“Being an artist is not just about what happens when you are in the studio. The way you live, the people you choose to love and the way you love them, the way you vote, the words that come out of your mouth… will also become the raw material for the art you make.”

 New York-based visual artist and recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation 2005 Genius Grant, Teresita Fernandez delivered the commencement address titled: “On Amnesia, Broken Pottery, and the Inside of a Form” to the graduating 2013 class at her alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts. Teresita served as a presidential appointee to Barack Obama’s U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, distinguishing her the first Latina to serve in that role.