(Courtesy Más Rudas) Left to right: Ruth Buentello; Cristina Ordoñez; Sarah Castillo; Kristin Gamez and Mari Hernandez .

Más Rudas is headed for LA where the multimedia Chicana art collective -- composed of Mari Hernandez, Ruth Buentello, Sarah Castillo, Kristin Gamez and Cristina Ordoñez -- will have a one-week residency at Slanguage.

The residency will culminate in "Homegirls," a large-scale installation ala "Operation Canis Familiaris," the collective's show earlier this year at the Guadalupe Gallery.

"We chose the theme of 'Homegirls' because we wanted to explore our relationships with one another and also show what a contemporary Chicana is like," Hernandez said via e-mail. "...If you Google the term, the images that pop up are very stereotypical, but at the same time they seem to capture what one might expect as their homegirl. We hope to get across what your homegirl looks like today, in a new time."

To help fund their trip to the West Coast, the fearsome fivesome auctioned off work and sold T-shirts and posters at the closing reception for "Operation Canis Familiaris."

"We are driving in Ruth's dad's big ol' truck (needless to say our funds will be going to gas)," Hernandez said.

"Homegirls" will open August 7 and run for a month.

(Courtesy Mari Hernandez) Mari Hernandez's portrait of collective-mate Kristin Gamez will be included in "Homegirls."

Art Beat courtesy of the San Antonio Express News