ''The Trappings of Sor Juana'' was meant to reflect the story of the nun's life. Sor Juana was a writer in

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...

Mexico that was eventually silenced and unable to publish her work because she was critical of patriarchy, the church and the political establishment. Included in this piece is text from an excerpt from Sor Juana's poem, ''Disillusionment''.

''Stay Tuned''

Pat Gomez created the 1992 art piece ''Stay Tuned'' as a response to her experience in the

1992 Los Angeles Riots The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in S ...

. In her art piece, Gomez displays rows of televisions providing a glimpse into the destruction she witnessed during the riots. On the right side of the art piece, a personal account of the riots are written from Pat Gomez's perspective.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Pat Wikipedia Student Program 1960 births Living people 20th-century women artists 21st-century women artists Place of birth missing (living people) California State University, Fullerton alumni Hispanic and Latino American artists Hispanic and Latino American women in the arts Artists from Los Angeles