margaret "QUICA" alarcón

Quica is a professional artist, teacher and community arts activist from East Los Angeles.  She graduated from National University with a Masters Degree in Education specializing in cross-cultural art education and received her B.F.A. in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena with a special interest in printmaking, drawing and painting.  She has worked and volunteered part-time, and full-time as a teacher for the Montebello Unified School District since 1999. For 13 years she has volunteered as a core organizer for Mujeres de Maiz (MdM) of Los Angeles, a grassroots, multimedia women’s art collective and networking/support circle of emerging Xicana and women of color cultural activists and artists in Los Angeles that provide creative cultural projects that support women in local communities. Currently she is working on her M.F.A. in Studio Art at CSULA.

 *  *   *

Quica's art work is a meditation or exploration of issues concerning life, community, indigenous healing ceremony, dreams, ancient Aztec & Mayan literature, as well as ancient & contemporary indigenous philosophy.

As a teen, she began her art education in community art classes at Self Help Graphics and Plaza de la Raza where Yreina Cervantes introduced her to watercolor painting.  Encouraged and supported by family and friends,  it was these influences combined with the Chicano graphic arts and murals of East Los Angeles that inspired her to obtain a BFA in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where she was able to begin her studies in painting with Dwight Harmon, drawing with Burne Hogarth and advanced printmaking with master printer Anthony Zepeda.  

In 1998 she co-founded a local, women's' artist collective called Mujeres de Maiz.  As a volunteer core member, she produces an annual poetry and arts community publication featuring artists from all over the nation. 

In addition to community arts education and self-publication, her work has been published in various publications including the Spectator: the University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television Criticism and a book that involved a national art tour called Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California.  She has also been invited to nationally exhibit in many university galleries such as the Fowler Museum in the University of California Los Angeles, the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art in the University of Texas, Austin, and the University Art Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Through spiritual community support and creative mentorships, her work has evolved into a journal, a self portrait of life experiences that embody a spiral of people and elements building a complex, layered identity of subject matter that explore the heart of healing processes in the mind, body and spirit.

 "I am grateful for the support of
my ancestors, family, friends, community, mentors
and
the great mystery

for providing oppportunites to

live, love, heal and
create..."

-Quica

Master of Arts, Education
National University  
La Jolla, California
2010

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Illustration  
Art Center College of Design
Pasadena, California
1997

Margaret Alarcon
Art Center College, Fall 1997

Mujeres de Maiz: Somos Medicina
Self Help Graphics:Galeria Otra Vez, 2008
East Los Angeles, California 

Regenerations:
The 13th Annual Women of Color Film and Arts Festival
Porter College, University of Californa, 2006
Santa Cruz, California

Reflections of 8 Natural Women
LáFIA HOUSE Gallery, 2006
Brewery Arts Complex,
642 Moulton Ave., W13,
Los Angeles, California

Iztapapalotl: Continous Transformation
Antigua Gallery Space, 2006
El Sereno, California

Toltecayotl: Sacred Heart
Antigua Gallery Space, 2006
El Sereno, California

Three Women
Imix Bookstore Gallery, 2005
Eagle Rock, California

Ofrendas 2004, Dia de los Muertos
Tropico de Nopal, 2004
Los Angeles, California

Tres Mujeres, Un Camino
Tia Chucha’s Café Cultural, 2003
Sylmar, California

Danzando Con el Fuego/Dancing With Fire
Self Help Graphics, 2003
East Los Angeles, California 

Celebracion del Dia de los Muertos
Snite Museum of Art, Mestrovic Gallery, 2002
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana

3 Generations of Chicana Art:
30 Years of Contemporary Chicano and American Art Traditions
Rike Gallery, University of Dayton, Ohio, 2002

Just Another Poster?
Chicano Graphic Arts in California
University of Texas, Austin & University of California, Santa Barbara, 2000-2003
US National Art Tour:

• September 14, 2003
  Crocker Art Museum and La Raza/Galería Posada,
  Sacramento, California
  
  
• March 14-May 31, 2003
  Jersey City Museum
  New Jersey
  
  
• May 4-August 18, 2002
  Oakland Museum of California
  
  
• June 16- December 9, 2001
  Fowler Museum
  University of California Los Angeles
  
  
• January 12-March 4, 2001
  University Art Museum
  University of California, Santa Barbara
  
  
• June 2-August 13, 2000
  The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art
  University of Texas, Austin
  
  

Carpa Tezcatlipoca: Introspection, Liberation, Carnivalesque
Self Help Graphics/Galeria Otra Vez & Galleria Boccaler @ Olvera Street, 1998
East Los Angeles, California

Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos Annual Exhibition Celebration
Self Help Graphics/Galeria Otra Vez, 1995-2000
East Los Angeles, California

Brezinova, Katerina
    2000. “El Imaginario Chicano: La iconografía civil y política
    chicana en Estados Unidos de América 1965-2000.” Karolinum
    Press, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Ph.D.
    Dissertation.

Sandra Alvarez and Susy Zepeda.
    Spring 2006. “Womyn Image Makers: A Colectiva of Queer
    Indígena Visionaries,” Spectator: USC Journal of Film and
    Television Criticism. Chicana Spectators and Media Makers:
    Imagining TransCultural Diversity. Ed. Osa Hidalgo de la Riva.
    Vol. 26. No. 1, pp. 127-134.

Huacuja, Judith L.
    2003. Borderlands: Critical Subjectivity in Recent Chicana Art
    Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies.” Volume 24, Number 2 &
    3, pp. 104-121. University of Nebraska Press.

Dits, Joseph
    Nov 10, 2002. “Day of the Dead, A Day for Remembering.”
    Sounthbend, Indiana: South Bend Tribune.

Coppens, Julie York.
    Nov 10, 2002. “A Spirit Reborn: Chicana Artist Finds Redemption
    and Renewal in Ofrenda.” Sounthbend, Indiana: South Bend
    Tribune.

Barnet-Sanchez, Holly
    2001. “Where are The Chicana Printmakers,”in Just Another
    Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California. University of
    California, Santa Barbara.  Seattle and London:University of
    Washington Press pp. 142, 144.

Mujeres de Maiz
Co-Founder, Publication Designer/Coordinator, Webmaster
Los Angeles creative women’s organization, 1997- Present

National Art Education Association
Member
2006-Present

Member, Quetzalitztli
East Los Angeles aztec dance group, 2001-2007