[ artist interview ]

Your work and creative presence is definitely admirable, prolific, and far reaching in the local arts community. We’ve been very  excited to not only encounter your work in the library, but also elsewhere on campus and in Chicago. Can you speak a bit about your background as an artist and what brought you to Columbia? 

Being an artist is something I wanted to do since I was little. My father is creative and he never had the chance to pursue a creative career, so I think he fed all of that energy into me. He really encouraged me to follow my dream and I did, no holds barred. Being an artist is really challenging as a culturally-mixed, femme-bodied, lower-income individual; and I spent a good chunk of my career on the road traveling from artist residency to artist residency. So when I landed in Chicago, thanks to a residency at Spudnik Press, I wanted to study here because this city nurtured my career unlike any other city I had resided in. I, personally, need a reason to keep residence in a specific location so I decided to pursue a graduate career here in Chicago in order to justify me living in a state with no relatives and few close acquaintances. I'd had my eye on Columbia for a while, actually, because I'd been following The Center for Book & Paper. When Columbia offered me the opportunity to  pursue my graduate career in Chicago, it was an ideal situation.

What initially inspired you to apply for the Library Artist in Residence Position?

Books and libraries have always been safe spaces for me. Especially when I was one the road in new cities that were foreign to me, I could always count on libraries to be hospitable and safe (as a single, traveling woman...that's a big deal). Libraries were where I found my center in a city. If I could learn to navigate the library and the people who frequented these spaces, I could slowly get my bearings in the new town from there. Make acquaintance with the transients, ask the reference clerk about how to get around, research local history, etc. I'm also a glutton for knowledge, so books are where I find my inner power. So, to answer the question, applying to the Library Artist in Residence position was a no-brainer. It was like all of my favorite things mixed into one excellent opportunity, and that was incredibly hard to pass up. 

I'm also one of those people who pays attention to bulletin boards and posted fliers, so when I saw physical printouts advertising the position I recognized that someone else valued informational ephemera in the same way that I do. I'm an old punk show flyer designer, and I believe that truly relevant opportunities and information find their way into our peripheries everyday. It's our job to open our eyes and pay attention.

Can you speak a bit to your experience of libraries in general --how it relates to both your personal education and development as an artist?

Me devotion to libraries started when I was really young, pre-internet, and I would study Chicano artwork and painters in my local library in South Texas. I grew up in a smaller Mexican-American city that was highly assimilated, and I wanted to research the cultural histories that weren't being taught or passed down to me. So right off the bat, the library was the avenue in which I could question and explore my cultural heritage while understanding it in the local context of where I grew up. Local and regional libraries are of particular interest to me because they usually specialize in local customs and history. The local library that I grew up visiting, specialized in folk traditions and home remedies...what some might otherwise call brujeria or witchcraft. And because no one would talk to me about these traditions at that time, the library became my closest accomplice in the realm of magical studies. 

Libraries continue to have a huge impact on my development as my interests evolve with age. I'm a naturally curious person, so libraries allow me to quench my thirst for new information in a more visceral way than does the internet. The internet is a great research tool, but I find true focus in the presence of real books. Libraries feel a bit like temples for knowledge to me.

How has your arts practice been augmented this past year by your work within the Library?   What have you learned or discovered within that work? What have you gained in the experience that has benefitted your overall education and experience at Columbia?.

It's been interesting to work with the medium of having an office space. I'm used to having a "studio" space but never an office of my own, and I think that really helped me understand my artistic practice in a new way. As opposed to welcoming people into my messy creative zone, I took the idea of the office and molded my residency practice into a more professional experience. Something that would contribute to the preciousness of the library, rather than muddy it. 

I ran Bibliomancy Sessions out of the library, and welcomed the general public to schedule bibliomancy appointments with me in my custom decorated office. The whole experience was fascinating, and I'd really like to travel with this project to different libraries around the United States. So, this residency allowed me to test-run a project that could potentially carry me to different opportunities in various locations. 

What I learned from the Bibliomancy project is that people, in general, are interested in the present but are unable to decipher what's actually happening in their immediate surroundings. I'm guilty of the same thing. So instead of focusing on the future, which is what I thought I'd be doing with my bibliomancy project; I spent more time focusing on the present and navigating other people's experiences of the present. 

My main takeaway from the Library Residency Position was the freedom to operate in my own space as an artist. Having my own office and my own door to close really helped contribute to me being able to focus on my creative research, which is just as important to making art as the creative making process. This residency placed a whole lot of faith in my ability to execute numerous projects and never questioned my motives or whether or not anything was feasible. It felt good to have so much support from all of the staff, and that alone helped bolster my creativity levels and confidence in new and experimental projects. 

What are your current and future projects?  What should we look forward to from you next?

I'm currently closing out my first season of QTVC Live! which is an alternative social media-based sales program that sells artwork by underrepresented artists and makers. We've collectively sold around $750 in product this season, but I'd like to plan next seasons itinerary in order to double sales. The practice of operating my own DIY broadcast station feels like something of a job that I don't mind doing. So, I've basically been working on strategizing what I want my professional future to look like, and am rebuilding my website in the meantime. 

I'm still making art, I'm still writing, and luckily my personal library at home continues to nourish my need for new subject matter. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I'm just really taking time to slow down and to come to terms with the life that I've built for myself and how I want to move on from here. It honestly sounds like I need to do a bibliomancy session for myself today, so thank you for the reminder.

Specifically, I'm re-writing an old zine of mine, Guide To Being Alone, to align with current COVID-19 practices. That should be available by the beginning of next week. I've re-opened both of my web-based businesses, Vice Versa Press and Curandera Press, and I'm working on finishing my thesis paper pertaining to business in the arts by the middle of May. Whether my future will coincide with residing in Chicago has yet to be told, so that's the biggest question that I'm trying to figure out at the moment.