For Maira Meza, it started with those poster contests for kids encouraging them to say no to drugs. As a kid who loved to draw, she entered those annual contests and won \u2014 twice. Later, she got married and had kids, setting her art aside to figure out how to take care of herself and her young family. When she began having health issues in her late 20s, the experience took a heavy toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very frustrating, and that\u2019s what took me into that place where I didn\u2019t want to be mentally. My son had asked me for this expensive Metal Mulisha sticker, and I said, \u2018Heck, no, I\u2019m not going to buy you that sticker. \u2026 Let me draw it up for you,\u2019 so I drew it for him. That made me not think of everything that was so loud in my head,\u201d she said, recalling the frustration of going back and forth with doctors, navigating surgery and prescriptions, and going through a divorce. \u201cI have all of these loud thoughts in my head that nobody else is putting there; it\u2019s myself and the way I\u2019m feeling, and it just wasn\u2019t where I wanted to be. When I was drawing, I didn\u2019t think about that; it was just me and my paper and my pen, or my pencil, whatever it is I was using.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2015, she started painting again, organizing a pumpkin painting session with her kids. She couldn\u2019t afford expensive art supplies, so she used her creativity and gathered up old makeup brushes, cotton swabs, and whatever else she could find around the house. It was therapeutic for her, and then some friends noticed her talent and encouraged her to seek out local art galleries and ask about showing her work. She was hesitant, but did it anyway and was included in a \u201cStar Wars\u201d group exhibition at La Bodega Gallery in Logan Heights, where she created a version of the Darth Vader character that she called \u201cDarth Vato\u201d (the space closed permanently at the end of 2019).<\/p>\n
\u201cNever did I think my art was going to sell, and it just started selling. It really motivated me to keep creating, not just to sell my art pieces, but to let other people see themselves in it, and to see things that they were brought up with,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Today, Meza, 45, is an artist, muralist, instructor who runs Arte Hasta La Muerte<\/a>, and illustrator of the children\u2019s book \u201cThe Spirit of Chicano Park\/El esp\u00edritu del Parque Chicano\u201d by Beatrice Zamora, winner of the 2021 Tomas Rivera Book Award<\/a>. She took some time to talk about her family and her culture, and the ways they\u2019ve influenced who she is as an artist.<\/p>\n Q: What kind of influence has your upbringing, your culture had on the art that you create? Are there ways that you see your upbringing as having informed your art practice?<\/p>\n A:\u00a0My dad built furniture, so I say that he was an artist. He did that big Santa Claus chair at (Westfield) Plaza Bonita. He was an upholsterer and every summer, my mom had new furniture because my dad made it, so I do believe that that is a form of art, as well. My mom was always handy with floral arrangements, and she would make matching dresses for my Cabbage Patch dolls and myself. That\u2019s art, as well.<\/p>\n My parents were both immigrants. They came here for the reason that other families come here, to provide a better life for myself and my siblings and our kids. It\u2019s so easy to kind of learn to hide in the shadows. My dad was scared of la migra, so \u201cLet\u2019s not be loud. Let\u2019s not make ourselves be seen,\u201d not because he wasn\u2019t proud of where he came from because, fortunately, I was able to grow up with the music that he likes, the culture, the traditions and everything. But as far as being loud and being proud, I can\u2019t say that he didn\u2019t want to be, but he was scared of getting kicked out of this country, he was scared of getting deported. I am thankful and I\u2019m grateful that I am a citizen and that I don\u2019t have that fear, although a lot of us do in these times. That\u2019s scary, but at the same time, I\u2019m not going to let that fear silence my voice and I\u2019m going to continue to be proud of my roots and encourage my kids to be proud of their roots, to be proud of the skin color that they\u2019re in because our history is going to be silenced if we\u2019re not.<\/p>\n What I love about Logan Heights\/Barrio Logan\u2026<\/p>\n I love that there\u2019s just so much history and I love that it\u2019s a community that continues to come together and helps each other. We find our own resources to do things that the city fails to do for us. It\u2019s an underserved community, and the people that serve it are their own people. So, whether that be the art classes that I give every summer, or the monthly food distribution, along with diapers, women\u2019s necessities and different resources\u2014that\u2019s my home, that\u2019s my community.<\/p>\n Q:\u00a0Do you exclusively paint murals? Do you create art in other media?<\/p>\n