Changarrito Residency:  Ana Deisy Campos

About the Artist

Ana Deisy Campos is a Salvadoran-American artist born in California and raised in Dallas, TX. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin, minoring in Art History (2025). She draws from her own experiences and retells stories of Salvadoran and Latino culture as a way to combat narratives in US media and as a way to connect with family and self, creating new environments. She has illustrated for the Daily Texan newspaper (2023-2025) and has exhibited at La Peña in Austin, Centro Cultural Aztlan in San Antonio, the Visual Arts Center in Austin, and the Cliff Temple Baptist Church 10th St Gallery in Dallas.

Artist Statement

I explore the connections between identity and everyday life including how media has shaped the relationship between myself, culture, family, and environment. Often navigating the triangulation between California, Texas, and El Salvador, I aim to retell stories dealing with Salvadoran and Central American culture from the perspective of growing up in the United States, in order to uncover what has been erased, such as the heart, power, and spiritual connection between people and family. These explorations reveal how Latino/a/x identity has been shaped as a result of American media representation, underrepresentation, and generalization. Working predominantly through painting, I recreate moments, experimenting with colors and contrast, to find harmony within a history of woundedness and highlight the heart of day to day living. Using family photos, gathered images, and symbols of culture, such as chickens, I create work that plays with movement and stillness, creating new atmospheres by overlaying images/colors on top of each other to build new narratives, allowing perception to inform the work. Growing up in Texas, I never felt fully included, not understanding where my identity fell. I draw from my own experiences and toggle with what feels tangible and what does not to investigate memory and the loss of it, while still searching for belonging as a means of connecting with myself, family, and the world around me.