Mexican-born artist Andrea Cira first came to Kansas City to visit her father and brother before a planned move to Canada. However, soon the pandemic hit and halted Cira’s plans to move.
Eventually, Cira got married and decided to make KC her home. While she didn’t have a formal art degree, she describes herself as an “artistic kid” who, while getting her bachelor’s degree in industrial design in Mexico, became more interested in learning manufacturing processes and how to actually make things—especially as it pertained to Mexican arts and crafts.
We talked to Cira about her Mexican heritage, her artistic processes and her beloved culture celebrated through colorful, vibrant art.
Tell us about the beginning of your artistry. During college, I was interested in how to make things and in the arts and crafts of Mexico. It’s a very important part of the cultural heritage there. I’ve always had that sense of wanting to do things with my hands and build things, but I didn’t know exactly how. Back in Mexico, whenever I had some free time, I would do little cut paper scenes. It wasn’t until I moved here and I was going through my immigration process that I started to do it more as a hobby. I started sharing it online, and to my surprise, I got a lot of attention. Suddenly people wanted me to make paper portraits of their dogs and [things] like that. It got a little popular, and I really enjoyed doing it. It started as a hobby, and after a year, I decided I was going to do it full time. And now here I am.
How do you describe your art? Cut paper illustrations or paper illustration cut-outs. It’s basically illustrations made with cut paper, and most of my work is hand cut. I illustrate little scenes or people, things like that. I like doing 3D-paper models. I do things that are very intricate and very colorful. I think that is what sets me apart from other paper artists—a lot of details and colors. [When] I have a scene in mind, I cut every piece of that scene with my X-Acto knife then I assemble them together to create a scene.
What inspires your art? Since I haven’t been here in the U.S. for a long time, I think I’m still very inspired by my Mexican culture and I’m still very nostalgic about it. That’s why I do things with a lot of color and I try to be intricate, because all the handmade work that is done [in Mexico] tends to be very intricate, too. So I like to incorporate those things into my art. I’m working on a project with Lotería that’s inspiring me. Lotería is a lottery game that is very similar to bingo, but it has characters and numbers on it. It’s a project that has brought me a lot of attention because it has connected me to the community here and the Mexican people in Mexico.
Shop Andrea Cira’s work at acirastudio.com
