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Vibrant, expressive designs define Maria De Los Angeles’ practice in painting, printmaking and mixed-media art, which she’s been exploring this month as a visiting artist at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village.
The New York-based artist’s work explores migration, belonging and identity — themes likely to resonate with some local students who attended her workshops and an in-school presentation this month.
The workshops at Basalt High School were catered toward students in the “Newcomer” program who recently immigrated to the United States; a lecture, presented in a blend of Spanish and English, was open to all.
“How many of you doodle in your math class or your science class?” she asked a library full of students at Basalt High School on March 16. “That was me. So you might be an artist, sorry to break it to you.”
The apology was in jest, especially considering the abundance of opportunity De Los Angeles has found in her creative career.
She boasts an impressive resume of residencies, exhibitions and faculty positions at prestigious institutions like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and the Pratt Institute; her presentation to the students showcased her work, including gallery shows, public art commissions and a photo with Hillary Clinton.
But long before she was on the faculty at Yale University, where she’s now a full-time critic and assistant director of painting and printmaking, and before her art was prized in several permanent collections, De Los Angeles said she was in the same position as the Newcomer students. She was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States in the seventh grade.
“I don't think I knew this was possible, back then,” De Los Angeles said in an interview after the presentation. “It was just like, I didn't speak English properly, or like I was learning, and my sketchbook and drawing was always there for me. … I wouldn't even call it a passion. It was just something I did that turned into my career and now, the way I live my life.”
De Los Angeles waited years after graduating high school before she began to consider a career in the arts, and said she didn’t have many creative role models other than her teachers to show her the possibilities of professional art. That gives added meaning to her involvement with students now, she said.
“It would have been really important to me to have had more visitors, more visiting artists from around the country that were working, … [and] diverse groups of people coming through and talking about what it means to be an artist — technically, and also the fun parts, and the inspiration part,” she said. “It would have allowed me to really think, ‘Oh, yeah, I can be an artist, and I would have made that decision early on.”
De Los Angeles will present a free public lecture at Anderson Ranch on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. She arrived on March 7 and wraps up her visit on Saturday.
