Tina Rivera on Beading, Grief, and Finding Beauty in the Ordinary

In an interview with Amanda Holstien on Glasstire, artist Tina Rivera discusses her sculptural beadwork, her move to Marfa, Texas, and how grief and solitude shaped her practice. Rivera, who initially resisted calling herself an artist, now embraces the label "creator." She moved to Marfa during a period of grief after losing her parents, seeking solitude. There, she found that slowing down and paying attention to ordinary details—like a rock or a cowboy boot—became central to her healing. Her beadwork, which includes sculptures of native plants like Hesperaloe, Yucca Elata, and Mexican Buckeye, uses an old French technique of making flowers. She learned the method from patterns but adapted it to represent local flora, critiquing the "gentrification of plants" by non-native species. Rivera describes beading as a meditative practice that gives her patience, contrasting it with the fast pace of external life. She also works in film and gardening, noting how each medium distorts time differently. Her work is not about telling a direct story but about bringing attention to everyday things and finding joy in simplicity. Rivera's sculptures incorporate materials like Japanese glass seed beads, copper core wire, silk thread, concrete, and artist-grown gourds. The interview was published on Glasstire on May 6, 2026.