In Conversation: Tavarus Blackmon with Manuel Fernando Rios

In Conversation: Conversation:

Tavarus Blackmon Manuel Fernando Rios

Tavarus First, let’s talk about making right now, during this unprecedented time of COVID-19. What has it been like making art during the last year and getting into 2021?

Manuel I think as an instructor it’s been somewhat problematic—it’s not like the work isn’t in my mind. I don’t have any ideas to put down on canvas, or paper, or whatever the medium is. It’s because as a teacher, I had to learn how to teach online. Most of the people I knew, and me specifically, I just taught in the studio all the time. So in order to teach online, you had to basically write everything out, you had to make sure that everything was accessible to students. And even making a video, you would think that you can just make a video and then just post it up. No, you have to make sure that there’s captioning. You have to make sure that everything is really clear, have this stuff written now, along with showing the video. If you’re gonna be doing a PowerPoint, you have to make sure that the PowerPoint is accessible, and all that stuff. All that stuff’s really good, but it’s stuff that I wasn’t prepared for. So you have to learn as you go. You have to take a condensed class to learn how to teach online.

But just that alone, converting your classes to be online, was enough to where it just took so much energy out of you, or me at least, that it was just hard to even get into the studio to work on the ideas that I wanted to do. I mean, I had to basically either backlog ideas that I had, or just kind of scrap them completely because sometimes as an artist if you backlog these ideas, you can’t really work into it like that. The idea is gone, and you’re really thinking about other things. So, I’m sure there’s probably five paintings that got lost within this past year, because of the job. I was never able to get to it. And then, also the fact that going to normal things—like going to an art store, especially when the pandemic just happened—it was kind of scary. People weren’t wearing masks. Some people still don’t wear masks—it gets me upset. I used to hate going to the store.

Tavarus So, speaking of the students, there’s been a lot of events happening in our American culture: the election, the reassertion of extremism in our country, the riot on the Capitol, the lynching of George Floyd. How does this enter your practice of making art? And then how does it affect how you engage with your students with these difficult topics?

Manuel Well, as an artist, and somebody who identifies as Chicano, when I was in grad school, it was almost like the professors tried to

tell me that I couldn’t be—I couldn’t identify as a Chicano artist and make work that was meant for the gallery, or even make silk screens that had this powerful message on it—that it was very didactic. I either had to do that, or it had to be something else. I either had to make this straightforward artwork, or it had to be totally abstract. At least, that’s how I was receiving the information. So, it was almost like they were telling me, “okay, you’re either gonna be yourself, or you have to make work that’s more, quote unquote cerebral.” Through Sacramento State and through UC Davis, I had that mentality that I had to not be so direct, and I couldn’t use these iconic symbols in my artwork, because it would narrow down the narrative. I don’t want to talk bad about the faculty who told me that stuff. I understand what they were saying, but after grad school, I realized that I could do whatever the hell I wanted. So I just said, you know what, I’m going to start putting these visual things that have symbolism connected to them, and still use abstracted stuff and kind of mix them together.

So, the reason why I’m bringing that up, is because I feel like I need to voice my opinion on things that are going on right now because they’re so extreme. I still don’t want to make work that just oversimplifies the information. I don’t think I’m going to change anybody’s mind with the artwork that I make, but I do want to voice my opinion in it. And also, at the same time, allow the viewer to have their own connection to the artwork. So, with all the stuff that’s going on right now, I am definitely thinking about bringing some of those visuals into my upcoming artwork. I can’t help it as somebody who’s a dark skinned Mexican. There’s light skinned Mexicans who look white, and they’re not as affected as somebody who has a darker complexion. I would feel like I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t put this stuff in my work. Because of who I am, as a person, as a faculty member, as a professor, it’s weird. I feel like you have to kind of toe the line. It’s not my job to tell my students how to think, but I can expose them to certain things. I can expose them to an exhibition. There was an exhibition at the barn and within Woodland Community College, where I teach, and they were to have an exhibition at the barn gallery that talks about women’s empowerment— specifically women of color. I had my students, as an assignment for art appreciation class, I had them go to the exhibition—the virtual exhibition, because I didn’t want to force them to have to physically go to an exhibition right now. I had them go to the exhibition and talk about the artwork. I explained that they didn’t necessarily have to agree with the message, but they had to at least talk about it. You can actually talk about the artwork without letting me know if you agree or disagree with the narrative that the artists were trying to say.

So, in that way, I let them hear the message, and I let them decide if they feel like that resonated with them or not. Most of them did, totally. I looked at their reactions, and if there was stuff they didn’t know about then, there was stuff that they were then connected with. So I was kind of blown away in that regard. But yeah, I didn’t have to tell them how to think, but I still expose them to that artwork and expose them to the certain struggles that they might not know about. It’s indirectly affecting how they see us as a society without me having to say, “Hey guys, tell me how or why this is good. Now, tell me why this person is right about their message.” You know, I don’t have to directly do that. I think by doing that, I’m doing at least something.