Cecilia Alvarez facts for kids

Cecilia Alvarez, born on April 15, 1950, is an American artist. She is famous for her oil paintings and murals. Her art often shows important ideas like how women are seen in society, the challenges of poverty, and protecting our environment. Her work focuses on these topics in the United States and Latin America.

One of Alvarez's most well-known paintings is Las Cuatas Diego. This artwork has been shown in many books and art exhibits around the world. She also illustrated a children's book called Antonio's Card, which is written in two languages. Her art can be found in important places like the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Kaiser Foundation.

About Cecilia Alvarez

Early Life and Background

Cecilia Alvarez was born in National City, California. Her father was from Cuba, and her mother was from Mexico. She grew up with both parents in San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. Her unique background, living in different cultures and political settings, greatly inspires her art.

Education and Career Path

Alvarez is a self-taught artist. This means she learned art mostly on her own. She started studying at San Diego State University but decided not to finish. She felt that a formal degree was not necessary for her art. Some teachers even told her that because she was a Mexican-American woman, her art might not be considered "fine art." Despite this, Alvarez continued to create. At age 23, after leaving college, she began helping her family financially.

In 1975, Alvarez moved to Washington state. Most of her famous artwork has been created there. From 1978 to 1981, she also attended Eastern Washington University. Today, she lives and works in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and two children.

Alvarez's Art and Themes

What Her Art Is About

Cecilia Alvarez is mainly a painter. However, she has also worked on large public art projects. She helps young people create murals to teach others about different cultures. Alvarez uses personal images in her art to talk about important political and cultural issues. She hopes her art will make people think and discuss topics like who deserves what, poverty, and who society might forget.

Alvarez tries to change how people think about women and families through her art. Being both a woman and a Chicana (a person of Mexican descent born in the U.S.) shapes her artwork. She believes art helps us understand "how we fit into the universe." The frequent use of female figures in her work shows her close bond with her mother and aunt. They taught her the importance of family and human connection.

Inspiring Dialogue Through Art

Through her paintings, Alvarez wants to start conversations about how society values things like beauty and power. In 1991, she gave a color print of her painting "Las Cuatas Diego" to The Mexican Museum in San Francisco. This piece became part of their permanent collection.

In 1994, the Washington State Arts Commission asked Alvarez to work on a big public art project. She designed and created art for the Student Activities Center at Seattle Central College. She worked closely with the building's architects. Her work included etched windows, sandblasted concrete patterns, ceramic tiles, and outside decorations. She said her goal was to "pay homage to the cultures represented" and make the building feel welcoming.

Alvarez also created the pictures for the children's book Antonio's Card. Rigoberto González wrote this book, which was published in 2005.

Notable Artworks

• Las Cuatas Diego, 1979
• La Tierra Santa, 1983
• Si Te Puede Pasar a Ti, 1992

Selected Exhibitions

• 2016 Beyond Aztlán: Mexican and Chicana/o Artists in the Pacific Northwest, Museum of Northwest Art (MONA).

See also

In Spanish: Cecilia Álvarez para niños