Ana DelMar Belacqua: Artist on a Social Mission

It's a day when snow and ice are covering the landscape, but in Ana DelMar Belacqua's Pikesville studio, the windows are open.

Though she offers to close them for me, she is perfectly warm as is. The longer we talk, the clearer it becomes: It would take more than a snowy day to cool her fiery, artistic passion.

That passion is for cultural diversity and understanding through art. "My aim," she explains, "is to bring multiculturalism to the fine arts and then to the rest of the world."

DelMar Belacqua grew up in rural Texas not far from Austin. When she was small, she drew on wooden blocks that her father, a carpenter, provided. She had her first exhibition at 5 years old. 

From there, DelMar Belacqua began a series of travels that took her all over the world. Since the 90s, she has visited and lived in 26 countries.

She visited the pyramid cities in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), where she prayed for healing and enlightenment for all of humanity.

It's no wonder that she thinks globally.

She wants to bring underrepresented cultures to the art world first, and from there, bring them to the world at large—from her small studio to Baltimore to the nation, the world.

DelMar Belacqua studied art in San Francisco with artist Ric Rodrigues and later at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she was mentored by Sanford Biggers. She works in drawing, painting, collage and fashion design.

Like many collage artists, she is adept at design. The collages evolve over time to become larger, more focused works on canvas. 

Her colorful pieces display an early '70s feminist sensibility, as well as an awareness of current cultural events. Some are fantasies, but they always reference the real world. Underlying all is her conviction that broad multicultural communities can claim their heritage and their right to what she calls "treasures of the ages."

Her inspirations are women of history—spies, rulers, queens—who have been large and in charge. Pam Grier and Angela Davis claim space next to Phoolan Devi, India's bandit queen. Other heroes such as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley are those whose work bridges cultures.

"That's what my art and, really, my whole life are about," she says.

And a significant inspiration is her mother, Angie, who appears in her painting Family Style as a bold Lady Godiva.

DelMar Belacqua credits the multiculturalism of the urban environment with keeping her in cities even though she is "country at heart."

She says she is still dismayed by how separately different cultural communities live their lives. After a period of six years in New York City, DelMar Belacqua feels the sting of a society not at peace. She is aware that nowhere, in big cities or small towns, have we truly overcome the differences between our disparate communities.

DelMar Belacqua said she wants to see some big changes. Take a look at her idyllic world in the collage work Eden. She wants peace and cohesion, enlightenment and compassion, harmony and communion with nature.

If anyone can achieve it, it will be this powerful artist with her powerful art.

Ana DelMar Belacqua can be contacted through her Facebook page, where visitors can also view a large number of her artworks.

Jeannette Ortt is a freelance writer and a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she studied art and Slavic languages and literature.