Cornelio Campos

Early life and family

Campos was born in Cherán, Michoacan, Mexico. His father was a construction worker, and his mother stayed home to care for him and nine siblings. At the age of eight, he began taking lessons from a fine arts student who came to Cherán at weekends to teach children drawing and painting. Campos developed basic skills by working as an apprentice to the student, whose work focused on an indigenous group, the Tarascos' culture, an influence that became visible in Campos’ work.

As Campos grew older, his passion for art deepened as friends and family encouraged him to dedicate himself to his artwork. After completing high school, Campos made the decision to immigrate to the United States in the 1980s. After living with his grandfather in Los Angeles, California, for the first two years, he moved across the country to live with his cousin in North Carolina. Campos joined his cousin in the tobacco fields as a farm laborer and was unable to dedicate time to his art work. In addition to farm work, he took English classes in Durham. Through these classes he met his first wife and eventually gained legal citizenship.

Professional life

Cornelio Campos is an artist and full-time alarm technician. Due to the financial struggles of being an aspiring artist, he tries to support himself by having a second job. Also, he finds inspiration for some of his artistic themes in the lives of other construction workers. Campos’ artistic career has positively impacted his family and loved ones. Seven of his family members have been able to visit him in North Carolina, where he currently resides. While family members were applying for a travel visa to enter the United States, Campos’ successful career helped demonstrate he was able to support their stay and that family members would return to Mexico after visiting him. A solo exhibition of Campos’ paintings in 2011 at the FedEx Global Education Center at the University of Chapel Hill led to shows at Duke University, North Carolina State University, and elsewhere. His most famous painting, “Realidad Nortena”, permanently resides in the UNC Campus Y faculty lounge. Many of Campos’ paintings are on display at the Durham Art Guild, and other museums and collections.

Paintings

'Cherán'

Inspired by his hometown, the painting Cherán illustrates a small town in the state of Michoacan in central western Mexico about 200 miles from Mexico City. With a population of 16,500, the community enjoys coming together for cultural festivities and traditions. Once filled with modest pine and adobe houses and stone streets, the town now has modern infrastructure and brick houses. In recent years it has experienced violence from organized crime and drug cartels. To defend themselves from illegal loggers, residents imposed controls on movement so that only local people can come and go. His hometown inspires many of his paintings, and Campos hopes to serve as a role model to young artists there.

'Pajaro Azul, Blue Bird'

Cornelio Campos drew inspiration for “Pajaro Azul” (2008) from native, indigenous culture in Michoacan. The vibrant colors of the design are common to local art found on pottery and other artifacts (from Suenos Americanos Book). Some view the bird as a symbol of freedom. Birds can easily fly away, of course, and the stylized figure may also allude to the difficulties of getting out of poverty. This work is an example of Campos experimenting with different styles. In this painting, he uses vivid colors seen in some of his other work. It is not one of his most realistic works, especially when compared to the painting of his hometown. While not overtly political, the painting is an example of how he shares and explores his Mexican heritage in his artwork.

'Realidad Nortena, The Reality of the North'

Realidad Nortena, translated as “The Reality of the North”, was Campos’ first painting after almost ten years away from his artwork (UNC Gallery and Stories). He says this is his favorite painting and it represents his personal journey to the United States.

The left side symbolizes Mexico while the right symbolizes the United States. The desert on the left shows a woman with her son, who might be waiting for a loved one to return home. The right side displays an expanse of sandy, dry desert filled with crosses for those who died during the risky journey. Campos says families are often unaware if their loved ones reached their destination, or not. Beyond this desert is a tobacco field representing Campos’ time working on a farm. Dominating the center of the painting, a hybrid figure of a dark-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe (on left) is joined to a blond-haired Statue of Liberty (on right). Included in the same large circle as this hybrid woman are the official seal of Mexico, a monarch butterfly, and a hybrid flower with a bird-of-paradise (on left side) and dogwood flower (on right). To Campos, The Virgin of Guadalupe and the Statue of Liberty both represent the ideal of freedom. The eagle is similar to one on Mexican money. The monarch butterfly spans the left and right side of the painting. Known for migrating back and forth between Mexico, the United States, and Canada it illustrates the artist’s hope of safer, more humane movement between countries. The dogwood is the state flower of North Carolina, representing his current home, while the orange one, a bird-of-paradise flower, is representative of his hometown, Cherán. Overall, “Realidad Nortena” signifies the reasons for and the struggles of immigrants who take risks while seeking a better life.

Artist themes and community engagement

Campos’ artistic work engages key themes in contemporary society including the immigrant experience, indigenous identity, “free trade”, and neoliberalism. Museums, galleries and restaurants display his work and he participates in many public events, cultural celebrations, and regularly visits classrooms to talk with students. He has appeared in at least two documentary films focused on immigrant life in the US South including “The Virgin Appears in La Maldita Vecindad”(2008) where Campos speaks for several minutes. As the video camera lingers on details of UFOs and extraterrestrials in Campos’ painting “Antorcha Guadalupana” (Guadalupana Run) he explains in straightforward language how his artwork engages and challenges the relentlessly dehumanizing representations of the “illegal alien” in radio, newspapers and television. “Every day,” he states, [they] “focus on us as illegal aliens. For me aliens can mean many things. It implies to me something is out-of-place, something that does not belong.” Scholars have analyzed his work and its reception.

Campos’ professional accomplishments and high level of public engagement were recognized by the Durham Public Library when it chose to work collaboratively with Campos to permanently preserve his archive in their North Carolina Collection in downtown Durham, North Carolina. A community archivist worked closely with the artist to foster a mutually beneficial relationship. In this way, Campos’ legacy is available and accessible now and to future generations. As he says himself:

“Art is my autograph; it expresses what I feel. Art is extremely powerful.”