Kathy Garcia is a ceramic artist based in Georgia. Her work is primarily influenced by her family’s ancestry and she finds inspiration in the journeys each generation has taken. She is also influenced by the impact of her upbringing as a person of color in a predominantly white, Southern conservative community. She earned her BFA in Ceramics from Georgia State University in December 2017. In early 2018, she was awarded with the 2018 Artaxis Fellowship to attend a summer workshop at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Statement

My work is influenced by my Mexican heritage as a first generation Mexican American. I am heavily influenced by my family’s ancestry and I find inspiration in the journeys each generation has taken. I have always had a great admiration for the adults in my familia and the struggles they had to face, whether that be living under hardship in Mexico or making the difficult choice of immigrating to the United States. I strive to show this respect for my family through my work. I am also influenced by the impact of my upbringing as a person of color in a predominantly white, Southern conservative community. Growing up in Northern Georgia there were many times I felt as though I had to conform. Although I felt this way in my own childhood town, I would also feel the same in Mexico. During the visits to my parents’ homeland I was seen as a “gringa”, and while in the States I was perceived as “other”. Although I was a part of both cultures, I was never fully accepted into the other. These conflicting feelings of being a part of two cultures have been reflected in some of my work.