Consuelo González Amézcua

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)