El drinker

Refran: "How bad can drinking be it'll be fun, nothing matters to me when there's nothing in my system."

Card Description: For my Loteria Card I wanted to share my thoughts on what I think alcohol does to a person when they don't drink responsibly and go too far. I chose alcoholism as my topic because the effects of alcohol is something that is commonly disregarded and not taken serious, then it gets out of hand and becomes something that's hard to come back from. People start to abuse it and end up depending on it and making decisions that they will later regret. The colors in the piece were inspired by the original Loteria Card "El Diablito". The image in the piece represents a person who is under the influence of alcohol implying that they aren't in control of their actions at the time. Something takes over them and influences their actions in terrible ways at times as if it were the devil who possessed them to do dumb stuff. The alcohol bottles on the ground have a small skull painted on it which represents how alcohol is just a poison that slowly kills you. For me personally this represents the horrible effects that alcohol has on people who don't know their own limit and don't understand what they are getting themselves into. It represents the pain they can inflict on themselves mentally and physically, and on others close to them. I want the audience to know that it's better to drink responsibly or don't drink at all; know your limit.

Student Biography: My name is Bryan San Juan-Ramirez, and I am a senior at Santa Maria High School. I live in Santa Maria, California with 6 members in my family including myself. My parents are originally from Oaxaca, Mexico and came to Santa Maria, California where we were born. In my Loteria card, I chose to represent the effects of alcohol abuse by painting the devil under the influence resembling how a person changes and the acts; they become a different person as if something poses them. What inspired me to draw my Loteria card was what I have seen and heard about over the years. There has been people who would use alcohol to have a fun time but didn’t know their limit and ended up making horrible decisions. They end up depending on it to function, get into accidents, and overall hurt themselves or those around them. The message I’m trying to give is drink responsibly and know what you’re getting yourself into. The artistic process was overall a great experience, but what I liked about it was the brainstorming process and breaking down the topic into specifics to have a better idea and understanding of the topic. Life after high school my goals are to get into the college I want and become a pre-dental student, and then go from there.