About Tortilla Curtain Project

Any casual stroll on Foothill College’s main campus shows starkly beautiful scenes that we often take for granted. The natty edges formed by coniferous trees along the hillsides, the “fungus-like” roofs of neo-Spanish-colonial rooftops built in the 80’s and 90’s are not unlike the geography and space of T.C. Boyle’s vision of Topanga Canyon in “The Tortilla Curtain.” It is in this book that he descends beneath the canopy to reveal a much darker undergrowth of hate, alienation, racism, class, and desperation. The ecosystem he describes has natural rules and elements, many of which we are all too comfortable and familiar with; and yet we want to believe as dispassionate readers that we are not subject to the forces he describes, that we are somehow more human than his characters, that our morals, beliefs and behaviors have somehow evolved beyond the potential for brutality and inhumanity he describes.

Part of what makes “The Tortilla Curtain,” a piece of literature that we study, discuss, and celebrate in communities such as Foothill, is that it erodes the layers of complicity in which we live our daily lives, and reveals underlying truth about who we are and what we are capable of doing under the rubric of privilege, race and class: “We now see this truth to be self-evident, that all men are not treated as equals.” While this truth revealed disturbs us, there is a sad and tragic beauty to it, since what is now laid bare is something we can at least hope to overcome in ourselves. “The Tortilla Curtain” hints that ultimately, perhaps there is too, at some instinctive level, the need for people to reach out and make a positive connection with another human being. This is indeed also a truth, and a small, if not ambiguous moment of hope, we can we choose to define in our lives.

As way of participating in the the “One Book, One Campus, One Community” initiative, Foothill College’s Printmaking and Book Arts Program is presenting a collection of collaborative prints whose their ideas are rooted in “The Torilla Curtain,” and which have since found ways to grow as our own expression.

Behind the Scenes: The Tortilla Curtain Project

In January 2008, the Foothill Printmakers began active production of The Tortilla Curtain Project, influenced by the T.C. Boyle’s book, The Tortilla Curtain. The book was selected as part of the Foothill College “One Book, One College, One Community Initiative,” which encourages students, faculty, staff and community members to read the same book and participate in discussions and events related to the work.

In the spirit of this initiative, more than 80 collaborative mixed-media prints have been produced in Studio 1801 at Foothill College between January and March of 2008. Of these, 22 prints were framed for The Tortilla Curtain Project’s inaugural exhibition at the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College. All prints will be on exhibit throughout the campus April 7 - May 15, 2008.

The Tortilla Curtain Project began during Fall Quarter 2007 when the Foothill Printmakers, under the direction of printmaker Kent Manske, decided they would like to engage in a collaborative printmaking project that further explored the themes from Boyle’s Tortilla Curtain. Working in an “open studio” model, the printmakers usually work on independent projects and do not come together regularly as a group, so the proposal and preliminary discussion on the project took place in the community’s Yahoo! online social networking group. 

With the decision to participate, the printmakers who had not yet read the book started reading, and project planning meetings were scheduled. At the first planning meeting, project goals and parameters were established and collaborative options were discussed. At the second meeting, a discussion and brainstorming session generated ideas and lists related to theme, images and associations. The process not only produced a spectrum of ideas for making images, but it also brought the group together around a larger, unified vision. The planning phase ended with the agreement to work in a round-robin, iterative fashion, where each artist would select and contribute to a print, then set it aside for future additions by other artists.

Fully mobilized and energized, the community of artists and printers set off to work. In a kickoff studio session, many of the artists joined together to start laying the foundations for the prints, tearing 100 sheets of Rives BFK printmaking paper to size, then using screenprinting and monoprinting to establish color, texture and mood. Flat files were set aside to store paper and work in progress; drawers were labeled 1. Paper; 2. Undone; 3. Done; and 4. Parts/Make Ready. 

Throughout Winter Quarter, regularly scheduled smaller open studio sessions invited the community to join together to continue working on the prints. Artists would begin working on either a blank sheet of paper or pull a print from the undone drawer. After working on a piece, it would be returned to the undone drawer or, if three artists determined the print was finished, it could go into the done drawer. It was also required that a minimum of three artists work on each print.

In mid-March, about two months after beginning active art production, we selected the prints for the exhibition. An exhibition catalog is available for further study.

The collaborative process used in The Tortilla Curtain Project encouraged diversity of voice, reduced the ownership of ideas, celebrated community and a shared sense of humanity as expressed in the book. Presented here are the results of this artistic adventure; these prints reflect both independent and shared expressions influenced by The Tortilla Curtain.

About Foothill Printmakers

The Foothill Printmakers are a group of students, artists and cultural activists pursuing advanced study in the print arts, including screenprinting, etching and intaglio, relief, lithography, monoprinting, letterpress and digital printing. Foothill College offers these courses through the Graphic & Interactive Design Department.

To learn more about the Print & Book Arts Program at Foothill College, visit www.foothill.edu/print_arts

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