Alejandra Lindstrom Peralta
Alejandra was born to a mother from Guatemala and a Swedish/German/English father from Chicago. She grew up in a home filled with folk art from Guatemala and Mexico and summers were spent in Guatemala, exploring outdoor markets filled with bright, patterned textiles and handicrafts. The backyard of the house in Guatemala was a magical forest filled with iguanas, mango trees, an ancient Tamarind tree, and countless other tropical fruit trees and exotic flowers planted and cared for by her grandparents, great grandparents, and great great grandparents.
Coming from a family of gardeners and guardians of plants, it was inevitable that Alejandra developed a devotion to them. This has taken the form of working on numerous farms, having dozens of indoor plants as roommates, keeping a garden at home, and closely observing, sketching, and photographing the plant life wherever she finds herself.
Alejandra lives in Providence, RI with her husband, son, and three cats. She works as a high school art teacher, trying out all sorts of mixed media projects with students in the hopes that everyone will find a form of creating that they love.
Let’s Play (2023)
The first thing I think of when I hear the word PLAY is playing with my children. The second is my childhood and the the abundance of play I experienced. Play is something that comes naturally, an instinct, an integral part of childhood. Yet it is also a privilege, and one not all children grow up with. My children and I have had more opportunities to play than my mother did, than my grandmother, than my great grandmother.
When my first child was born, I was fixated by thoughts of these women and the infinite mothers before them who conceived, birthed, and kept us alive, leading to my existence and that of my children. How had they, and all of humanity managed, when it felt like hell to me? The days continue to be difficult, but are now also filled with times of play and joy. I hope these times continue to expand in the generations that follow us.