<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Sam Coronado - A Retrospective<a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mexic-artemuseum.org/images-splashpage/quad1-sam11-over.jpg&amp;imgrefurl=http://weareaustin.com/community/calendar/icalrepeat.detail/2011/05/17/55416/-/ZmRiODE3OTE2ZWYxZWRhMTk2NjBlZjc0ODU5OWMyYTg%3D&amp;usg=__siMvZI-OgdYy_Hr3vwihdAqQ-wE=&amp;h=450&amp;w=520&amp;sz=45&amp;hl=en&amp;start=0&amp;zoom=1&amp;tbnid=YP5cLaC4A9KeuM:&amp;tbnh=129&amp;tbnw=149&amp;ei=fPTKTbTCEoi6tgeKn8X5Bw&amp;prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsam%2Bcoronado%2Ba%2Bretrospective%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1467%26bih%3D704%26tbm%3Disch&amp;um=1&amp;itbs=1&amp;iact=hc&amp;vpx=486&amp;vpy=222&amp;dur=4489&amp;hovh=209&amp;hovw=241&amp;tx=143&amp;ty=109&amp;page=1&amp;ndsp=34&amp;ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1340" src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/sam.jpg" alt="" width="173" height="150" /></a></span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Exhibit at Mexic-Arte</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Kris Cooley</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Spring 2011</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Extra Credit</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Recently, I found an opportunity to  visit Austin's Mexic-Arte museum to view Sam Coronado - A </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Retrospective. Sam Coronado has been  a great influence on my experience at Austin </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Community College. I had the honor  of being a student of his in basic graphic design and color </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">theory. I gained knowledge that will  be invaluable to my career as an interactive designer. I was </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">excited to see his life's work and  how it progressed throughout his career as a graphic artist.</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">As i began my walk through the exhibit,  i noticed his explicit eye for detail in his early technical </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">drawing and promotional posters. Coronado's  perception of space and color were obvious in </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">the political campaign advertisement  and promotional works. I could almost feel his passion for </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">organized detail that he would later  use to teach students about the importance of being </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">accountable and presenting quality  presentations.</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Coronado's artistic expression shows  in the dexterity of his skills. He is an accomplished painter, </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">graphic artist, teacher, mentor and  continues to be an inspiration to local artists. He opened </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Coronado Studio in 1991, which spawn  the Serie Project in 1993. This has encouraged multi-</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">racial participation and marketed works  by over 250 artists. Because of Coronado's </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">contributions, this helped to promote  the careers of many Austin's up and coming artists.</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Coronado's Studio is one of the few  studios specializing in fine art screen printing, otherwise</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Known as serigraph.  I had the  chance to sit down with Sam and have him explain this process.</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Basically, it is a silk screen printing  process. A stencil is created in the form of the layer of color</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">needed to be applied. It is placed  upon the print and ink is rolled through the open parts. </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Coronado would have several reoccurring  themes in his works. The heart, El Corazon was a </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">persistent symbol. He used multiple  definitions, including Eros Carnal aspect of love and the </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">agape affection found within friendships.  The bull would be another. Sam is quoted saying " </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">bulls, much like humans, are ritualistically  born and bred to die." Sam's work portray this </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">unconscious psyche that perhaps he  is destined to share the same fate as the bull. So he has </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">strived to exist successfully while  leaving behind a legacy of his own within the Chicano art </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">world.</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">My favorite works I found within the  exhibit were the series with the same theme that Sam was </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">trying to portray. The Hearts in the  Arts is one that stood out to me. His idea was to connect the </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">passion of art with different sections  of the artistic world. There were five in this series, </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">including one where musical notes wafted  through the heart, signifying the musician. A simple </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">paintbrush being dipped brought upon  attention to the painter. All these prints included a basic </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">idea of cohesive definition.</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Coronado's Guerilla series, I thought,  was excellent. He integrated the serigraph process for this </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">series. It was made upon handmade paper.  This series was based upon a photograph of a </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">revolutionary woman holding a gun taken  by Armando Villareal. This series won an award from </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">the Chapultepec Peace Accords. Coronado  was able to express a visual social commentary on </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">the woman's role during a time of government  violence and convey a sense of female </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">empowerment.</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">Overall, the experience was refreshing,  I learned that though life and the artist will change,</span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">the basic principles of design will  always apply. Sam Coronado took these ideas and </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">incorporated them in a way that suited  his culture and background. He is a well respected </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">graphic artist and continues to inspire  new artists and students to use design as a way to </span>

<span style="font-family: Calibri;font-size: small">express their own artistic license.</span>