Artist

Consuelo González Amézcua

born Piedras Negras, Mexico 1903-died Del Rio, TX 1975
Also known as
  • Consuelo "Chelo" Gonzalez Amezcua
  • Chelo Amezcua
  • Chelo Gonzalez Amezcua
  • Consuelo "Chelo" Gonzales Amezcua
Born
Piedras Negras, Mexico
Died
Del Rio, Texas, United States
Active in
  • Texas, United States
Biography

Consuelo "Chelo" González Amézcua was a self-taught artist born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, in 1903. She immigrated to the United States in 1913. Her ballpoint pen-and-ink drawings are filled with decorative, complex, repetitive patterning of fine lines, which took as long as a month to complete. Such space-filling patterns can also be found in the drawings of fellow Mexican-American artist Martín Ramírez of California.

Amézcua called her works "filigree drawings" because they reminded her of the Mexican-style filigree jewelry that she loved to wear. She stated, "I was always a dreamer, and I am still painting my dream visions."

Her works illustrate her interest in historical figures such as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, as well as autobiographical topics and abstract themes such as the "Queen of Ability" and "America's Filigree Star." Amezcua's drawings were often created simultaneously with original poems. The act of drawing helped shape the poems and occasionally inspired the creation of new poetry. As a child, Amézcua began composing songs for herself, and her poetry can be seen as lyrics. She died in Del Rio, Texas, in 1975.

National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM) (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996)

Exhibitions

Media - 1970.353.1-.116 - SAAM-1970.353.1-.116_9 - 127238
Galleries for Folk and Self-Taught Art
October 21, 2016January 31, 2030
SAAM’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists.