Her culture comes alive

Cristina Cardenas has always strived to paint with meaning and conviction.

Her works are powerful and personal.

She fills her canvases with intricate imagery meant to empower women and instill cultural pride.

Many of her pieces, a large collection that has earned the Tucson artist international acclaim, feature pre-Columbian symbolism from Aztec and Mayan traditions - a tribute to Mexico, the country of her birth.

"I want to let people know where we come from," Cardenas explains. "To say, 'This is who we are and how proud we are of our history and legacy.' "

Cardenas has been painting in Tucson for well over two decades, but her passion for art reaches back to her childhood.

As a young girl in Guadalajara, Mexico, she was far more intrigued with drawing and creating than she was about playing with dolls or going to parties.

"My works were more cartoonish then," she said. "Whatever was in fashion at the time."

Those early interests evolved into a full-time devotion for Cardenas, who studied under Francisco Caracalla and Jorge Martínez, both longtime assistants to Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco at Guadalajara University.

The desire to take her art to the next level led her to Tucson.

Cardenas came to Arizona in the mid-1980s and earned a master of fine arts degree in printmaking from the University of Arizona in 1990, one year after becoming an American citizen.

It didn't take long for the city to take hold.

"For the first 10 years, I always thought I would go back to Mexico," she said. "Most of my family is there. But I would miss Tucson when visiting them. When you start missing a place, that makes it your home."

Cardenas still draws plenty of influence from Mexico and visits often.

Her works incorporate acrylic and gouache paints, gold leaf, dry pigments and printmaking techniques, and reflect a vibrant blend of rich cultural elements from every corner of her home country.

Many of her paintings - some of which are done on a unique amate/tree bark paper from Mexico - portray Mexican women with big feet and hands, to signify strength.

Women have long been a central focus for Cardenas.

"They are fighting for their families. Their communities," she said.

Other works are more political. Cardenas says her creative process is more personal these days, but she is no stranger to voicing her views on immigration through her art.

"One of my worries as a professional artist is that my art has to represent my culture," she said. "You have to express your community, its problems and its strengths."

Cardenas' works have been embraced by the arts community, both locally and abroad.

She's received her share of grants and honors, including a fellowship from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona in 2003. In 1999, Cardenas traveled to South Africa as part of the Caversham Centre's Africa Program for the Hourglass Project.

The five-week residency included 12 artists from 10 different countries, and resulted in a series of visually intriguing silkscreen lithographs.

"I got to work alongside artists from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ireland," she said. "It was a good experience."

Cardenas has works at the University of Notre Dame, UCLA, and the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.

In Tucson, you can find her pieces in collections at the Tucson Museum of Art and the University of Arizona Museum of Art, as well as in more public settings, such as on the corner of East 29th Street and South Fourth Avenue, where a tiled mural created by Cardenas features a mother with multiple arms, nurturing her child.

Cardenas was recently approached by the city to create a new public work for one of the modern streetcar stops, west of Interstate 10.

"Tucson is famous for very bad public art pieces, but good pieces, too," she said. "It is a challenge to reflect that sense of history in a single public space."

When she's not working on her art, Cardenas teaches others what she's learned.

She serves as an adjunct instructor at Pima Community College and works with kids at a local charter school during the year.

Cardenas said the children she works with "don't know and don't care" about the successes she has had, which is fine with her.

"I always feel the need to give back to the community," she said. "I want to teach these students how to represent their community."

Painter Cristina Cardenas

Where you'll find her work

• Cardenas will have a room full of paintings featured at Café Passé, 415 N. Fourth Ave., through August and September. 624-4411.

• Painting price range: Paintings are $450 to $1,000.

• Learn more: Through the Contreras Gallery, 398-6557.

"One of my worries as a professional artist is that my art has to represent my culture. You have to express your community, it problems and its strengths."

Cristina Cardenas, local painter

Contact reporter Gerald M. Gay at 573-4179 or ggay@azstarnet.com