Vanessa Ortiz Alcaraz is a first generation Chicana Mexica multidisciplinary artist & naturalist from San Diego/Tijuana CA. She is currently a guest resident artist on the island of O’ahu, in the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Her mediums encompass both handcrafted metalsmith Jewelry Collections and Cyanotype Fine Art prints. Exploring themes such as our primal connection to nature and our role as humans to protect both land & people. Her culture is greatly rooted in her pieces through the use of Mexican Peso coins, gemstones and metal design techniques. All jewelry collections use only ethically mined precious materials. She herself collects the Pesos when visiting her family in Mexico.
Her Cyanotype artworks feature her own photography as well as indigenous relics of Mexico overlayed with pressed botanicals. Plants play a vital part in her art practice as she forages and preserves the plants she learns their histories and properties both medicinal and spiritual. All these materials are interconnected and transform into one visual cobalt blue sun print.
Cyanotype alchemy harnesses the power of all the natural elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) and is one of the only eco friendly photographic printing process dating back to the 1840s used by botanists to document life.
“My hope is that when you wear a piece of my jewelry or view my art, you feel a little more connected to your own cultural spirituality and to the earth around you.”
-Vanessa
Residencies & Education:
2016 BFA - Cornish College of the Arts Seattle
2017-2025 - Resident Artist Barrio Logan Arts District
2019-Current - Resident Artist San Diego Museum of Art
2020-2024- Photography Art Teacher Museum of Photographic Arts
2022-Current - Resident Artist Chicano Park Museum
2025-Current- Resident Artist Hook&Hide Studios Oahu HI
Publications:
2020- San Diego Union Tribune: Local Style Article
2022- San Diego Voyager: Artist Feature
