Patssi Valdez's paintings and graphics are brightly colored and often emotive with a sense of magical realism woven in. In Cactus Queen, Valdez captures an indigenous woman dressed in an ornate red gown and cactus crown standing in a desert landscape framed by saguaros, prickly pear cactus pads, and the night sky. The illusion of a frame creates a sense of theatricality and pageantry, in which this empowered woman reigns supreme. A Chicano art icon, Valdez has been internationally recognized for her pioneering artwork that uses magic realism to reject negative representations of the Latinx community. The artist states, “Nothing in the world is static. Nothing is solid. Everything is always in flux and in motion.”
One edition is at the collection of the Tucson Museum of Art.