Maker Monday: Tucson artist channels Mexican culture through bold, expressive works

For Tucson artist Alejandra Montaño, painting is a way for her to connect with her roots. Her vibrant, expressive paintings explore Mexican culture, identity and traditions, and honor her own family history.

Art has been a part of Montaño’s family for generations. Her mother, Guadalupe de la Torre, is the daughter of two artists, and Montaño herself said she practically grew up in the art studio at her parents’ Barrio Viejo home.

“Both my parents are artists,” Montaño said. “My mom was an art teacher, so I grew up around art, with her students, with art and painting, and people there basically 24 hours a day.”

In her paint-splattered jeans, surrounded by easels of her larger-than-life works of art, Montaño is the very portrait of an artist, seemingly completely at home in the studio. Despite being raised around professional artists, Montaño said she found her way to art later in life.

“I am self-taught. And that's just something that came out of me. I never planned to do it,” she said. “I wanted to be in business, I wanted to do something else. And then I got married, and life happened, and I got back into painting and art.”

Montaño said her creative journey began when she moved to England about 10 years ago with her ex-spouse.

“I couldn't really get a full-time job, so I was doing odd jobs,” she said. “In my free time, I decided to start painting again. I would post my paintings, and people would say, ‘Oh, I love that, I want to buy it.’ So that's what got the ball rolling.”

Now, she creates her bold, abstract works out of her mother’s home studio in Menlo Park, drawing her inspiration from her heritage and the history of her Arizona home.

“I paint with acrylic, and I mostly focus on our culture, memory and traditions in the Southwest,” Montaño said.

Many of her pieces feature symbolism, saints, iconic places and recognizable traditions like Tejano and Mariachi music and Día de los Muertos.

“My thing is culture — music or food or identity,” she said. “I just try to keep it alive.”

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One of her newest works, titled “El Conjunto,” represents the Mexican-American music style from Texas. The work depicts an accordion, microphone, a rose and star for Texas, and an Arizonan saguaro cactus, in the style of a “Lotería” card.

Another piece in progress is an homage to Rosie the Riveter, declaring “Sí Se Puede.” The painting is part of her collection for her next Tucson event, a collaborative show with artist Salvador Durán on September 12 at the Lost Barrio Gallery.

“My new body of work is going to be focused on women,” Montaño said. “Our culture, our resilience, our strength.”

One of Montaño’s strengths as an artist is her versatility. While she primarily works in acrylics, she likes to experiment with different media for her art, including wood carving and new painting styles. Her new pieces lean more geometric and abstract.

“I test a lot of things,” Montaño said. “I experiment, and that's how you evolve.”

Currently, her work can be found in the Lost Barrio Gallery and Borderlands Sam Hughes location. She also recently created the posters for the International Mariachi Conference, influenced by her parents’ previous posters.

It is important to her, Montaño said, to honor and pass on her parents’ legacies through her art.

“My dad's last words were, ‘whatever you do, keep painting,’” she said. “So I have to honor that. It’s their legacy, my grandparents' legacy, I need to keep it going.”