We were lucky to catch up with Celeste Contreras Skierski recently and have shared our conversation below.

Celeste, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

It was 2020. It was my second semester of graduate school to earn an MFA (master of fine arts), focused on print and book arts, and after a lockdown and being in Covid 19 era, we were finally allowed back into our libraries, our studios, the classrooms, and I sat down with facsimiles from 16th century codices from Mexico, where are my maternal side of my family is from and I witnessed pages and pages rows and rows of accordion style books, full of drawings, full of ink, full of paint, full of codes, full of images, full of logographs, and I wept, and I cried over those pages. Because my entire life drawing has been my language—drawing has been the way I’ve spoken to the world and I was looking at my ancestors’ books that are all drawing, No Roman or Latin letters or alphabets nowhere was that in these pages, it was all drawings. They were speaking my language, and I cried and sobbed, because I couldn’t understand what they were saying.

Months and months went by as I kept looking at these books, going online, trying to find digital facsimiles from the Vatican library and other digital libraries and references, but I was still unsure what they were saying in these pages.

The problem began resolving itself when I went to my own personal library of my own books, I started looking at my drawings. I started seeing the symbols in the patterns, and I started decoding my own work, because if I couldn’t decode my own work, how could I decode my ancestors work? How can I understand what they were trying to say if I didn’t even understand what I was trying to say. I talked to my elders who are in my spiritual healing circle in my life, and they suggested channeling and searching internally to find a way to find the answer to find the reasons and the meanings behind my drawings and the 16th century drawings.

I took online classes that were offered through a Chicago teacher, who was decoding the same books I was trying to read, and his family has been part of the decoding of our ancestors’ codices and books and his lineage is directly connected to the books that I was researching. So, as I gathered other peoples opinions and gathered the teachings that they were offering. I took on suggestions from my elders, and I took the teachings and lessons from those who were already doing the work that I was interested in, and as I tried to fill that cavity of what we lost when the Spaniards burned the indigenous books and libraries in 1521 and during the invasion because all of the Aztec books were completely destroyed. None survived the invasion, although the ones we have today were written during and after the invasion.

Another part of the erasure of indigenous people was also not being able to find the books that I needed to read from and regionally, in Milwaukee Wisconsin we don’t have a huge selection of Latin America, Mexican or Mexican American written books for research, so I relied on my community. I was offered a chance to archive a collection of books from a late Professor who recently had passed away, and while I was archiving the small collection of books that she contributed a huge part to writing parts of, I realized that she had inserted Milwaukee into a lot of these books, and again regionally we wouldn’t have these books in Wisconsin but because of her and her project that she had worked on for years and years, I was able to use her research her work to support my own research and ultimately I built a library from all of the knowledge I uncovered.

Celeste, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Jessica Anne Celeste Contreras Skierski, I go by Celeste Contreras with my art, Celeste Contreras Skierski when I lecture at the local university and I am Mexican-Polish American with Indigenous roots on both maternal and paternal sides. Professionally I teach and I work with adults in recovery offering therapeutic art counseling services, I manage Studio Tlacuilo + Library that I started in 2022 and it’s housed in an art collective called The House of RAD(Resident Artist Doer) where I am archiving books for research and collecting artists’ books. The mission of Studio Tlacuilo + Library is to remind everyone to WRITE THEIR BOOK. After working in the archives of The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, I learned that the most used medium in all of documented history, specifically on paper was graphite: pencil. So even if you write a journal/diary/calendar, WRITIE YOUR BOOK. I also specialize in calendars, I make my own daily calendars/Tonalpohualli/Counting of Days. In 2024 I carved one rubber stamp per day for my calendar, dating and archiving each day in rubber stamps and on paper. Most recently I have been leaning into rubber research and building a library of rubber stamps. Rubber is actually an indigenous material to the Americas and has been used for centuries for printing, building, and crafts not to mention tires, wheels, tools and more.
History helps me create art; I need a story or a historical date to help stoke something in me to create so in all of my sketchbooks of the last 5 years they all start with a timeline starting from the twelfth century to present day era of printing history. For example, Mexico received a printing press via Spain in 1539 and Massachusetts did not receive a printing press until 1639. This information is so inspiring to me and empowering.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There was a time I was running from being an artist, I tried not to make art, instead I traveled. By the time I was 17 years old, I was skilled at drawing was able to draw anything that I saw, but that was about all. I had no story, I thought. I was skilled but what was my story to tell? I believed I needed to go live first before I could make “real” art. So that’s what I did. I started in Italy one year for a couple months, then Thailand for one year, then Mexico for one year. Each place I visited or lived in taught me something new about myself, about how I see myself; I was building a cultural archive of experience. I put myself out there many times in my travels, having family tell me that hitch-hiking through Mexico is deadly and dangerous, once even telling me I would die if I did that on my own, my response to that family member was, “See you on the other side”. My single mom raised me to challenge everything and to do what I wanted, she supported me through my travels and it really did help heal a huge part of me.
Then when I went to undergrad at an all women’s Catholic college in Milwaukee, I learned about the Ministry of Art; I learned that one could serve their faith and do it through using Art. I am not Catholic and I was not raised in any church, actually my mom took me to the Milwaukee Art Museum every Sunday, art literally became my religion. But knowing that the School Sisters of Saint Francis were teaching women how to use art as a coping tool, as a tool for joy and the most important, art is a tool for change. Suddenly I saw and realized that I had a lot to say and I would say it with ART. After that I had a long conversation with my husband, been married for 21 years this August, about if I do choose to go into an art career(which was inevitable) that I would be opening up my past, all of it to heal so I could then help others use art to heal themselves as-well. Art is so deeply impactful for my own healing that it is not ever just a “hobby” or something “to do”, it’s literally my spirit pulling at my fingertips to sculpt, paint, DRAW, dance, scream; to express something inside of me, even if it’s only for me and no one will ever see it. Art is a spiritual adventure and tool I use with intention.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The Colors of the New World: Artists, Materials, and the Creation of the Florentine Codex

The Colors of the New World: Artists, Materials, and the Creation of the Florentine Codex Diana Magaloni
Book

https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/

https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/en/home.php

https://archive.org/

Codex Borgia
Book

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.celestecontreras.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/celestazuchitl.arte/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/celesazuchitl/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@celestearth