3 minute read
Charlotte PinC - Making Charlotte Beautiful
Rosalia Torres-Weiner
Red Calaca Studio
Charlotte – it is full of beautiful greenery, extravagant scenery, and is a melting pot of people from different walks of life. Here, you can almost find a church on every corner and well-maintained baseball fields that families flock to for leisure. The Queen City is a lively place known for its charm, and that is exactly what drew in artist and activist Rosalia Torres-Weiner of Red Calaca Studio. Born in Mexico City, Mexico and formerly of Los Angeles, Rosalia felt she had found something special when her husband’s company relocated them to Charlotte.
Rosalia dreamed of being an artist as a little girl. Though she did follow her passion over the years, she hadn’t truly found her calling. Flash forward to 2011, when Rosalia rebranded from an artist, to an “artivist,” moving from commercial art to activism.
Rosalia noticed two things when she moved to Charlotte: the city lacked vibrant, colorful artworks, and deportations were wreaking havoc on the Latino community. Through her favorite medium, public art, Rosalia decided that her artworks would shed light on immigration, social justice, and family separations.
Her passion eventually led to the creation of the “KITE Project,” where Rosalia invited children orphaned by deportations into her studio.
Website: www.RedCalacaStudio.com
IG and Facebook: Redcalacastudio
“The idea was to create a kite and tell their stories on a piece of paper, glue it on the kite and fly it. It was a way to say, ‘you’re going to be okay, let it go”says Rosalia. In addition to assisting the children Rosalia saw this as a way to educate the community on the impact of the deportations and its impact on the children.
Thoug h an influential Charlottean Artist, Rosalia faced her fair share struggles finding her fit here. Initially, she did not feel welcomed in the art community, and recalls being told that her “aura was very colorful, that [she] needed to be moved to a place like New Mexico, San Francisco.”
Lucky for us, she didn’t listen. Today you may see Rosalie driving around the Charlotte area in her art truck that proudly claims, “art is not only in museums.” Ironically enough however, Some of Rosalia’s art is in museums, and all throughout the city.
It is important to her that she not only makes use of bold colors in her
pieces, but that she truly captures the struggles, achievements, and stories of those in the Latino community.
Rosalia has called the QC home for the past 26 years. She has seen the growth of the Charlotte art community as a whole but is most proud of the growth in the Latino community. She is proud to have made her mark here and plans to keep capturing stories using paint and brushes for years to come.
