Today we’d like to introduce you to Karla Garcia.
Hi Karla, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey as an artist has been a long one. We migrated to the U.S. when I was 13, and with all the changes in our lives, I felt fortunate we could continue to get an education. In college, I wanted to study art, but I couldn’t afford materials and opted for a career as a graphic designer. I worked for publications for over a decade and made art independently. My friends and I created local art shows, though we needed to understand my path as an artist fully. I just wanted to create. In my thirties, my boss took me to a ceramics workshop, and that was it for me. I knew I wanted to know more about clay; the possibilities were endless. I enrolled in as many classes as I could. I decided to pursue art full-time and went back to school to study. I was accepted as a graduate student at the University of North Texas in my late thirties and never looked back. Graduate school was a great place for creating artwork, fully immersing myself in research, and understanding my voice as an artist. It was hard. I had a baby while pursuing my studies but had the full support of my husband, friends, and family. After graduating, I worked four jobs, taught at the local college, worked as a museum educator, and was a part-time ceramics assistant. I was making art at home while caring for my daughter. In 2020 I went to an artist residency in France, where I began to work on my current series of desert landscape installations right when the pandemic was announced worldwide. I returned, and with the bit of clay I had left from graduate school, I began making cacti sculptures, documenting them at home.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
It has not been easy at all. Being in graduate school with a newborn was very hard. But with the support of my family and my amazing husband, who was also studying for his Ph.D. at the time, we did not have time for anything outside of school and our life at home. We drove about an hour to school, dropped off our baby with a good friend, and later at daycare, and got to work. Since graduate school, I have been incredibly fortunate to find and pursue opportunities. Funding is always challenging but never impossible. I keep that in mind when working through the logistics of my art projects.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I create sculptures and installations inspired by the desert landscape of the Texas-Mexico border. My practice is based on my experience growing up at the border of Juárez, Mx. and El Paso, Tx. The natural forms of the cactus plants native to the desert inspire my sculptures. I build each one with clay leaving marks on my fingertips as I pinch the spines that define the form. These vary in size, and in my installations, they are left in their temporary state as raw clay to articulate a connection to this land we all share. I also create drawings with clay to y reflect the language of the ground and the soil beneath our feet. I am most proud of my project La Línea Imaginaria, a binational exhibition that took place simultaneously at the Chamizal museums in El Paso and Juárez. In the summer of 2022, I took my raw clay sculptures to the border and placed them along the border wall and in the natural landscape of the Chihuahua desert. This was documented through photography and video. The museum installations held half of the sculptures I made, along with the documentation of the outdoor project and clay drawings. I worked with a great team to make this possible. I am incredibly grateful to the Nasher Sculpture Center for a grant I received in 2021 to begin this project, to 12.26 Gallery in Dallas, TX, for helping me raise funds, the binational projects commission in Juárez, Mx, for facilitating permits and connection to the museums, the U.S. Consulate and Embassy for providing a small grant for transportation of the work, and the photographer Alejandro Bringas for documenting my work. We all worked tirelessly, but ultimately, we produced a fantastic project.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Go see the Soy de Tejas exhibition curated by Rigo Luna at Centro de Artes in San Antonio, TX. where I have an iteration of La Línea Imaginaria on display. This exhibition will be up through July, and I am honored to share space with incredible artists. I also have a group exhibition at Presa House Gallery in San Antonio, curated by Nuestra Artist Collective, which I co-founded with Tina Medina and Eliana Miranda. This show features nine women artists who do work about the Texas-Mexico border. Represented by 12.26 Gallery in Dallas, Texas, at www.karlamichellgarcia.com and on my Instagram @KarlaGarciaArt.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.karlamichellgarcia.com
- Instagram: @KarlaGarciaArt
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/karlagarcia-art
Image Credits
Headshot: Photo by Melissa Gámez Herrera, La Línea Imaginaria, Photo documentation by Alejandro Bringas. Gallery Image: I Carry This Land With Me, 2021 at 12.26 Gallery, Dallas Texas. Photo by Kevin Todora.
