Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia De La Cruz.
Hi Alicia, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I currently live in Northeast Minneapolis with my Husband, dog and rabbit. I have lived here for about 6 years and lived in Columbia Heights before this. I was recently (this month of May) one of 30 chosen artists for this years Art-A-Whirl which I’m super proud of!
I have been beading since the age of 7 as taught by my aunts and grandma. After graduating from college in 2018, I decided to work more on Beading and I’ve been growing my brand Waabooz Beading ever since. On the side I’ve also been running Waabooz Cosmetics (formerly Leesha’s Lacquer) since 2013. Owning 2 small businesses is hard but VERY rewarding.
I have gotten recognition for my work in both businesses for the last few years, winning many different grants and fellowships with both businesses.
Today I usually will work in my home office all day (sometimes up to 15 hours!) I take custom orders for both businesses and I’m usually working on custom orders or I like to participate in local gallery shows and will work on beadwork for those.
I also recently started free lancing and teach my beadwork to libraries and schools and other groups all across Minnesota! I really enjoy teaching people of all ages how to bead and its a very fulfilling and enriching experience.
Right now I am doing a lot of giving back to the community when I can whether it’s doing free community based workshops or donating proceeds from my nail polish business to local charities and organizations. Since starting my entrepreneurship in 2013 I’m at a comfortable point in my business career where I believe in giving back where and when I can. Waabooz Cosmetics usually has a charity polish every month! This last month we gave to MMIW and the month before that we gave to the Transgender Law Center. I have also given artist talks at my local Rotary Club (Columbia Heights Fridley) and my alma mater Minneapolis Community and Technical College where I spoke about my art, my career so far and gave advice to students and community members which I loved doing.
Beyond my beadwork I also am a mural artist where I’ve created murals for the City of Columbia Heights, the city of Minneapolis and I painted a 10 foot by 8 foot mural for Twin Cities Pride. I really enjoy making public art and bringing native designs and motifs to the publics attention. The mural for the city of Columbia Heights will be constructed this summer at Silver Lake in Columbia Heights and will be a fitness court with my 40 foot mural on the back!
Overall I really really REALLY enjoy being an artist and while some days it’s super exhausting, it’s also incredibly rewarding and I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m done with a project. I am definitely in the correct career path and I feel super lucky every day that I’m able to create
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say a lot of the struggles I faced in my businesses stem from the fact that I am one person running 2 businesses and I can’t be everywhere doing everything all at once. I have been very lucky to keep myself super busy doing my own thing but that also means it’s hard to take breaks because if I’m not working on stuff for my businesses, no one else is either!
I also just have SO MANY ideas that I want to execute at once and I find theres never enough hours in the day to get everything done.
My current struggle is dealing with my father who has frontotemperal dementia. Its rough to navigate how the disease has affected him along with running 2 businesses. Hes currently in hospice and its really hard on me and my mom right now (im an only child). So that is definitely one of my biggest current struggles.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in embroidery style beadwork including beaded earrings, beaded hats and beaded pins. I think im most known for my more modern pieces where I’ve beaded Boo from Mario, pennywise and other modern concepts that you wouldn’t necessarily think you’d see in such a traditional form of art. I’ve always said I bead traditional Ojibwe designs with a modern twist!
I am super proud to be enrolled in the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and a descendant of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and through my culture I’ve been inspired to utilize beadwork in my Artistry. I think beadwork is so cool because it takes soooo many hours (some pieces I’ve made recently have taken me 48+ hours). Its nice to bring my culture and art to bigger platforms whenever I can like when I was a resident artist at the Bell Museum or when I was an Artist in Residence for Twin Cities Pride. I even collaborated with the Minnesota Vikings for Pride last year (2024). Having been recognized by bigger organizations and having had my art in places like the Mall of America and The Minneapolis St.Paul Airport (I’ll have a solo display in 2026/2027!) I’m super proud of everything ive accomplished artistically in the last 3 to 4 years.
Another thing I’m proud of is a few fellowships I’ve recently gotten! In October of 2024 I was invited by Nest and Hermès to attend their American Craft Convening 2024 where I met other creatives from across America in New York City and attended 3 days of intense classes where I learned all about their practices at Hermès.
I also was just chosen for a artist fellowship in Kyrgyzstan where I will be traveling in August of 2025 in a cultural exchange. I will be staying for 2 weeks with a non profit organization and when I come back I will be sharing the work I’ll be doing over there locally at a few galleries here in Minnesota. I’m super excited for this one as it’s all about sharing my indigenous culture with theirs and learning something new.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Me and my dad used to do EVERYTHING together. I would say him coaching my baseball teams, him and I doing Tae Kwon Doe together for years and even winning in local tournaments and going to the Mille Lacs Pow Wow together to dance are some of my favorite memories. One time he took me to Ojibwe classes down here at our local Mille Lacs Band Urban Office and Amik (Larry Smallwood) was our teacher. One time we had to study Ojibwe words and I looked over the list, I told my dad I’ll get these words to study and you can have these ones. Everyone in class laughed and I didn’t understand why at the time
Later in life he would recall that story and say “YUP, and she assigned me ALL the most difficult to pronounce words and she got all the easy ones”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.waaboozbeading.com
- Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/waaboozbeading
- Facebook: https://Www.facebook.com/waaboozbeading
- Other: Www.waaboozcosmetics.com , www.instagram.com/waaboozcosmetics
