Richie Morales
Richie Morales is a self-taught painter, born in Guatemala and with a deep appreciation for Madison and Wisconsin as his second home. He started creating his art as a way to resist the violent impact of systemic oppression and marginalization in his life. Richie started to explore painting as a child while working in trades of wood and construction work to support his family. His mother noticed this passion and put together a home-made encyclopedia of art reusing different articles from magazines she could find around as she worked as a public teacher in rural areas. He cherishes this gift as the door that introduced him to the work of renowned self-made painters such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Basquiat, Francis Bacon, Basquiat, Botero and Frida Kahlo. He has been an artist fellow at Vermont Studio Center, an artist-in-residence at Centro Hispano of Dane County and The Bubbler at Madison Public Library, his current studio is housed at the Arts and Literature Laboratory building in Madison, Wisconsin. Richie has exhibited paintings at various galleries and community organizations in Guatemala and the United States.
Geraldine Paredes Vásquez
Gery Paredes Vasquez is a multi-disciplinary, bilingual educator, consultant and practitioner passionate about co-creating learning experiences and transformative change processes that center, deepen and expand equity, justice and liberation within systems and cultures. Currently, she is starting her third year of serving as YWCA Madison’s Race and Gender Equity Director where she previously worked as programs coordinator and lead facilitator for six years. Gery was born in Bolivia and has over 15 years of experience in program development, training, co-facilitation and consulting around the globe, both in English and Spanish. She has worked public, private and community based organizations serving a very broad range of race, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic and ideological identities in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, United States, Swaziland, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Italy. She co-authored MAYMA “intercultural youth empowerment” in Bolivia, twice awarded as National Best Social Inclusion Initiative, as well as Tuanis and Agents of Change co-curricular programs for youth from all around the world at UWC Costa Rica.
Tuesday, March 2, 2021 | 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM (CDT)
Art as a Process to Decolonize Learning
In this series combining one facilitated session and two short recorded videos we will explore how art became a process to decolonize learning in the life of self-taught painter Richie Morales. Participants will be able to make connections to their own life experiences and learn about deliberate practices that as educators they can have to bring or strengthen contextualized depth, integrity and transformation into their learning/teaching processes. During the facilitated session and video recordings, Richie Morales and Gery Paredes Vasquez will speak both English and Spanish as they weave each session together.
Participants joining the facilitated session will need to bring a notepad or drawing notebook, as well as their preference of materials to draw/paint during a guided creative reflection practice.
