By LINDA VALLEJO
“The Brown Dot Project” keynote presented for the panel
Transhistorical Feminist Agency: A Matter of Gender, Race, Time, and Place
as a part of the College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference 2021
Data pictographs that illustrate the advancement of BIPOC and women artists from 1970 and 2020

The Brown Dot Project: The populations of Los Angeles was 48.3% Latino in 2015 (2017), architectural gridded vellum, pencil, archival marker, 24×24” (48,400 squares, 23,377 brown dots) 48
Since 2010, I have produced hundreds of sculptures, paintings, and works on paper for a series entitled Make ‘Em All Mexican. I purchase pricey antiques depicting historical and pop characters (plaster and porcelain figures, magazines, and postcards) and paint their skin brown. I’ve made “brown” versions of Elvis Presley, Fred Flintstone & Barney Rubble, Marie Antoinette & Louis Auguste, the Queen of the Rose Parade, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and the Greek and Roman gods.
In an effort to keep the work “brown,” I began a series called The Brown Dot Project in 2015. The Brown Dot Project is a series of “data pictographs”—images on gridded architectural vellum consisting of brown dots that represent actual data. These works portray various data sets about U.S. Latino populations; professional numbers in health, education, and business sectors; and Latino contribution to the U.S. Gross National Product. Some of the brown dots resemble designs seen in ancient weaving and architecture; others mirror computer-generated images or are reminiscent of grid-oriented works by Piet Mondrian, Chuck Close, Agnes Martin, and Charles Gaines.
The process is time consuming, beginning with studying and gathering relevant data, creating a formula to present data in 2-D works, counting the boxes in an area of gridded vellum, and dotting the percentage of squares to represent a data set. Some data pictographs contain over 30,000 hand-placed dots.
I describe The Brown Dot Project as “an elegant solution to a series of complex questions about simple facts”—data about Latino life in the United States. I find myself studying a variety of data sets about topics such as the number of Latinos in any given city or state, the national number of Latino executives, and the number of Latinos involved in the American Civil War. The amounts and categories of data are inexhaustible! The works have gone from seven square inches, to 24 square inches, to 40 square inches. The 24 square inch images titled Los Angeles (48.3% Latino population) entail 48,400 total squares (100% of the field), with 23,377 dots (48.3%). Counting squares and dots, completing the corresponding mathematics, and dotting the page takes hours of concentration on both topic and execution.
This work led me to research and compare artist employment data from the 1970s and early 2000s. I found this information by studying the NEA 1977 Tabulation of Artists in Comparative Occupations in the U.S. in 1970 and the National Museum of Women in the Arts Get the Facts Report.
The Brown Dot Project: New York’s population was 27.5% Latino in 2015,(2017), architectural gridded vellum, pencil, archival marker. In this 36×36” Brown Dot piece there are 129,600 squares X .275%= 35,640 dots depicting the fact that the population of New York was 27.5% Latino in 2015.
I then created a series of data pictographs, which I presented in a keynote for the College Art Association’s (CAA) Annual Conference, Transhistorical Feminist Agency: A Matter of Gender, Race, Time, and Place.
Here is what I found:
The National Endowment for the Arts Tabulation of Artists in Comparative Occupations in the U.S. in 1970 concluded that 91% of artists were white in 1970 (900 squares, 819 dots, 91%) PLATE #1; 32% of artists were women in 1970 (900 squares, 288 dots, 32%) PLATE #1; 3.8% of artists were Spanish in 1970 (900 squares, 34 dots, 3.8%) PLATE #2; 5% of university art teachers were minority in 1970 (900 squares, 45 dots, 5%) PLATE #2; 3.6% of artists were Black in 1970 (900 squares, 32 dots, 3.6%) PLATE #3; and women made 59 cents for every $1 made by men in universities in 1969 (900 squares, 531 dots, 59%) PLATE #3. See pictographs below.
According to the National Museum of Women in the Arts Get the Facts Report, 75.7% of museum collections were of white male artists in 2019 (900 squares, 681 dots, 75.7%) PLATE #4; 50% of galleries represented women in the Venice Biennale in 2019 (900 squares, 450 dots, 50%) PLATE #4; of 3050 galleries on Artsy, 48% represented 25% or fewer women 2019 (900 squares, 432 dots, 48%) PLATE #5; 14% of exhibitions at 26 prominent American museums were women 2010–2020 (900 squares, 126 dots, 14%) PLATE #5; 5.6% of women artists in NYC were women of color in 2019 (900 squares, 54 dots, 5.6%) PLATE #6; and 1% of Janson’s Basic History of Western Art are women of color today (900 squares, 9 dots, 1%) PLATE #6. See pictographs below.
Conclusion
These data pictographs illustrate that the trajectory for women artists between 1970–2020 has improved, while artists of color have fared far less favorably. After completing this research and the corresponding pictographs, my recommendations to help advance the careers of BIPOC and women artists is to provide artists with professional career development opportunities, scholar-artist-institution collaborations to publish in and out of institutions, and curator-scholar-artist-institution collaborations to present exhibitions with catalogs.
DATA PICTO-GRAPHS PLATES
National Endowment for the Arts Tabulation of Artists in Comparative Occupations in the US 1970 91% of artists were white in 1970 900-819-91% | |
32% of artists were women in 1970 900-288-32% |
PLATE #1
National Endowment for the Arts Tabulation of Artists in Comparative Occupations in the US 1970 3.8% of artists were Spanish in 1970 900-34-3.8% | |
5% of university art teachers were minority in 1970 900-45-5% |
PLATE #2
National Endowment for the Arts Tabulation of Artists in Comparative Occupations in the US 1970 3.6% of artists were Black in 1970 900-32-3.6% | |
Women made 59 cents for every $1 made by men in universities in 1969 900-531-59% |
PLATE #3
National Museum of Women in the Arts “Get the Facts” Report 75.7% of museum collections were white men in 2019 900-681-75.7% | |
50% of galleries represented women in the Venice Biennale in 2019 900-450-50% |
PLATE #4
National Museum of Women in the Arts “Get the Facts” Report Of 3050 galleries on Artsy 48% represented 25% or fewer women 2019 900-432-48% | |
14% of exhibitions at 26 US prominent museums were women 2010-2020 900-126-14% |
PLATE #5
National Museum of Women in the Arts “Get the Facts” Report 5.6% of women artists in NYC are women of color in 2019 900-54-5.6% | |
1% of Jansen’s Basic History of Western art are women of color today 900-9-1% |
PLATE #6
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