I Carry this Land with Me

The vast and desolate desert

holds joy and sadness

of the place I call home.

I carry this land with me.



This resilient and boundless wasteland

holds life

defying the sun.

I carry this land with me.



This peaceful yet harsh place

of shared truths, laughter and tears,

survives journeys of love, hope and loss.

I carry this land with me.



Across the miles

land that once felt heavy

now feels cool and soft.

I carry this land with me.



Dust particles move

through space and time

with hope and promise.

I call this place home.

by Karla Garcia
Edited by Frances Gibbs Servello

12.26 is pleased to present Karla García: I Carry This Land With Me. The solo exhibition by this Dallas-based artist features individual floor sculptures in terra-cotta clay and a series of drawings in charcoal and pen with clay on paper. 

Familiarity is a prerequisite for nostalgia. Experiencing the rhythms of life and its changing  course will inevitably be punctuated with moments of memory, thoughts that bring our minds  back to another time that came before. García’s clay landscape evokes a familiar desolate desert scene. Born in Mexico, Karla’s mother relocated her family just north of the border. The references and associations filling the American environment became inexorable reminders of her replanting. García’s work remarks the difference of perspective on the environment, depending on which side you call home. I Carry This Land With Me is an  exhibition that uses clay as the medium at its most sincere, as patches of dirt taken out of the  earth and placed upon its surface.

García (b.1977, Juarez, Mexico.) is a Professor of Art and ceramics assistant at the Dallas College - Mountain View Campus. She completed an MFA degree in Ceramics and a Museum Education Certificate from the University of North Texas in May of 2019. The same year, she was awarded the Top Prize at the Sixth Annual Artspace 111 Regional Exhibition. García was selected as a visiting artist at the Dallas Museum of Art where she created a four-month interactive installation titled Carrito de Memorias which was selected to be exhibited at a Latin American Fine Art Competition in New York. García recently attended an international artist residency in St. Raphael, France where she began the exploration of her current work Home and Land Project which was exhibited at Nasher Sculpture Center for the Nasher Windows series in August of 2020.