Carmen Lomas Garza is a Mexican American artist known for her narrative artworks depicting memories of growing up in South Texas. Her paintings provide detailed and colorful representations of celebrations and family traditions, taking her two to nine months to complete. Garza draws inspiration from her childhood experiences and aims to instill pride in Mexican American cultural contributions through her art.

1. Carmen Lomas Garza

2. Carmen Lomas Garza is a Mexican American artist who creates narrative artworks about everyday events based on her memories and experiences growing up in South Texas. Her work is widely known through her two bilingual picture books, Family Pictures and In My Family .

5. Carmen and Tudi’s Birthday

6. Carmen Lomas Garza has said that her art is a record of the life she knew as a child of Mexican descent growing up in Kingsville, Texas. She describes herself as a chronicler of celebrations, family stories, and shared memories.

7. Backyard Barbecue

8. Carmen Lomas Garza uses solid areas of bright color and finely-detailed outlines in her paintings. Because she adds so much detail, it may take the artist from two to nine months to finish a painting.

9. Beds for Dreams

10. Carmen Lomas Graza’s grandfather was a chuck-wagon cook on the King Ranch in South Texas. Her father was a sheet-metal worker and her mother was a self-taught painter who also worked as a florist.

11. Tamalada/MakingTamales

12. Tamalada/Making Tamales

13. Carmen Lomas Garza knew she would be an artist by the time she was a teenager. She earned three college degrees and worked in schools and art museums before she became a full-time artist. She now lives and works in San Francisco, California.

14. Cascarones

15. Wedding Blessing

16. Cake Walk

17. Nopales

18. Curandera

19. La Posada

20. “ It has been my objective to make paintings, prints, installations for The Days of the Dead, paper and metal cutouts that instill pride in our cultural and historical contributions to American society.”

21. “ I wanted to depict in fine art form all the things of our culture that are important or beautiful or very moving.” Carmen Lomas Garza

22. You can visit the artist’s personal web site at http://www.carmenlomassgarza.com