Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz ( b. 1973 ) , is an American interdisciplinary artist of Puerto Rican descent born in The Bronx , NY and based in Orlando , FL . Raimundi-Ortiz was born to Puerto Rican immigrant parents near the Bronx River Projects . Growing up she was known as a bookworm , " artsy , " " the new wave chick , " " wanna-be white , " and " from the ' hood " until graduating from the arts-target high school that she attended . That intersectionality grew to be reflected in the concepts she works with in her artwork . She graduated from Fashion Institute of Technology in 1995 with an Associates degree in illustration . In 2002 she was an artist in residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture . In 2005 she participated in Bronx AIM , a program that exposes and educates emerging artists . She earned her MFA in 2008 from Mason Gross School of Art at Rutgers University . Raimundi-Ortiz 's early work often examined pop , hip-hop and comic culture , depicting famous people ( like Celia Cruz ) or her own epic characters ( like '' Wepa Woman '' and '' Chuleta '' ) in mural form . But her most notable work is multi-disciplinary or performance-based such as '' RicanStruction '' that was featured in Performa '05 Biennial creating a pop-up stereotypically Nuyorican beauty parlor . Another of her more interactive performance works was featured in " The Post Millennial Black Madonna , " an exhibition at Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in 2007 . In 2011 Raimundi-Ortiz performed her '' Hush '' series in New York City and at Gyeongnam Art Museum in South Korea . In response to the Pulse shooting , she held a calavera making workshop in Orlando that culminated in a Dia de los Muertos ofrenda . This shrine was exhibited in the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago in 2016 . Raimundi-Ortiz had work in '' Silos '' , an exhibition at American University in 2016 . She was a 2016-17 recipient of a Franklin Furnace Fund . Raimundi-Ortiz is a professor at University of Central Florida
Pulse shooting
Orlando nightclub shooting
Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz