Many people who catch the eye of Tracy Villa Carrera are dirty, sweaty, and tired, and they often express amazement at the very idea that she would want to paint them. "They don't know how beautiful they are," Carrera says of the dishwashers, waiters and other working class people she depicts in her paintings. "I think of my dad working in the fields as a poor mexican boy, and every time I paint someone doing labor, it's a tribute to my dad and the diginity of working hard and doing the best you can, says the California artist.

Whether drawn by the way a waitress' hair barrette catches the light or by the shape and motion of a janitor sweeping a broom, Carrera sees beauty in the unexpected. "I simply paint what I find extraordinary or thrilling," she says. Often her work focuses on the connection between human beings and the role each person plays in the machine of life. The artist credits her mentor, Glen Edwards at Utah State University, with teaching her the value of painting how she feels about a scene and communicating the emotion to the viewer.

Carrera is represented by herself.