Celeste by Sandra C. Fernandez

“Celeste” is one of a monoprint series of 16 dresses printed, sewn and fabricated by the artist and Flatbed Press onto 40 1/2 x 30 inches Rives BFK.  Each of the prints of the prints from the series, “Enduring Presence” contains lithographic printed images and text.  “Celeste” embodies printed chine collé elements printed onto Kozo paper as well as a monoprinted relief roll of blue.

Fernandez states:

This body of work (“Enduring Presence”) explores migration as an emotional, physical, and transformative experience—particularly the act of moving from one country to another. Migration is never just a change of location. It is the moment when one leaves behind family and friends, but also culture, language, routines, and the systems that provide a sense of belonging and stability. It is the departure from what is known, and the beginning of an uncertain, yet possible, future.

People migrate for many reasons. Sometimes the journey is motivated by hope, curiosity, or the desire for opportunity. Other times it is driven by necessity—political unrest, personal or religious persecution, ecological disasters, or violence. Regardless of the circumstances, uprooting one’s life and starting over is rarely easy. The early stages often involve disorientation, culture shock, and the challenge of navigating a new language or social structure. Over time, some people fully assimilate into their new environment, while others work to preserve the traditions and values that shaped them. Most exist somewhere in between, negotiating loss, adaptation, and growth all at once.

My work addresses these experiences metaphorically through images of women who migrated to Austin, Texas, across different periods of time. Each woman carries her own story—of struggle and resilience, rupture and transformation, endurance and triumph. Rather than creating traditional portraits, I fragment these images into faces, hands, feet, and traces of written text. These elements are printed, reprinted, layered, cut apart, and sewn back together.

The fragments become the fabric for garments. Dresses emerge through acts of assembly and care—forms that hold memory, presence, and possibility. What has been separated is brought back together, not to restore what once was, but to allow something new to exist. These sewn forms reflect a state of becoming rather than arrival, shaped by what is remembered, what is carried, and what continues to unfold.

Every seam and puncture becomes a quiet record of lived experience. Some marks are deliberate, others strained or uneven, yet together they hold. While the work acknowledges the difficulty and sorrow that often accompany migration, it does not remain there. The dresses are intentionally beautiful—visually rich, luminous, and inviting—speaking to the present that is being lived and to a future shaped by hope, dignity, and perseverance.

These works celebrate endurance, labor, and the strength required to persist. They honor survival not as a fixed outcome, but as an ongoing way of being. Although the direct image of the woman is absent, her presence endures—embedded in form, gesture, and material—affirming that from rupture and change, something meaningful, joyful, and lasting can be made.

Monotype
Chine collé lithograph, monotype and stitching
2026
Image Size: 32 x 24
Paper Size: 40 1/2 x 30 inches
Rives BFK and Asian papers