Celesté Rodriguez is a Pueblo girl who just wants to make her hometown proud — proud of its history, proud of itself, proud of its people and proud of its heritage.
If you have been watching the repainting of the Arkansas River Levee, you probably have seen her work. To date, she has painted five murals on the levee and has plans to do more.
To say she is driven is putting it mildly. She works on her art 14 hours a day seven days a week. Murals are not her only thing. She says she’s been drawing ever since she could “pickup chalk.”
In her first years of school, she realized she had a gift for art. “My drawing of a chicken on roller skates was the first drawing that other kids noticed. They said they liked it and kids don’t lie.”
Right out of high school, she began exploring career options. “I almost enrolled in a cosmetology class, but was encouraged to pursue art by Niko (Rodriguez). Niko believed in me.” Niko is her partner, they have been together since they met in school. “He was 16 and I was 15.”
She began as a tattoo artist by investing in some equipment and developing her own designs. Soon she turned to painting and selling works of various sizes. She has worked in numerous mediums including oils, charcoal, gouache, graphite, acrylics, and exterior latex. “I don’t like to be put into a box,” she said of her medium choices. ‘I feel like a scientist experimenting with style and texture. One recent experience has been to create a mosaic-like painting surface by adhering egg shells to the canvas. “It creates a lava look.”
Cynthia Ramu, who has been involved with Pueblo levee murals for more than three decades, drew Celesté out of her studio and into the public art arena. Her first project was a group painting on the maintenance building at Pinewood Park. “I just dove right into it,” Celesté said. Her levee paintings include:
- A sepiatone portrait of pioneer Charles Autobee on a map of southeastern Colorado.
- Gaia — “Mother Earth” a native shawwoman
- The Vurkhardt Bridge depicting the four seasons with a focal point on promoting outdoor activities
- Hands of unity — the hands form a heart and frame a symbol of Pueblo and a modern-day steel mill.
- Fifth & Main, a landscape of the Downtown intersection with a black and white insert showing the same scene from years ago.
“It’s been a grand blessing to see fruits of my work — I’m grateful and humble,” she said. “It’s a beautiful way to share your gifts with someone.”
On the day of this interview, Celesté, was her own work of art. She was wearing a trendy avocado dress with matching lipstick and complimenting lavender nails with bling— a gold chain with large brass beads. Her hair is a buzz cut on both sides with a thick long braid that hangs from the crown of her head down her back. The neckline of her dress was open in a “V” and revealed a detailed circular tattoo.
Her appearance was in stark contrast to the artist at work on the levee hanging on to a long rope to keep from falling into the Arkansas. When at work, she wears long pants where the bottoms serve as pallet surfaces to wipe brushes on before applying paint to the surface. She wears a harness over her shoulders and attached at the waist from which to hang paint and water buckets.
“I’m a Pueblo girl,” she said. “I’m a proud Chicana — iQue viva la Raza!” One of her goals is to raise enough money to open the first Legatia Gallery in Pueblo, with emphasis on “the first.” —”Our goal is to have a national chain of galleries.”
She wants to change the way artist make money. “Often an art object sells and the artist never sees the money,” she said.
You can find Celesté on numerous social mediums including FaceBook Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Linkin. Her handle is @legatia11. Her website is https://www.legatialimited.com
