ROBERT NEITHART, Special to The Denisonian—
Boredom is a rare luxury to most of us. Tiny rectangles in our pockets provide us with all the entertainment we could ever need to drown out silence. We are bombarded with the appearing and disappearing of advertisements catching our attention, and if all else fails, we resort to daydreaming. Thus saying, boredom has been made the enemy, and we’d do better to welcome it. For Chicago-based artist Salvador Jiménez-Flores, it was the embracing of boredom, coupled with the exercising of creativity, that would lead to a life dedicated to art and advocacy.
This past Friday evening, a large crowd of chatty students, gleeful children, jaded parents, hopeful professors, and a couple of unnamed student journalists entered the crowded lobby of the Denison Museum, now transformed into a makeshift art studio, complete with linoleum prints, styrofoam blanks, colored inks, and a tortilla press to boot.
The tortilla printmaking workshop is an event that Jiménez-Flores designed in the interest of civic engagement, self-expression, advocacy, and art education, giving back to communities the same inspiration from his own after school programs.
The event progressed with students, parents, and children shuffling about the various tables in controlled chaos, taking stock of the prints provided by Jiménez-Flores, many of which centered around themes of Latin American resistance and heritage, and assessing whether they’d care to take a stab at creating their own, which thankfully, many did.
Born in Jalisco, Mexico, Jiménez-Flores credits much of his approach to art-making to his need to be “resourceful and creative” while growing up, having to make his own toys and playthings in lieu of those which could be bought.
In the late 90s, Jiménez-Flores moved to the United States with his family, settling in Chicago, IL, in response to the passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which allowed his father to have more job opportunities in the states.
While in Chicago, Jiménez-Flores enrolled in an after-school program for photography, a critical moment in his life, allowing him to express in visual form that he couldn’t with words, introducing him to the transcendent power of art.
An important aspect to Jiménez-Flore’s approach to artistic expression is the idea of intentionality. In his work, he avoids creating art for art’s sake. Instead, he aims to “deliver a message,” creating artworks with generational appeal, whose sentiments and themes continue to remain as relevant as the day they were made such as the ideas of political identity and double consciousness, grappling with issues of race, colonialism, migration, dominant culture, and futurism.
When asked why she felt it was meaningful for her students to attend the event, Spanish and Modern Languages professor, Mirela Butnaru, stated that she “wished for her students to supplement their academic engagement in class with practical, real-world experience.”
Jiménez-Flores’ work is also featured in the Dension Museum’s current exhibit, Be a Good Neighbor. Ths exhibition depicts the transnational relations between the United States and Latin America in the 30s and 40s, portraying how the American government sought to “invest in culture as a means not only to make friends with [their] Western allies but also to influence the public at home.” The exhibit is complete with prints–one by Jiménez-Flores, illustrations, and posters.
The world is a loud, crowded place, giving little time for us to be alone with our thoughts and ideas. Take a chance and dare to be bored with nothing but your creativity to guide you. One might be surprised with what they can achieve, and perhaps one day, an artist’s work may be displayed in a Museum just like Jiménez-Flores.