Anthony Diaz

My name is Anthony “The Lemon” Diaz and I am a queer based Mexican American artist born and raised in San Antonio Texas. I was first introduced to the art as a child, tracing over my stepdads tattoos. When I was old enough to hold a pencil , my stepdad showed me all of his American traditional tattoo style art sketches and took the time to teach me what he knew. When I became a teenager,  I started to find my self identity along with my voice as an artist. My style and my stepdad’s art styles were very different, he was sharp, jagged, black and white, while I was soft, curved, and colorful. I took everything he taught me and blended it to everything I learned along the way. By my senior year in high school I had taken every Art class my school had to offer, but I wanted to learn even more. My art teacher saw my potential and chose to teach me more advanced courses on the side. I learned to work to sculpt, paint, and so much more. After I graduated I went into business with my family and we opened our store front, Karolinas Antiques where I was able to create murals to surround our customers. Over the years I found who I was even more as a person and I was able to really focus on what I wanted to represent with my art. But my work was categorized in a gray area, much like myself. I didn’t fit into constructs with my gender identity as well as with my work. I didn’t fit into a lot of the boxes in the art community, I was too Mexican for queer events, and too queer for Latinx events. So I created my own space to do so in 2016 called, MexiQueens. MexiQueens became a safe space where I could merge my worlds and have it be celebrated for what it was, a culmination of identity and culture. My first solo show was a success and I was so excited to return the following year, even bigger! MexiQueens II: Bigger & Browner was larger than expected, it was incredibly beautiful to see so many people come out and support everything I stood for. As much as I wanted to come back for the another year for MexiQueens III, life had different plans for me. I was diagnosed with a pituitary brain tumor that altered my body, mentally and physically. My inspiration to create was gone and I became a hermit. Through my pain and body dysmorphia I had to fight my fears and create again. That’s how I came across digital art. I practiced and taught myself an all new art form during the pandemic. Here is where I learned that I could make so much more than canvas paintings hanging on gallery walls, I can make wearable, multipurpose, affordable art. Ive been able to create t-shirt designs, fiesta medals, jewelry, stickers, and so much more. I cannot express how incredible it is to walk around my home town and see so many strangers walking around with my work. I became the representation I always yearned for as a child, so many people saw themselves in my work. This is all I could’ve ever asked for, to be seen by others, and supported by the very community I’ve dedicated my life to represent.