Mexicanas: Toña La Negra

This was a precious week. So many beautiful singers, Elvira Rios, las Jilguerillas, and many others. It was hard to pick one, but after listening to Toña la Negra for an entire day, on replay, it was pretty obvious I have made my choice. The jazzy voice and the passion in the Spanish exposed me to a different part of Mexico that I was not aware of. 

*Switiching to Spanish*

Toña la Negra viene de Veracruz, cantaba con su hermano, quien la introdujo personalmente con Agustin Lara, que quedo fascinado con su voz. Ella timida, pero acepto cantar sus canciones. Agustin escribio una en particular para ella llamada  "Lamento Jarocho". En lo personal, mi cancion favorita es "Seguire Mi Viaje". 

*Switiching back to English*

When thinking of Toña, I thought of jazz clubs along the coast, but of the fascination of jazz and the translation of the music to a visual piece of art, and I thought automatically of Stuart Davis, a contemporary painter that was greatly inspired by jazz music. 

Stuart Davis was a very big inspiration for this week's piece

In my piece I included colors that resonated: black, red for passion, blue for the ocean, and orange for combination. I include a black female silhouette, a "Farolito", a red "scar", black waves as representation of the Cuban culture overlap with the Mexican, and other organic shapes to give the Stuart Davis ambiance.