Meet Celia Rocha | Visual Artist and Mother

We had the good fortune of connecting with Celia Rocha and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Celia, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I was an only child. I remember spending many hours in nature, drawing by myself. My dream was to be an artist, even though my family was not supportive. It has been a continuous struggle to believe in myself and find my voice. I tried to run away from my dream, to avoid it and choose a different path. But I cannot help it, I return to it. It is who I am. I need to express myself, my hopes, my dreams and values, the things that I have to say. I have decided many times to pursue my dream to become an artist. I have redetermined over and over at key junctures throughout my life.

When I was 18 years old, I was raped and contemplated suicide, but I decided to live and pursue my dream of becoming an artist. Later, facing rejection from college art programs in Portugal for three years, I felt lost and discouraged. But, with the guidance of a mentor, I resolved my internal conflict about the role of art in promoting peace and embraced my identity as an activist artist. Drawing from my personal experience, while I was an undergraduate student at Soka University in Aliso Viejo, California, I wrote and performed a play titled As Pure As Fresh Snow, to raise awareness about sexual violence. I sought to use art as a vehicle for healing. In 2018, I completed a Master of Fine Arts degree from Otis College of Art and Design, graduating from the Public Practice program founded by Suzanne Lacy. Since then, I have showcased my artwork in a number of exhibitions and now have a fulfilling job as a studio assistant to a professional artist in Los Angeles, refining my skills in drawing and painting.

While pursuing my dream, I raised two children, and this experience has deeply influenced my artmaking. I have recently become a published author in the book An Artist and A Mother. In 2023 I was awarded a California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship grant.

I believe it is my mission in life to have victory as an artist. To me, that means to create value through my art. I aim to contribute to social change as an advocate for women’s rights and mental health.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a Portuguese and American interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles and Santa Ana. Using photorealistic drawings which incorporate text as a means to highlight a message, I create artwork that builds awareness for women’s mental health and healing. I use my artwork as a tool for activism, drawing on social issues that have affected me on a personal level, such as my experience of motherhood, the politics of childbirth or sexual violence. My artwork explores universal issues of gender and collective identity, culture, memory and loss, while it is imbued with the feeling of the typically Portuguese trait saudade, which roughly translates as a nostalgic longing or yearning of someone or something of the past. Influenced by Vija Celmins’s drawings, Andrea Bowers’ use of text and activism and Suzanne Lacy’s commitment to social justice, my work examines inequality and is borne out of a desire to call attention to the often invisible and overlooked issues that primarily affect women.

Last year I was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship grant from the California Arts Council, and I used the grant to fund my project about rape culture, which supported sexual violence survivors. Central to the project is a graphite drawing of a snow landscape with the words “No matter how badly you have been hurt you remain as pure as fresh snow” placed in the center of the image. This quote, by the Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda, is from a dialogue with youths who represented the United States in a conversation about violence against women. Survivors of sexual violence often feel dirty, but Ikeda is saying that nothing can muddy your inherent dignity. Prints and cards of the drawing have been donated to organizations that support rape survivors, both in California and in Portugal, so that this message of hope reaches those who need it most. This is my contribution to the healing of rape survivors 30 years after my assault.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
One exhibition I am looking forward to seeing is the Joseph Beuys show at the Broad Museum. For lunch, we could have pizza at Triple Beam in Highland Park. For outside adventures, I would take her to Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach, or see the canals in Venice, and hike one of the many fantastic hiking trails in Los Angeles. Later in the week, I would take my friend to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see the new photorealism show, and then afterward, we would listen to a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. If it were spring, I would take her to see the super-bloom poppy flowers in Antelope Valley and for dinner, we would stop by a Japanese restaurant in Little Tokyo.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My children, ex-husband, and mother-in-law, and my mentors have been key influences and supporters in my life. My art mentors are Andrea Bowers, Arie Galles, and Bruno Sequeira. My spiritual mentor is the Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda. I also want to acknowledge my friend and artist Valerie Samuel Henderson who has been a source of constant encouragement.

Website: https://www.celiarocha.com

Instagram: @celiarochastudio

Image Credits
Michael Seeley