Pat Ward Williams, photographer and assistant professor,...

Pat Ward Williams, photographer and assistant professor, UC Irvine art department.

* “Raging Bull,” directed by Martin Scorsese: “I did my undergraduate thesis on photography of boxers and I was more or less working on the same type of subject matter. I thought it was one of the best fight movies ever made.”

* “The Sweet Fly Paper of Life,” photography by Roy DeCarava with text by Langston Hughes: “A somewhat fictional story of a grandmother living in Harlem (exploring) her day-to-day life and family relationships . . . . It was a piece that inspired me to do work about my own community and my own people.”

* “The Thunder Thigh Revue,” a performance art piece by Joyce Scott of Baltimore, who also does beadwork and fabric art. “It was about black women who had big thighs and big behinds! It was absolutely incredible. (It dealt with the way) black bodies have been portrayed and obsessed over by white people . . . Not only was it historically accurate, but entertaining and very funny.”

* Diego Rivera’s murals, which are painted on buildings in Mexico, San Francisco and Chicago: “I like the way that he used the tradition of mural painting to talk about current issues and events and in that way, expanded what (the mural) tradition is.”

* “Mixed Statement” by Juan Sanchez: “He uses photographs and mixed-media on canvas, and his subject matter has to do with Puerto Rican nationalism and history. ‘Mixed Statement’ talks about two young people who were assassinated by death squads. It’s made up of painting, collage, text, there are a few flags and photographs. It was the organization of the different elements in the piece and the very effective use of photographs (that appealed to me). Emotionally, I was knocked out by it. It is a very beautiful work and it uses the strategy I use to draw people into a work. (With strong visual elements), I draw people in (before they realize) that they are looking at something they might not have chosen to look at if they had known what the subject matter was.”