Cristina Velazquez: transforming life into art

Cristina Velazquez

When Cristina Velazquez was in kindergarten, she had an experience that cemented her resolve to become an artist.  Two boys were complaining that they hated to draw.  Cristina, whose drawings already stood out for their level of detail and use of color, almost blurted out an assent, but then stopped herself.  “Wait a minute,” she thought.  “I do like drawing, and I am going to be an artist!”  With that, she declared herself to the kindergarten, her family and the world.

Though her degree from San Jose State University is in fine art, Cristina works mainly in mixed media, creating striking sculptures that focus on the issues that face women.  She incorporates society’s expectations of women, from the physical to the spiritual, into her art.  Virginity, chastity, and the value placed on a woman’s purity all inform Cristina’s art.  In pieces such as “La Mujer Tiene Que Limpiar La Casa/Women Must Clean the House,” a dress with a skirt made of dirty rags, and “La Mujer Tiene Que Tener Los Hijos/Women Must Give Birth to Children,” a dress covered in stuffed dolls, Cristina addresses these expectations with strong visual statements.  These two pieces are part of a series of ten dresses, each depicting a different aspect, from beauty to cooking to hygiene.

Cristina uses ordinary household items such as scrubbing pads and cookware in much of her work, as well as fabrics and feminine hygiene products.  She sews these by hand and with a sewing machine, creating work that she says is more and more abstract. Her work is less literal than in the past, focusing more on the concept she’s expressing and less on its more provocative aspects.  Abstract art allows multiple interpretations, and Cristina’s art is becoming more open-ended.

In many of her pieces, Cristina juxtaposes man-made objects like metal tools to the softness of the female body.  A stroll through a hardware store often brings inspiration.  “The object tells me what I’m going to do with it,” she says.  In a recent, untitled sculpture, Cristina stitched hundreds of panty liners together.  In making this piece, she asked herself, “How can I transform this ordinary object, that has a very limited life and is not even meant to be seen, into something beautiful?”  She comments that men frequently ask her what the panty liners are, having never seen one before.

Cristina thinks anyone who wants it enough can be an artist.  Inspiration is fine, but hard work is the key.  Don’t think about money or fame, she says, but the art itself.  Trust your instincts, experiment, and don’t listen to those who discourage you.  Artists make their own paths, imagining and inventing the next steps.

When Cristina was eleven years old, her family emigrated from the Mexican state of Michoacan to California. At first, much of her art focused on the clash of cultures, internal and external borders, and Cristina’s own struggles to become an American.  After college, her direction changed to women’s issues, and more universal themes.

Cristina spends from four to eight hours per day in her studio, though at times she’s there for ten.  “That’s heaven,” she smiles.  She makes art at Cubberly Studios in Palo Alto.  In addition to her art practice, Cristina works part-time at San Jose Museum of Art as an art teacher, and will be teaching a children’s art camp this summer.  She lives in Portola Valley with her husband, artist Efren Alvarez, and their son.