After a years-long battle along with leukemia, artist Martha A. Rodriguez died on Tuesday, July 5 at 62 years of age. Her vibrant paintings regularly reflected her battle along with cancer and her desire to keep on fighting it.
Rodriguez painted and sculpted at her “Estudio Martita,” a workspace inside 1890 Bryant Street studios. Her job examined life, death, and womanhood, regularly depicting robust, larger women as an expression of powerful femininity.
(Martha Rodriguez was featured in this 2014 Mission Regional video regarding open studios)
Throughout her second bout along with the cancer, Rodriguez continued to send messages of gratitude and wrote to friends regarding her desire to live in the present and appreciate the time she had left. She continued to make art even throughout a remain in a Seattle hospital, including a job entitled “Determination.”
“Determination” by Martha A. Rodriguez
Bird Levy, a curator, remembered Rodriguez as a gracious professional, that never ever quibbled over sales however was constantly prepared to contribute pieces to the annual Pasión de Frida exhibition at Puerto Alegre on Valencia Street.
“She simply wasn’t prepared to leave them and I simply can’t say enough regarding her fierce fierce fight that she put up,” Levy said. “She will certainly constantly be an inspiration to me every day.”
Maria Sanchez, that runs the gallery Sanchez Contemporary in Oakland, had known Rodriguez for some 12 years. Two of Rodriguez’ functions are currently on display at the gallery, and Sanchez has actually established a small memorial space for people to share memories and grieve.
“She was a warrior, she was so brave. If there’s anything she taught me it’s to be brave no matter exactly what circumstances you face in life, and to have actually compassion not simply for others people however for yourself,” Sanchez said.
But throughout her battle, Rodriguez remained bright and open.
“I can’t tell you exactly how inspiring and solid she was,” Levy said. “[She] constantly showed up along with her red lipstick and her smile on her face despite the fact that I knew she had simply had a chemo treatment or some others invasive awful thing.”
Doreen Villanuevas, Rodriguez’ college roommate at the University of California at Santa Barbara, watched her as an inspiration.
“She earned a difference in my life simply to job harder in exactly what I did, and to not to feel sorry for myself,” Villanuevas said. “I had lost my job. After looking at exactly what she was going through I had no requirement to complain.”
Rodriguez was from San Jose however a resident of San Francisco for numerous years. She attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and later University of California at Berkeley, where she gained a degree in Social Welfare. After earning her degree, Rodriguez went on to job in public good health to research the induces and effects of HIV.
Villanuevas remembered her insistence on being well dressed and her dedication to social and cultural work.
“The method I constantly remember Martha is we constantly had to dress up, despite the fact that we were in college, and she would certainly type of get hold of on my case regarding being a little sloppy,” Villanuevas said. “I constantly remember her being that method along with us, constantly in an excellent mood excellent spirit, never ever upset regarding actually a great deal of anything. As soon as I ran in to her again [later] she was the same, she hadn’t lost it, she was genuine.”
Later in her life, classic red lipstick was one of Rodriguez’ hallmarks – Diana Gaspar-Pena remembered a conversation along with the painter and sculptor regarding that particular bit of flair.
“It’s passion, you know?” Gaspar-Pena said. “We talked regarding it one time and she said… She didn’t hope to be a shrinking violet. It’s like, you know, below I am. Red.”
Gaspar-Pena likewise watched Rodriguez’ earliest expressions of her social consciousness, attending higher school walk-outs and rallies for farm workers along with her.
“She still was quite gregarious, she constantly simply had a actually excellent attitude,” Gaspar-Pena said.
Rodriguez’s postings on Facebook demonstrated this attitude. On June 13, she wrote: “World events keep on to happen, the good, poor and quite ugly. I keep on to sit in my hospital room effected by fevers that come and go and return again. I have actually no control. My personal tolerance for this latest treatment has actually been tested. Doctor says the worst of the vehicle t Cell edge effects might be yet to come. While Globe events continue, the Syrian war, the IRA KILLING of AMERICAN adults and children, I’m housed in a bubble. This is exactly what I’ve been given: to be an advocate for my disease, Leukemia. Perhaps if I can easily get hold of through this I can easily locate those problems close to my heart.”
Rodriguez’s posts could be simply as exuberant regarding the day-to-day wonders of life. A couple of weeks earlier, she posted photographs of Seattle views and exclaimed; “This is exactly what I woke up to this morning- SUNSHINE in Seattle. It’s type of breathtaking!”
Villanuevas likewise remembered Rodriguez’ early efforts to be civically engaged. She and one more classmate by the very same name ran for student council as “the Marthas.” Naturally, they won.
“We were always, as Chicanas, attempting to do something to much better the community,” Villanuevas said. And throughout her illness, Rodriquez reminded friends to visit an exhibition or to support a fellow artist’s show.
Rodriguez kept in touch along with friends and family along with constant updates regarding her condition and her state of mind. She and her friends, numerous of them likewise Latina women artists, kept each others going.
“We would certainly maintain in touch along with each others and simply maintain each others motivated,” Gaspar-Pena said. “It’s solid to be an artist.”
In late May, Rodriguez wrote an email update for her friends.
“Your desires of love, light, health, prayers are so welcomed. I have actually been surrounded by your love,” she wrote. “You have actually every one of provided me strength, a meaning for a my life and a powerful desire to remain along with the living – for as long as I can.”
