Changarrito Residency: Carla Santillana

About the Artist

Carla Santillana is an artist and art educator from Brownsville, Texas, based in San Antonio. Working across oil painting, stitched textile collage, and works on paper, she balances studio practice with community engagement and arts education. Santillana holds a Master’s in Art Education from Texas Tech University and a Bachelor’s in Art Education from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Recent exhibitions include Sacred Spaces (Flower Shop Art Studio, Brownsville, 2025), Mujer-Eres: Raíces (San Benito Cultural Center, 2025), Zine Gala (The Brick, San Antonio, 2025), and That Which Binds Us (Cactus Valley Art & Supply Co., Harlingen, 2025).

Artist Statement

My current work explores how rage is manifested, inherited, and released in the body. As a woman from a maternal lineage where frustration was often contained or dismissed, I use this anger as a passage towards healing and agency. I treat denim as a representation of flesh. Its flexible, resilient fibers mirror the body’s capacity to store and release trauma. Denim provides an intimate connection to my body while meeting me with its own material resistance and autonomy. These works give voice to the women in my family, who have been historically overlooked. Rage here becomes the catalyst for agency, a force I strive to redirect toward healing, forgiveness, and growth.