Teresa Vazquez

Pre-Art Therapy Program Director, Assistant Professor Art Education tvazquez@sf.edu

Bio

Teresa Vazquez is an artist, Dream Midwife, educator, writer, mother, and grandmother of Afro Cuban heritage, born and raised in Chicago and currently residing in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Oberlin College and a master’s degree in studio art from the Art Institute of Chicago.  

The experience of growing up as the child of immigrant parents striving to change their fate in a new country full of opportunities shaped Vazquez’s young life. Exposure to the rich cultural diversity of Hyde Park, and her parents’ (an Artist-Technologist’s and Doctor’s) pursuit of excellence in Art and Science provided fertile ground for a life rooted in freedom and great possibility. While she pursued studies in Visual Art through her undergraduate years and then obtained her MFA in 2003 in the field of Art and Technology, it took Vazquez approximately 13 years to rebuild her painting and drawing practice, thanks to her work with dreams. 

Dream work largely informs her art work, which in turn fuels her dreaming practice. The themes, characters, objects, actions and scenes from dreams are often reflected in the imagery, symbols and feeling tones portrayed in Vazquez’s artwork. Vivid, emotive color (usually achieved with a variety of inks and fluid media), delicate, shimmering line work, organic shapes and forms and a process-oriented, mixed media approach are notable formal aspects of the work. 

In her #Antibody series (2020), Vazquez’s largest body of work to date, the pieces put the body’s microscopic processes of immunity against the Coronavirus into large scale, forcing the viewer to face their own reserves of inner defense in the face of pandemic, and meditate on the sacred, self- healing power of the body. In her current series, DOGWHISTLES, she graphically explores triggering racialized words in black and white monograms, and sexualized words in Spanish in brightly colored monograms.  

Teresa is currently the Art Education and Pre-Art Therapy Program Director and Assistant Professor at University of Saint Francis, and also a Teacher at Newfields’ Creativity and Wellness Programs. Previously, she was the K-12 Visual Art Teacher at the Fort Wayne Virtual Academy, a small, fully virtual school in the Fort Wayne Community Schools District, and before that, the Community Programs Manager and a Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media Instructor at the Indianapolis Art Center. At IAC, she ran the ArtReach and Art Bus programs, which made professional art instruction and visits to the Art Center available to youth throughout central Indiana. Prior to that, Vazquez was an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Art History and Humanities Program Chair at Ivy Tech Community College in Fort Wayne. 

Areas of Interest

• Dreamwork

• AI Mixed Media