Ester Hernandez - Artwork

Artwork

Hernandez has said that creating art is the most important thing she does. From early childhood, she explored the organic materials surrounding her. Her first artistic impressions came after playing in the soft clay and sandy earth. She was amazed by its plasticity and ability to capture a moment in time.

It was through my personal and intense involvement with family, nature and community activism that I learned and developed a deep respect for and interest in art. My mother and grandmother carried on the ancient family tradition of embroidery, dance and gardening from their birthplace in North Central Mexico. My father was an amateur musician, photographer and visual artist; and my grandfather was a master carpenter who made religious sculpture in his spare time.''

Hernandez explores and works with a variety of mediums. She allows the subject matter to determine whether the work is public or is personal. The use of painting and pastels reflect her more personal work that allows her to explore ideas and materials freely and more directly. In the words of art critic, Amalia Mesa Baines:

In the 1980s, Hernandez begun to develop a counterpoint to her screen printing tradition, using the medium of the pastel to create a more narrative and naturalistic rendering of characters influential within her own life. The pastel work almost serves as a pleasurable respite from the demands of a cultural critique in its joyful celebration of community.

Continues Mesa Baines, "As with her artwork of her close friend and artistic madrina (godmother) the late legendary Tejana singer Lydia Mendoza, she subverts, re-contextualizes, and transforms culturally traditional images into a series of feminist icons, elevating their status to that of role models."

Hernandez says she loves making art because, "It is a challenge to see the world in a new way. There is great joy and satisfaction of physically making contact with a surface or material to give form to my ideas."

She has drawn inspiration from the political prints of Guadalupe Posada and Francisco Goya, the drama of German Expressionism, and in particular, the colors, perspective, line and use of space by Japanese artists. In 2007, The San Francisco Foundation created a short video of Hernandez explaining her process.