Ester Hernández's goal in her work is to produce positive images of a variety of women. She states: "My work counteracts the stereotypes of Latina women as either passive victims or demonized creatures. . . . My subjects range from grandmothers to folk singers to truck drivers . . . my artwork becomes a form of iconography. In honoring the experiences of these bold women, I gain a renewed understanding of myself."

In Frida y yo Hernández has chosen as her subject a set of thematically complex and nuanced images of concealment and exposure that center around the juxtaposition of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and Hernández herself. Kahlo appears with and to the artist in various forms, especially muse, death image, and mask. The artist plays counterpoint to the roles evoked by the icon of Frida, and the resulting self-revelational ramifications of this juxtaposition are extraordinary.

Ester Hernández, born and raised in the San Joaquín Valley of California, has executed work for the UCLA Wight Gallery, the San Francisco Art Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts, Self Help Graphics, and many others, in addition to being widely exhibited. She is showcased in the video production Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (National Latino Communications Center, Los Angeles, 1995) and the film The Fight in the Fields (Rick Tejada, 1997).

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