Adriana M. Garcia

Adriana M Garcia creates visual art, paints murals and illustrates picture books from her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Her debut picture book, All Around Us by Xelena González, was awarded the Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor, American Indian Youth Literature Award Picture Book Honor, ALA Notable Children’s Book, Tomás Rivera Mexican American Picture Book Award, and Texas Institute of Letters Literary Award for Best Picture Book. The companion picture book, Where Wonder Grows by Xelena González, received the Pura Belpré Illustrator Medal. Remembering by Xelena González, was named a Pura Belpré Illustration Honor Book and Ezra Jack Keats Award finalist. Adriana is also the illustrator of El cuarto turquesa/The Turquoise Room by Monica Brown and For a Girl Becoming by Joy Harjo, which was awarded The Claudia Lewis Award by Bank Street Library.

Adriana creates community murals honoring history, social justice, immigration, environmental and women’s rights. She is known for her 117-foot mural entitled “De Todos Caminos Somos Todos Uno” for the San Pedro Creek project in San Antonio. In collaboration with  nonprofit organizations, Garcia has created many community murals including SOMArts in California, Northwest Vista College, South West Workers Union, Bill Haus Arts, San Antonio Cultural Arts Center, and Casa de la Cultura. Her work has been exhibited and presented at conferences,  including American Library Association (ALA), National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS), and the McNay Art Museum. In all of her artwork and murals, Adriana honors our ancestors, speaks to access to education and literature for all.  She believes in the social importance of art to document, protest and learn. To see more of Adriana’s work, visit her at  www.adrianamgarcia.com .

Adriana notes, “I create as a way to document the lives, as a way to honor a person’s existence and make visible the marks they have imprinted upon me and the environment — a legacy left as well as those still to come. I believe in the social importance of art. It is the most accessible way to protest, love, heal, and learn.”