Patssi Valdez grew up in East L.A., and is one of the most famous and talented Chicana painters that I know of.  She began her life as an artist in the 1970’s, as a student at Garfield High School in E.L.A.  She was the only girl member of a performance art group called Asco (which means “nausea” in Spanish!), which included three Garfield classmates:  Henry Gamboa, Jr., Gronk, and Willie Herron.  With her band of brothers, Patssi took her art to the streets, taking part in a 5-school walk out in East L.A.; the walk-out was in protest of the high school’s substandard educational facilities.  Whoah! 

In 1972, her public art took on new dimensions when she participated in a performance called Walking Mural, where she and her fellow Asco comrades dressed up as fantastical beings in some imaginary carnival.  There’s a picture of Patssi dressed in a huge paper costume, with a dead serious face, as she stalks the street of Los Angeles.  It’s completely mesmerizing:  Patssi intended her participation in Walking Mural to be a kind of wake up call to the people of the city, and to show them how crazy, dangerous, and absurd life could be. 

More recently, Patssi’s been doing incredible paintings of somewhat loopy rooms in ordinary houses.  She’ll paint a swirly kitchen, or a zig-zaggy dining room, all festooned up in super bright colors.  Patssi’s still showing us how crazy, dangerous, and absurd our ordinary life is.  But the thing, in her eyes, life is really beautiful, too.  If you want to make art like Patssi, just give a good hard look at the nuttiness that is your life, and paint it as you see it.  Or put on a wild costume, and stalk the streets.