Striker 

Editor: Looking at this tempera painting, "Striker" by Carlos Orozco Romero, I'm struck by the raw emotion. The red of the fabric and the, I presume, blood, creates such a powerful, somber effect. What's your take on this piece? Curator: For me, it’s vital to consider the production of this tempera mural in the context of Mexican muralism. We must ask about Romero's access to resources, like the pigments themselves. Where did they come from? How were they made available to him? The use of tempera is itself significant; it's a fast-drying medium, conducive to quick execution for large-scale, socially relevant works. Editor: So you're focusing on the 'how' rather than just the 'what' of the painting? I guess that shifts the focus to the artist's labor. Curator: Precisely! Consider the wall itself—the support. Was it a public space? A union hall perhaps? Thinking about the intended audience radically shifts our perception. Romero wasn't just creating an image, he was engaging in a form of visual labor meant to communicate with, and ideally, to activate, the working class. This painting is an artifact of that interaction. It asks us to reconsider the relationship between the artist, the worker, and the social context. Editor: I hadn't really thought about the physical making of it and what it represents, more of a conceptual message. Curator: Seeing the process, the material circumstances, and the social relations interwoven in a piece like "Striker" reveals the often-invisible labor behind art, and its deep connections to the material conditions of its time. Editor: I definitely have a new appreciation now for how the very materials and where it was made influence its meaning.