Ana Garcia is an award-winning sculptural bead, fiber and metal work artist. Her work has been exhibited in multiple venues including the Goldstein Gallery, Minnesota, La Jolla Fiber Arts, California, and 18 Hands Gallery in Texas. She has been published in several books including The Best of Contemporary Beadwork, Beaded Opulence and 500 Beaded Objects. Her work has been featured in Bead and Button Magazine, Beadwork Magazine and Piecework Magazine.
Ana paints and sculpts with beads. She creates sculptures and one-of-a-kind wearable art by weaving beads and thread. Beads may be opaque, translucent, metallic, faceted, each bringing unique properties and attributes and all reflecting light in different ways, to create pieces that are lit both from within and without. Beads are culturally universal, dating from ancient times to the present. The contemporary bead art that she creates is the evolution and current expression of an art form that has been present in all cultures. There are many weaving techniques to use with the beads and each brings a distinct structural form. The weaving is meditative – needle and thread, one bead at a time, one bead stitched to the next. This process inspires her to envision a concept and bring it to life in beads.
A sought-after teacher and mentor, Ana has been teaching these art mediums for 24 years, locally as well as nationally for artist guilds, conferences, corporate events in public and private venues. Ana has benefited greatly from the mentors and artists that have guided her and that motivates her to share with others in the form of teaching from novice to accomplished artists.
