Teresa Vazquez is an Artist, Dream Midwife, Educator, Writer, Mother, and Grandmother of Afro Cuban heritage, born and raised in Chicago.

She has a BA in Creative Writing from Oberlin College and an MFA in Studio Art from the Art Institute of Chicago.

#Antibody, an Emerging Series, 2020
By Teresa Vazquez 

‍#Antibody, an Emerging Series, is a collection of works on paper produced in spring & summer, 2020, by Teresa Vazquez. These pieces are dreams on the scale of antibodies that attempt to answer the question, “What is the experience of the antibodies as they confront the CoVid 19 virus?” They all use liquid media with various resist and hand-coloring techniques. Some feature one antibody figure, while others depict fields of antibodies in dynamic encounters evoking physical battles, ecstatic dance andunity in diversity.

Antibodies are depicted as Y-shaped bodies where the long-chains do not meet in the middle, and the short chains form secondary segments on the upper portion of the “Y”. Resembling outstretched arms reaching toward the sky, the shape implies a range of states of being - such as victory, joy, celebration, supplication, despair, prayer, exaltation, or a cry for help or rescue. The symbol for the Antibody is also reminiscent of Egyptian Hieroglyph Ka – meaning power, energy, spirit, life.

Economist & philosopher Charles Eisenstein has characterized this global pandemic event as the “Coronation” of humanity. This ordeal which goes beyond the Pandemic, is one all humans are subject to, perhaps even repeatedly, because it has become apparent to scientists thatCoVid 19 doesn’t confer permanent immunity as is the case with many viral infections. Hence, in the absence of a vaccine, the antibody protection is a hard-earned line of defense, or a significant ‘blood sacrifice’ that only someone who has recovered from the disease can bestow on those who are still suffering with the effects of the virus.

These pictures and cutouts invite us to meditate on personal and our collective immunity to the virus and call for us to tune into our body’s warriors on the molecular level.  ‍

"These pieces are dreams on the scale of antibodies that attempt to answer the question, “What is the experience of the antibodies as they confront the CoVid 19 virus?...Resembling outstretched arms reaching toward the sky, the shape implies a range of states of being - such as victory, joy, celebration, supplication, despair, prayer, exaltation, or a cry for help or rescue."

I have a whole new body of work, entitled DOGWHISTLES. It's made up of dozens of racially-charged words (in US English) starkly rendered in white lettering and black backgrounds, mimicking an old-school blackboard, and sexually-charged slang (in Spanish) in bright colors rendered in oil on canvas. I use the letters in each word to create a monogram.

DOGWHISTLES brings words back into my creative focus in a visually satisfying and linguistically provocative way.