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Adriana M. Garcia creates visual art, paints murals and illustrates books. This home-grown San Antonio, Texas based artist dedicates her brush to portraying the stories of this region in hopes to affirm it’s unique tapestry of cultural heritage. Her most recent work includes collaborating with the World Heritage Center (WHC), the City of San Antonio (COSA), and architecture team Dunaway on the design enhancement of the veranda that encloses the new WHC building. Additionally, Garcia’s design for a gathering circle, requested by the community, will be constructed on the same grounds in 2025.
Adriana works with large institutions and smaller groupings as she continues in the traditional mural medium. A favorite teaming up being with artist sisters, Manola and Maria Ramirez on painting, MOTIVATED COMMUNITY and JOYOUS MOMENTUM at Ramirez park community center in partnership with San Antonio Street Art Initiative (SASAI) and COSA.
Garcia also translates her large-scale creative skills to composing intimate portable illustrations for picture-books which she thinks of mini-murals for readers. She has crafted five books successfully bringing notable author’s words to life in celebration of the Latino experience. Her debut picture-book with author Xelena Gonzales All AROUND US was awarded the prestigious Pura Belpre Honor Award and her subsequent picture-books have garnered recognition and awards as well including features in the New York Times and National Public Radio. New ill ... view more »
MORE ABOUT THIS ARTIST
Artist Type: Media Arts: Graphic Artist; Teaching Artist/Instructor; Visual Arts: Illustrator, Muralist, Painter, Photographer
Artist Style: Street Art: Symbolic; Teaching Artist/Instructor: Guest Speaker, Instruction for Adults, Instruction for Children, Private Lessons, Workshop Presenter; Visual Art: Collage, Conceptual, Documentary, Dream Imagery/Ethereal, Environmental, Expressionistic, Figurative, Focus on Color/Light/Movement, Icongraphic/Iconoclastic, Illustrative, Narrative/Historical, Nature/Wildlife, Photo-Based Painting, Political, Portraiture, Realism, Representational, Sacred/Liturgical Art, Social Commentary
Artist Statement of Work
Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):
I create color medicine to convey, uplift, celebrate, and remember impactful events, ideas, and people. Using paint and other visual mediums, I aim to reflect the strength, dignity, vibrancy, and divinity of my Chicana/ Mestiza community, carrying our powerful legacies forward. I tell our stories through pictures, much as our indigenous ancestors did, weaving narratives into picture books, on murals in various communities, and increasingly, amid a burgeoning digital landscape through the exploration of augmented reality.
Because I portray my community, I feel their involvement every step of the way, whether they are the models who agree to be depicted, surveyed residents providing feedback on a future mural or installation, or my fellow art-makers who paint alongside, offer support and critique along the way. I learned the value of community input from San Anto Cultural Arts, which had a significant impact on my growth as a muralist, since all of their projects start with neighborhood feedback sessions and include a crew of residents throughout the process.
My formal education includes a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, but my learning began long before, as I was blessed to be born into a creative family who encouraged my artistic expression from an early age. I learned by watching my elders’ paint and set designs take shape, by hearing their songs and stories, and by attending meetings where they advocated for cultural arts and other advancements within our economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. I am a descendant of La Carpa Garcia, a traveling circus who entertained the hardworking campesinos who worked the land across the Southwest in between 1920-40s, keeping food on the tables of American families even while fair wages were never guaranteed in return.
It is this I hold close to my heart: to continue my family’s legacy of uplifting our people, making them smile and see the beauty in themselves, even while societal powers and economic pressures try to bring them down. I hope that with every project and every passing year, my color medicine-making only gets stronger.
“Todo es un arte, comico es un arte, professor es un arte, escritor es un arte, reporter es un arte, quiere ya entiender .. . quiere dicer que a mi me gusta mucho mi trabajo, mi arte.”
(Everything is an art, comedy is an art, being a professor is an art, writing is an art, reporting is an art, I want you to understand . . . I want to tell you that for me I really like my work, my art.)
— Roldolfo Garcia, my grandfather, un carpero (tent performer)
