What is your name?
Wit López :)
Where are you from and how do you identify?
I was born in Brooklyn, NY and lived in NYC until I was 18, then came to Philly and I've been here ever since. I identify as tired! Aaaaand, my pronouns are they/them.
Have you thought of a name for your dream studio and what your ideal community space looks like? Feel free to also discuss accessibility, universal design and breaking the fourth wall.
I have not thought of a name for my dream studio, but I feel like it's one of those things that will come to me as soon as I have access to my dream space. My ideal community space is a lot like a project I created last year called "Taking Up Space-in-Residence," which was a two-week long residency for 30 Black LGBTQ+ artists, writers, and performers to work on projects together or alone and get to know new people across age, gender, sexuality, country of origin, etc. The space was meant to give folks space to imagine what their art practice could be if they were allowed to take up space with a stipend, supplies, and minimal outside influences. While it was only a two-week project I devised, I think that my original plan for it embodies my feelings toward the possibility of ideal art spaces where artists are allowed to just be and also have access to materials, practice space, work stations, snacks, etc. and the chance to create without a deadline in mind.
How do you currently work out of your home and make do/make time/make space?
I don't have a set studio space in my house at the moment, so I just use whatever space I'm feeling. Also, to be honest, I haven't really made any visual art since the coronavirus lockdown started. I've been diving back into music theory and spending a lot of time playing my flute. Luckily, I can just sit anywhere in the house and play flute. I'm unemployed right now, so I got time, haha.
What is one tool you could not create without and what is your biggest ‘rule’ while making? Or are there no rules?
One tool I could not create without is a 1.3mm mechanical pencil. When I was in the woodshop, I would always have two with me. They're versatile utensils that work for me between my art and performance practices. I can make marks on wood, write on sheet music, doodle in my sketchbook, draft a garment design by hand, etc. My rules for making change between medium. For the woodshop and the sewing machine, it's safety first and I never use either if I'm tired. For music, writing, or sketching, I just go with the flow first, then come back a few days later for corrections or edits.
Who are your favorite artists/performers/biggest inspirations?
My favorite artist for the past few years has been Kara Mshinda. Her line drawings, collages, mixed media work, installations--she's an artistic genius. Kara's work is overflowing with thoughtfulness AND mindfulness, and there's meaningful stories embedded in the pieces. Before COVID-19, I had asked her if it was ok with her to get a tattoo of one of her amazing line drawings. She ok'd it, but I never went. I need to find a tattoo artist that I would trust to do justice to her work (and my body). My first inspiration was my older sister, Oriana, who passed away last summer. She was SUCH a talented artist and I'm sad that she wasn't able to see how deeply her artwork touched others. When we were kids in elementary school, her artwork was so good that our school gave her a scholarship to take Saturday ceramic classes at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. To me, that was huge! I wanted that too, and later got a scholarship for Saturday drawing classes at Pratt. I could never draw as beautifully as my sister, but when we were kids, anything she was doing, I HAD to do it too. My biggest local inspiration is fiber artist Betty Leacraft. Betty is a mover and a shaker and is cool as the other side of the pillow!
What was your first job as an artist?
I don't think this really counts as a job, but when I was a kid folks would buy accessories I made. First thing I ever sold was a pair of earrings when I was 4. I made them for fun in a summer workshop and had no intention to sell them, but I remember there was a woman who insisted they were cute and she wanted to give me money for them. What does a 4 year old know about money? Haha.
Where did you discover printmaking and how did you get into it? Or if you prefer, discuss fiber arts, woodworking, photo collaboration, museum studies, etc.
My parents met in school while they were studying illustration. As it goes with creative types, their interests spill over into other modes of creativity outside of illustration. Fiber art, photography, and illustration are things I learned at home. My first formal classes in woodworking were in the summer before I started high school. Regarding everything else, printmaking included, I feel like being a child in NYC in the ‘90s really made it possible for me to be exposed to so many aspects of the wide world of arts and culture. I didn't have to go far or even do much to be exposed to the arts.
Discuss performance and the means & empowerment of being ‘spectacular’ rather than being a ‘spectacle’.
Whew! Spectacular vs. spectacle. This one is a little complicated and it's rooted in so many things. I'll try to make it as concise as I can, haha. When I think of being spectacular vs. being a spectacle, for me, at its base, it comes down to reclaiming/renaming "the gaze" and taking away the opportunity for other people to define my humanity. John Berger said in Ways of Seeing, "Perspective makes the human eye the centre of the visible world." In a society built on individualism and the violence of colonialism, we think OUR own eye is the center of the entire visible world, including defining other people's bodies. Many of us are taught how to disenfranchise others with the assumptions we create about them based off of the way our own gazes have been enculturated. For western society, that is steeped in Eurocentrism and imperialism. Sure, people will try to make a spectacle of other people because they want to, but I don't accept that for myself and I often openly advocate for self-determinism of identity, which gives the individual the agency/power to define for themselves how they identify. Being spectacular is a personal choice; being a spectacle is the construction of others.
Seriously Wit, what don’t you do? You have a Master’s degree in Arts Administration & Museum Leadership, are a performer, musician, classically trained mezzo-soprano, photographer, collaborator, printmaker and so much more. I’m sure I’m missing several! How do you combine everything as a ‘one-person parade’?
Being born with and living with disability and chronic illness are pretty much the things that fuel most of the projects I do. The fuel isn't the idea of me "overcoming" my disabilities and illnesses because I live in harmony with them, not in spite of them. The fuel is in seeing the world, and things in it, as a giant inaccessible puzzle and trying to solve it for myself in ways that are accessible to me and others. I get asked "What don't/can't you do?" frequently, and while I know it is meant as a compliment, the first thing I always think of is math. People living with Non-verbal Learning Disorder (NVLD), like me, are often overlooked when it comes to accessibility around learning disabilities because, for many of us, our issues with math/numbers, spatial reasoning, and understanding social cues is considered not pressing or they are the butt of jokes in wider society. Additionally, if you're excellent at certain things or a combination of things, no one notices that you can't do math... until you have to do math, haha. For this, many of us with NVLD don't have our needs around math met at a younger age. I'm also a person with ASD and ADHD, which I feel drives my ability to retain information and carry out tasks in ways that many others can't. I want to make it clear that this isn't the case for everyone living with these, but this is my particular experience. I was also diagnosed with Brain Atrophy 12 years ago. While my most recent scans haven't shown any further atrophy (thankfully), there is a small part of me that views Brain Atrophy as a time bomb (though mine hasn't progressed), so I try to explore the things I love and create the things I want to see in the world while my brain is here and capable. Ableism causes people to view disability, illness, and neurodivergence as weaknesses and barriers, but it's the ableism that causes the barriers, NOT the conditions. I know this probably wasn't the answer you were looking for, but it's an answer I have avoided sharing in most interviews and with the way COVID-19 is changing the world so rapidly, I figured why not share this part of my truth.
I was so struck by your conversation on how the art world can revisit trauma and re-open wounds with asks and requirements for projects and submissions. How do you subvert that and make a safe space with others?
Honestly, it's difficult to completely subvert trauma and make spaces safe for others because you can never know all of the things that trigger traumatic memories for people, but in my own work, I try to center joy and the importance of creating pathways to healing for myself and the viewer/participant. If I'm leading a project or collaborating, I ask them to be transparent and talk with me about the intentions of their work, that way, we can create trigger warnings or content notes for their work if it may be upsetting to people engaging with it. I believe very deeply in mindfulness and crystal clear communication as necessary tools to make spaces and art more accessible to the most vulnerable and the most traumatized. While I don't believe you can measure how much something may traumatize someone, I believe that you can create ways to make space for healing, de-escalation, and sincere apologies if/when this happens, instead of silencing those who have been traumatized. Many people say that they make art for themselves and not for the audience, but when you do community work and when your art practice is purposefully socially engaged, trauma-informed, and healing-centric, you HAVE to remember the validity of other people's humanity in your end product. It isn't socially engaged if it also actively ostracizes and silences people who have already been underprivileged and underserved by institutionalized injustice. Also, as a survivor of multiple forms of abuse, I consider what I would have wanted to see in the world when I was at my lowest, and that's how I create art for myself in a way that also makes my work accessible for other survivors. I recognize that I can't do all the work alone to make spaces safer, but I also actively choose not to work with people who are not committed to the safety and humanity of vulnerable people.
How has this pandemic and current events changed your life as an artist? What has stayed the same?
The pandemic shifted many aspects of my practice. Much of my work is performed in or made in shared community spaces that I don't own, so when lockdown hit, they all closed. Some have since reopened in limited capacity, but since COVID-19 is still being learned about, I'm still socially distancing for my own health and the health of my partner. My art studio is owned by a local university, so it's going to be closed until the university opens up to students. I had also been invited to give a performance art concert in Sweden for the end of March, but that was cancelled. It would have been my first time in Sweden and my first time back in Europe in almost 10 years, so I was looking forward to it. Being laid off also altered the way I think about creating because it's made me more cautious with how I spend the little bit I have. For instance, I bought canvases during a 4th of July sale and I'm waiting for the back to school sales before buying new paint. My making and performing have changed drastically or been paused temporarily. I bought more mechanical pencils and pencil leads because I'm sketching endlessly. In terms of what has stayed the same, I would say the social justice driven mission behind why I do what I do has stayed the same, but the way it comes out as artwork has definitely changed.
Image by IJF3RD
Top banner photo credit Betty Leacraft (at Second State Press)
For more information, visit witlopez.com/
Interview by Rachel Heberling August 2020
Edited by Hugo Gatica