Brenda Melgoza Ciardiello shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Brenda, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Two years post MFA, I feel I am finally settling into a slower, more intentional pace in my life and artistic practice. This pace is dictated by an intentional rebalancing of my family and work life. Before this, I was scared to lose momentum in my artistic practice, but so much of my work and so many of my ideas are inspired by my personal life and especially the beautiful experiences I have with my husband and children, so allowing that to take up more of my time has been a generative and wonderful decision for me as an artist. It has also allowed me the time to choose my projects and pursuits with discernment and purpose, which has resulted in fewer but definitely more exciting opportunities.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Brenda Melgoza Ciardiello. I am a Texas-based interdisciplinary artist, writer, professor, and independent curator born in Mexico City. I am excited about the way we define ourselves through our connections and disconnections to place. I make paintings, ceramic sculptures, and photo-based work that explores place as memory, place as material, and place as self.
I have an exciting year coming up. I am an adjunct professor of Ceramics at Tarrant County College, which keeps me busy when I’m not in the studio. I am also thrilled to have been selected by curators Leslie Moody Castro and Casie Lomeli to participate in this year’s CAM (Contemporary Art Month) San Antonio where I will be exhibiting work in an artist-run space in March. I am also looking forward to the summer: I am currently working on a co-curated show for a special space in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. The experience of curating an out-of-state show while also out of state myself ties in really beautifully with my curiosities about displacement, longing, and nostalgia.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child I thought I had to choose something to be. One thing. Probably a job. The older I get – I turned 45 in December – the more I realize that we are many things at all times. And that the process of growing and maturing is one of excavation. I think we are the many things from the start, and we have to allow those possibilities to shine through and grow in order to experience deep fulfillment and self-knowledge. I used to think that if I was a writer, I couldn’t be a visual artist or a teacher. But I am all of those things, and kind of always have been. It’s wonderful to release that pressure to define myself so narrowly by just one thing I love.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
I’m not really a fear-driven person; when it really matters, I tend to leap before I look. That said, as a Mexican girl in the 80s, I was raised to be obedient. The past 10 years have felt like an accelerated process of breaking down of that little voice inside my head telling me to always be nice or not break the rules. Going off-trail has always provided me some of the best experiences and ideas. I have entered a phase in which it is more important to be genuine, more important to be true to my values and interests than to worry about what others will think. A lot of these feminist ideas are visible in my ceramic sculptures in which I turn fruits into “useless” feminist pots. Domestic tripod vessels that evoke salsa bowls or molcajetes become wild fruit figures – creatures that are unapologetically themselves, made of the places they come from.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
I think the art world still has a lingering hang-up about beauty and trusting the senses when it comes to art. It’s one of my greatest frustrations. All of my work is research-based and conceptual, but it also engages with a language that doesn’t have words: intuition, feeling, beauty. I think the art world does itself and artists a disservice when it only rewards artwork that actively ignores our primordial attraction to beauty.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
Definitely what I was born to do. There is clarity and connectivity between what internally motivates me and what I have chosen as my profession. I do sell my art, and I do commissions, but mostly I approach it as a way of life, a lens through which I see the world. It provides me the joy of endless curiosity and the pursuit of answers to that curiosity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brendaciardiello.com
- Instagram: @brendamelgozaciardiello
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendaciardiello/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrendaCiardielloArt/
Image Credits
All photos provided by the artist.
