All you need is love

In the 1960s, a counterculture lifestyle began that embraced the ideals of spreading love, kindness, harmony and peace. Through music, art and political movements, a free-spirited consciousness also emerged. Sixty years later, these ideals are still pursued in the United States. 

For example, Angela Garcia, a local collage artist, creatively expresses herself using the same ideals from the 1960s counterculture movement. Garcia’s art involves taking pieces of separate images and texts and putting them together to make a product. In July, she made an artwork about how Hurricane Hanna affected the Rio Grande Valley. She has also made pieces that reflect today’s political climate. 

“Now and over the summer, a lot of the work that I started making has definitely focused on issues relating to the Black Lives Matter movement, racial tensions, or immigration issues here at the border,” Garcia said. 

However, politics are not her only interests. 

This summer, Garcia worked on her biggest collage yet – the RGV Free Fridge Project, an initiative that will provide free food access to the community. The RGV Free Fridge project prioritizes those who experience food insecurity, homelessness, asylum-seekers and low-income folk. 

“My friend, Andres Garza, [is] the main coordinator and initiator of this entire project,” Garcia said.  

After seeing other fridge initiatives on social media in cities nationwide, Garcia said she “messaged Andres and said that I would love to be the person to provide the artwork for it.” 

Once Garza approved, RGV Free Fridge volunteers had to find a fridge for the project. After finding a fridge, the volunteers took it to Garcia’s home so she could begin the artwork. Garcia did not have a clear vision for the fridge art initially. But after she saw the fridge for the first time, she immediately knew she wanted it to be “colorful” and “easy on the eye.”  

Inspired by The Beatles’ 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine, Garcia’s work on the fridge displays a giant sun with pastel colored sunrays on the doors and a collection of flowers and psychedelic patterns on the freezer door. She said the artwork took about 40 hours to produce. They involved creating the design before gathering materials to make it. The basic materials she used for the art were construction paper, flour and water for the wheat paste. Wheat paste, also known as Marxist glue, is an adhesive used for crafting. 

Next was the preparation stage. This required sanding the stainless-steel fridge to give it a rough texture for the enamel paint to grip onto. After sanding and adding enamel, Garcia let the enamel dry for a few days. Once the enamel dried, she transferred her sketched design from paper onto the fridge. She said she drew the design on the fridge before proceeding to the collage process of adding wheat paste and construction paper to the design on the fridge.  

She added that none of this could have been possible without her parents’ help. 

“My parents were the biggest help throughout the project,” Garcia said. “My dad helped prep the fridge, clean it, and then paint it with enamel primer to make sure the collage stuck to the fridge,” Garcia said. “My mom was with me for several days putting pieces of paper on the fridge with me.” 

To get into the right headspace for it, the family also listened to influential 1960s artists such as The Beatles and The Doors. This was one of Garcia’s favorite parts about working on the fridge with her parents. 

“It’s really like our project,” she said. “The fridge was made [from]a place of love with the idea of spreading love and spreading the idea of being able to take care of each other through the basic human right of food, which everyone needs.” 

Garcia added that she hopes people see the fridge as a way of showing love to the RGV community and the people who are going to use the fridge. 

“What I’d like a message from the fridge to be is that the people are capable of taking care of each other. We’re looking out for one another. We don’t want anyone to experience food insecurity if we could help them.” 

Garcia also appreciated the time she spent on the project and the experience she had collaborating with people eager for community change and empowerment.  

“I was able to explore and push my own creative and artistic boundaries. It’s very rewarding to me to know that the project I was able to be a part of will have a very positive outreach in the lives of people that I don’t even know. I am very grateful,” she said. 

For more information and updates on Garcia’s art, follow her at angelascollages on Instagram. Also, for updates on the project follow its Instagram page at rgvfreefridge.