Tony Ortega: Frida con una Corona de Elotes y Xolos

Welcome to the Arvada Center and the exhibition Family Ties. I am Tony Ortega, and I want to talk to you about my woodcut print, which is titled Frida con una Corona de Elotes y Xolos.

I came to Frida Kahlo more than thirty years ago, through a biography by Hayden Herrera. Her life and her work speak gently about the body—about pain, endurance, and the need to make meaning from living. As a Chicano artist searching for my Mexican roots, I kept returning to her. She first entered my work in 1992 at Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles, and she has stayed with me ever since.

Here, Frida wears a crown of elotes. Corn—maíz—is nourishment, ancestry, and survival. At her throat rests a small monkey, watchful and protective. Nearby are xolos (Mexican Hairless dogs) ancient companions tied to the space between worlds. She wears hand-shaped earrings, a quiet echo of connection across time and distance.

This print is made on papel amate (Mexican bark paper), a handmade p

aper with pre-Hispanic roots. The image begins digitally, then is laser cut into wood, inked by hand, and slowly pressed onto the paper—a meeting of old and new ways of making.

This work is about presence—what we carry with us and what remains.

For more information on my work, please visit my website http://www.tonyortega.net