We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cindy Macias. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cindy below.
Cindy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
I have always felt misunderstood. maybe its that i was the middle child, but i never felt that I had a safe space so art became that to me at a very young age. in my composition notebook i would create these collages that served as vision boards for the life I wanted to create myself. I was scolded for creating and subconsciously i stopped creating.
When the pandemic came, I was at home more than i wanted to be and i had to face my childhood trauma of sexual abuse from older family members. Through my art, I named the experiences and havent stopped creating since. Much of my work is an exploration of my curiosities that went untapped in childhood. Having picked up art again in adulthood, after college, and post-pandemic, i wasn’t prepared for the journey of deep healing i would be on; art became my safe space again. this time, it helps me to process emotions i wasn’t allowed to in childhood, the ones i would be punished for expressing. my practices honors rage as sacred. sadness as inevitable and grief as an integral part to growth, artistically and spiritually.
Cindy, 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?
i started my art practice in psychotherapy amidst the pandemic in 2020. I was doing a visualization session with tapping and i saw my childhood self creating and i broke down crying. I was carrying shame around expressing myself. I started collaging as a means to prcoess and name trauma. I now have a body of work that consists of collage, photography, and printmaking that chronicles my journey to self-discovery centering a range of emotions from joy to rage and everything in between. I want folks to know that its never too late to take back your narrative and live the life you desire, whether its making art, music or dancing, do it! let go of shame and have fun.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
i had to unlearn shame. my art is primarily for myself to let go of shame over expressing myself. in whatever medium i choose, i am telling a story that in some way helps me in reclaiming joys of childhood like curiosity, play, and exploration.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
my goal with anything i do as an aritst, maker, or educator is to use art, imagination, and creativity to resist, survive, and thrive. In my work, i seek to introduce art to communicate, discover, and engage with the world within and around us.
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