Cinthia A. Preuss

Cinthia Preuss is a Latine artist from Houston, Texas, who uses art to communicate complex ideas and emotions through imagery and symbolism. Preuss believes that by challenging the learning curve created by language, culture, and educational barriers in communication, one will begin to grow. This is seen in 2 bodies of their work: the Loteria Project and client work via the Visual Illustration of Science through Art (VISTA) group.

The Loteria Card Project showcases the lives of individuals within the Latinx community in hopes that audience members can feel the weight of true stories rather than cold statistics and biased stories portrayed in the media. While their work has mainly been shown in Louisiana and in Texas, they have collaborated internationally with the University of Limerick in Ireland. Along with a group of graphic designers, they created infographics portraying the importance of using a trained translator to express medical attention and care for Syrian refugees. During their time as an undergraduate, they worked with local scientists and healthcare professionals to create assets and materials to communicate their work.

Preuss also completed an Honors thesis during this time championing the usage and importance of art as a form of communication to bypass these barriers. In 2019, Preuss graduated cum laude with their B.F.A in Studio Art from Louisiana Tech University with Senior Honors distinction as well as a minor in Pre-Medical Illustration.

After graduation, Preuss moved back to Texas and lived in their aunt’s garage. There they worked two part-time jobs and attended a local community college with the intention to apply to graduate school the following year. When the lockdown started, Preuss had to make the difficult decision of leaving one of their jobs in favor of their family’s safety. The pandemic has shown the need for translated and catered resources for minority groups. With this in mind, they joined the online organization contraCOVID.

contraCOVID is an organization created by a group of Harvard Medical School students and professionals dedicated to providing people of all backgrounds the information, health, and social resources needed to thrive during the COVID–19 pandemic.  There, Preuss acted as the Head of Graphics for the National team, where they created content for the Social Media team as well as infographics, illustrations, and offline resources to communicate health information to a Non-English-speaking audience. Sadly, Preuss left this position due to personal and family issues that were happening at the time and required more attention. 

A lot has happened since the pandemic, ranging from working in education to marriage. With things beginning to settle down in their personal life, Preuss has decided to return to creating art. With the mantra “I create to communicate.”, Preuss will continue to pursue how art serves as a form of communication for complex ideas and emotions through imagery and symbolism.

If they are not in their studio painting or at work, Preuss is hanging out with their friends, playing video games, or reading a book from their ever-growing pile