Meet the Class of 2024
JOEL GARZA
Joel Garza, of Port Isabel, Texas, completed his first commissioned set of wedding bands for a couple in 2019, crafting textured silver into elegant rings to allow the couple to put their love on full display. In the process, Garza found something intriguing about something he made being worn by a couple every single day. That feeling was akin to an emotional high for the local artisan, fueling his mission to develop his skills and be recognized as the region’s most-driven jeweler and silversmith. Since, his jewelry has been welcomed into three prestigious art exhibitions on South Padre Island.
As his work comes more into public view, Garza recognizes parallels into his own life as a Dreamer from Matamoros, Mexico, who was raised in South Texas and Port Isabel but forced to keep a part of his identity hidden. As a child brought to the United States without citizenship, he faced potential deportation until becoming a DACA recipient as a teenager. Then, with legal protections, he could be open to others and pursue a future.
His jewelry allows others to fully express their identities through unique, custom works of art. His clients can have the same satisfaction of being seen that Garza himself enjoys. Further, as founder and chief jewelry of Seaside Gems, he works to bring metals and stones into a state worthy of not just being seen, but of being showcased.
Today, Joel is a resident artist of the Arts Business Incubator South Padre Island, where he sells his creations and offers hands-on workshops to allow others to experience the joy of making jewelry.
David gomez
David Gomez is a Mexican American artist currently working in the Rio Grande Valley. He explores meaning and context through lines and shape as a recurring theme of his work. He contends with the interpretation of lines, type fonts, and biomechanics and how they form into language and symbols. Growing up with challenges, such as undiagnosed ADHD, dyslexia, and stammering, meant that his awareness of words and symbols became more than a communication tool, but a language for his art as well. Most of his recent work arranges two-dimensional obstacles with cypher-like markings to balance his compositions. Strands and series of symbols and pattern merge together as if orchestrated musically. He collects symbols and imagery that are prevalent in everyday life and slowly expands into more insidious themes.
The more you know the more you see. He has shown in New York City, Milan, Italy, Paris, France, and Madrid, Spain.
David's work is meant for expression and to give something away: insight. It could be a thought, idea, or a lesson meaningful to. That is his goal as an artist and as part of his personal purpose.
With these series, David brings to the viewer feelings that he has experienced while standing in the middle of the trail at daybreak or sun set. David also attributes meaning to every corner of the canvas to convey the feeling of completion; like a well written letter. His work struggles and resolves, it's layered with processes of meaning to arrive to a composition that is complex but feels like closure. David works dancing between order and chaos to provide pieces that reconcile in the eyes of the viewer..
SOFIA VAZQUEZ
Picture a sunlit classroom where a six-year-old Sof sits at a small table with an arts and crafts set in front of her — little hands holding a glue stick, face scrunched up in concentration as she makes her very first sculpture. Fast forward to her last semester of college —the day she discovers the world of ceramics and begins her journey to finding beauty in imperfection and peace in chaos.
Born and raised in McAllen, Texas, Sofia has always held a deep appreciation for art. She’s the kind of person who can spend hours in a museum, admiring every little detail and reading every description, fully immersed in the effort and passion that artists pour into their work.
Four years ago, she began working with ceramics, a medium that has captivated her ever since. Her initial training in coiling and hand-building techniques laid a strong foundation before graduating to the pottery wheel three years ago. Working with clay has become her favorite artistic pursuit, teaching her invaluable lessons about patience and embracing individuality.
Beyond making functional ware and home pieces, her vision centers on creating sculptures, with a particular focus on female forms. She uses organic materials like flowers, leaves, and vines to highlight the unique beauty of the female body, including features such as wrinkles, cellulite, and stretch marks.
Sofia’s intention is for women to see the beauty within themselves and appreciate their own perfect imperfections.
ITZEL lopeZ
Itzel Arlette is a Mexican artist whose work spans oil, watercolor, and ink. Her artistic journey began in childhood, inspired by her grandmother’s love for painting. Growing up in a small agricultural town in Mexico, Itzel developed a deep connection with farm animals and nature, themes that remain central to her work today.
Over time, she transitioned to painting with oils, and watercolors. Itzel’s subjects often include animals, florals, and objects that capture her attention. Through her art, she aims to evoke peace in her viewers or stimulate their imagination, with titles that carry subtle meaning and depth.
With a background in chemistry, Itzel approaches her artwork with a spirit of experimentation. She is particularly drawn to the process of creating her own paints, foraging for pigments from wherever she ventures. She also enjoys stretching her own canvases to add to the feeling of building a painting from scratch and implementing subtle textures when priming them. This unique practice reflects her commitment to blending traditional techniques with an innovative, hands-on approach to materiality.
Itzel's work invites viewers to pause, reflect, and connect with the beauty of nature, while also exploring the potential of art as a vehicle for thought and stimulating conversations.
VIVIANA SANGUINO
My life can be told through summers.
When I was growing up, my mom had two friends and they each had two daughters, every summer we’d go to one of their houses at the beach and spend months there. I learned how to make flower crowns and bracelets with small red flowers that were all over their garden. I learned that I was great at guessing the song people sang underwater. (It was like a charades but with songs.) And I learned that I liked drawing, I spent the summer I turned twelve drawing the Pink Panther the best I could.
After that summer I returned to Mexico City, my home, where I drew on everything I could get my hands on, all of the printer paper, my notebooks—anything and everything. I even started a small art business in class, making and selling animal drawings.
The next summer, my mom took me for the first time to South Padre Island, and that was the summer where everything changed. My mom always believed the island to be a safe place, so I was free to take a bike and “travel the world,” which usually meant biking five or six blocks to the Paragraphs Book Store, buying two books and biking back to lie down next to the pool, everyday.
That was the summer I felt truly free, like I belonged. We would go to Tuesday Mornings and she would always buy me any art related thing I liked, any sketchbook, pencils, or any media, and that’s when I met the love of my life, watercolors.
I’ve heard people say watercolors are hard and they’re unforgiving. I’d say otherwise, and to be honest, I personally think watercolors are the easiest. To this day, I still feel like I’m cheating by creating artwork with watercolors and not other mediums. I think the way watercolors can’t really be controlled and your mistakes can’t be easily covered is what I like about it. I think it helped me realize you can’t really control everything, and things might move, or change, or dry in ways you never expected, but maybe that’s part of life.
I always thought I could never make a living out of art, so I studied graphic design. I thought it was a way to be creative and not starve. Yet in the end, design wasn’t enough for me, and other artists persuaded me to apply to the incubator—and here I am.