For Houstonian artists, Rosemary Cantu, juggling life, and a career is not a walk in the park, but it is part of the journey to reaching her goal and establish an art studio of her own.

Cantu is a full-time artist who paints, draws, and sculpts--she is also a mother of one, and an adjunct professor of Appreciation of Art at a local community college in Texas.

Like many artists before her, Rosemary Cantu’s art is her passion and a fundamental part of her life. Many of Cantu’s work is a reflection of her life and experiences.

“My life are my pictures, most of the pictures that you see in paintings are my struggle with myself,” said Cantu.

Cantu came from a large family. She was the second youngest of eight siblings. Most of her siblings, including her mother, had a natural inclination to art.

”Since I was little, I had a knack for art. In my mom’s backyard, I used to dig out the clay and sculpt horses. My sister, at the time, was taking art classes in college and when she saw me doing this she was like, you have talent. My sister started teaching me how to draw,” said Cantu.

When Cantu began to attend college, she pursued a graduate degree in Fine Arts, receiving a Masters in Fine Arts. Cantu’s dream as an artist is to establish a studio of her own. After receiving her degree, Cantu moved to Houston where she found a job as an adjunct professor of art.

As a part-time professor of art, Cantu has not only found the time to stay relevant and up to date with current art trends. But Cantu has also found a passion for teaching in which she feeds off her student’s enthusiasm for art, especially when life gets a little hard.

As an adjunct professor, Cantu has found time to be a dedicated mother to one and to pursue her goal and establish her own studio.

As Cantu teaches college students during the first half of the day, by night Cantu creates art, attends art competitions, sells art pieces through her own website and lastly Cantu runs a small business providing children and adults with art classes.

As Cantu, juggles life and work, her work as an artist remains the most intriguing. For Cantu, life stages are incorporated and reflected into her art pieces, making her work vivid and relatable to the viewer.

“Before I had my daughter and while I was in graduate school, my work was dark. I think my older paintings look dark because I was painting about my body. At the time, I was physically struggling with my body; I had carpal tunnel in both of my hands and sculpting became so problematic. Sculpting is something I love, and I couldn’t do it anymore. My paintings at that time, reflected my body and I would use mechanical imagery to replace the broken pieces in my body” said Cantu.

However, once Cantu had her daughter, her painting began to evolve into something slightly different. The focus on her body shifted to her daughter and creating inspiration and hope in her artwork.

“When my daughter came, you started to see a drawing of a little girl on paintings. I played on the depicting myself as the child and as the adult, I was kind of playing with the idea that I was trying to protect myself as the child and yet be the adult at the same time.”

In recent years, Cantu has struggled with the death of cherished loved ones who have not only deeply influenced her life significantly but her artwork too.

After the passing of Cantu’s mother, creating art became unbearable.

“My mom was a poet, and we feed off each other. I promised her that we were going to create children's books, she had written all her stories. I have all her stories and the little cartoons I drew for the children’s book, look like her. I’ll eventually be able to complete these stories and publish the children’s book.” After a few months, Cantu has taken up the courage and began working in one of the art pieces depicting her mother.

“One of the paintings is in the process because I started after my mother died, but once she died, I couldn’t work on it anymore. Just recently, this specific painting is the one that I thought I could complete.

In a short span of time, Cantu had experienced her mother’s passing and also her graduate advisor's death.

But Cantu’s being an artist who seeks for hope and inspiration, has found it within herself to continue what she loves and create art.

Cantu will be entering an international art competition known as the Small Sculpture and Drawing Show in Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Cantu will be entering a piece that was inspired by her graduate professor and advisor who passed away.

“He was my advisor for my thesis during graduate school, I spent a lot of time talking to him, you knew he cared about you, and his work was amazing. This professor would always question my work; he would say that I was too literal with my work. He would go up to my piece and break it and rearrange things. He would then say, ‘make the viewer think.”

Cantu continued, “when I knew that my former college advisor killed himself I grabbed these figures and broke them. I thought about what he had told me to reinvent the figure and not to be so literal. I decided to make the boat part of the figure, and this particular sculpture shows the struggle of life. Sometimes you feel like you are sinking and your boat might not be working, but you can make it, you’re not always sinking, there is always a way out.”

For now, Cantu has found inspiration and hope in her life and her own struggles. Cantu continues to enjoy teaching her students, being a loving mother, pursuing her goal of establishing her own studio, and inspiring hope in the public's heart through her artwork.