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"Interactive Portrait of the Artist"

Medium: Digital drawing with an embedded QR code
Size: 12" x 12" digital print on aluminum panel
Price: $500

My name is Jacalyn Lopez Garcia. I am a transmedia visual storyteller who uses QR code technology to expand the visual story beyond the first impression of an art piece. My intention is to push through the boundaries of museum walls and offer the art patron an opportunity to experience being in two places at the same time (in the museum and in cyberspace). This experience is achieved by integrating traditional and non-traditional artistic practices whereby I can expose how an entire story cannot be deciphered simply on a gallery wall.

This self-portrait is designed with an embedded QR code that is accessible to art patrons who must interact using a device such as a cell phone with a QR code scanner or cell phone camera to access the story.

This story is easily accessible via:
http://artelunasol.com/sneak-preview.html

Follow me . . .

The story I am about to share began with my interactive website titled: Glass Houses: A View of American Assimilation from a Mexican American Perspective and continues through present day.

WHO - WHAT - WHEN - WHY

According to my father, (Henry Lee Lopez), my name was given to me by my mother (Sara Quiroz Laborin). “Your mother did not want you to have a traditional 'Mexican' name and it is spelled this way because she did not know how to spell." My father was not always this ornery and if he thought he was insulting my mother, he was mistaken.

Bearing no shame my mother (who had 15 siblings) replied, “That’s right.  I only finished the 3rd grade because I had to stay home and work so that my younger brothers and sisters that were light-skinned could go to the 'American' school." Sadly, this truth deeply affected my mother who suffered the discrimination of being a dark-skinned Native who was raised in a small Mormon community that was settled by Americans in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico.

My mother had never shared what she considered an "intimate" secret about her past because she claimed it negatively reflected how she had been mistreated as a "dark-skinned" Mexican. When confronted on this subject she said it was because she did not want me to suffer her pain.

I do not recall my age, but our conversation has stayed embedded in my brain and will never be forgotten.

This is me proudly dressed in my Danza Azteca regalia ready
to dance during a Dia de Los Muertos offering.

PHOTO CREDIT: Carlos Garcia. 2024

MY ROOTS

I attribute the shaping of my identity to my parents who first defined me as a "Mexican" and who later taught me to say "American" whenever we crossed the U.S. border.   I recall that I was only 5 years old and I learned quickly that it was very important to answer the question properly whenever I was asked my citizenship.  

Little children don't always understand why they are told to do certain things. They just do it because if they don't there could be consequences.

Crossing the border always made me nervious and I came to hate the day my world was turned upside down after an angry “white” neighbor reported that my mother was living here illegally and was immediately deported. The pain of being separated from my mother at age 7 resulted in deep emotional scars. Yet, in a very profound way, these scars and deeply rooted memories have become the impetus that propels me to find innovative ways to repurpose my mother's personal and intimate stories.

Titled: Life in the 50s Collection Photo
Medium: Screen image from Glass Houses Website
Date: Resuse of family photo from 1950s

The Developmental Stages

While studying Studio Art as an undergraduate at UC Riverside, I discovered that diverse artistic practices serve as catalysts of memory that can be used to conjure up a variety of social and cultural contexts. I was introduced to the art of writing autobiographical narratives, but was never told about the impact digging up and gathering personal histories could create on one's psyche. Nevertheless, the process forced me to look inward at my own cultural base and helped me make new discoveries about what has shaped my identity and these influences became some of my reasons for making art.

 

Title: The Beatles & Me
Medium: Silver Gelatin Print
Date: 1997

 

Seriously, Who Am I ?

If I did not share the critical role American colonialism played in shaping my identity, this story would not be complete. This stage of my life began to take shape during my pre-teen years when I discovered I was not just "Mexican", I was "Mexican-American." A reality that till this day has inspired me to embrace my bi-culturalism.

By the time I reached 18 years of age my identity became quickly scrambled around with names such as “Caucasian”, “White”, or “Other.” The more my sense of being was challenged the easier it was for me to reject the Census Bureau's need to label me as "Hispanic." You see, none of these were names I would have chosen for myself, especially "sell-out." This was the name given to someone that wants to forget their roots and anybody that defined me as such, did not know me at all.

Title: Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicana
Medium: Screen image from Glass Houses website
Date: 1997

20th Century Influences

Perhaps one of the most pivotal turning points in my life occured during the 90s when I became an undergrad at the University of California, Riverside. During this phase of my life, I learned about Chicana playwrights, poets, and essayists whose plays and publications had received national recognition. The more I learned, the easier it became for me to identify myself as a Xicana (a term used by literary feminist to redefine Chicana.)

You can bet that I will never forget the time my mother found out I was identifying myself as a Chicana. We were having a conversation on the telephone when she blurted out, "Chicana" is a bad word. You can't say that. You don't want to be identified that way." I was shocked at her response because even though I missed the beginning of the Chicano movement, I had come to accept that I was a "Chicana."

It wasn't easy, but I did my best to educate my mother on the political origins of this term and I shared reasons with her about how I felt it applied to my life.

Title: I Just Wanted to Be Me
Medium: Screen image from website Glass Houses
Date: 1997

Sadly, the older I became the more I experienced the pain associated with labelling people of color. Even Hollywood stereotyped the Latina dentity as a "whore" or a "maid" and though these new set of labels did contribute to my anxiety over name calling, they also inspired me to produce art that could critically examine contemporary themes based on the complexities of having cultural identity issues.

Today, I ponder whether or not I was destined to become an artist with an interest in pushing the boundaries that exist between politics and art. If so, then I am happy because I am that artist and I am determined to become the best version of me, as a life partner to my husband, a retired arts educator, a full-time artist, ULF energy healer, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, an entrepreneur, a pack leader, minister, and spiritual being who continues to live in search of humanity as a transmedia visual storyteller and advocate for the arts.

 

New Beginnings in the 21st Century

Title: goldiesfarm.com
Medium: Digital Photograph
Date: 2019

In 2016, I retired from teaching Community College Art, Multimedia & Photography classes and I left my position at UC Riverside as the Director of Virtual Research to embark on a new life journey with my husband/life partner Carlos Garcia. My/our goal was to experience the golden years of life as business partners and owners of Goldie's Farm. The journey was amazing up until the COVID-19 pandemic occured and everything came to a screaching hault.

Though I admit my life did not change too drastically during the pandemic years, Goldie's Farm did suffer from the stay at home restrictions and lockdown orders of the pandemic. But we took what we could learn from the experience and later opened a new venue in Mead Valley, CA.

I do feel blessed to be alive and I am grateful to have
enjoyed the time, energy, resources and passion
to keep busy making art during the pandemic.

During this period, I took complete advantage of the Pandemic's down time to apply for a California Desert Arts Council art grant. It was the perfect time to fulfill a lifetime dream of designing and building my own house as an art project and this became the prototype for a larger design. By the time the pandemic restrictions were lifted, my design was completed and my interest in "going green" fueled my desire to educate others on the possibilites of how we can reduce the footprint we leave on this planet with self-sustainable Tiny Houses.

Below is a diagram of my 6’5” x 11’8” eco-friendly, self-sustainable Tiny House/Artist Studio that originally resided on the property at Goldie's Farm and has since been relocated to my new Spiritual Healing Center & Artist Retreat located in Mead Valley, CA.  

Title: Tiny House Design
Medium: Digital Drawing
Date: 2020

 

ON THE HORIZON

As I look towards the future, I continue to work on preparing this tiny house as an Air B&B experience for Tiny House enthusiasts in Mead Valley, California featured on TierraTepati.com.

Other plans include creating an art installation as a drive through exhibition that will be titled "Necessities: From Nothing to Something." This installation will consist of a selection of photographs, video installations, and a website for the purpose of attracting audiences of diverse backgrounds to examine the realities of a "living large" lifestyle versus the “less is more” approach to saving our planet.

Title: Tiny House Work in Progress #15
Medium: Digital Photograph
Date: 2020

Title: Tiny House near completion
Medium: Digital Photograph
Date: 2020

 

My most recent endeavors include turning 2.5 acres of raw land into a new Spiritual Healing Center & Artist Retreat in Mead Valley, CA named Tierra Tepati. At this venue I have been busy reaching out and seeking to bring together a group of diverse holistic practitioners and artists who are committed to sharing and raising awareness about the role Universal Life Force energy, holistic medicine, herbal plant medicine and a variety of art disciplines can play in healing our mind, body, spirit.

Title: Honoring Mother Earth
Medium: Digital Photograph
Date: 2024

 

To learn more about my work as a professional Universal Life Force Energy Healer/Mexica Tepati please visit my website Cosmic-Tepati.com

I specialize in a variety of holistic & indigenous practices that integrate diverse art disciplines with healing modalities. I am a certified Reiki Master and Vibrational Sound Therapy Practitioner who applies the gifts of my mediumship to connect with others seeking on-site or Distance Reiki healing sessions with me.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to my creator OMETEOTL (Nahuatl word for God), my parents Sara Quiroz Laborin & Henry Lee Lopez, my husband Carlos Garcia, my children and everyone who visited this site and shared my story with others, I thank you all. SPECIAL THANKS To Tony Pinto for selecting this body of work for the exhibition "Self/not Selfie" Golden West College Gallery Art Gallery Fine Arts Building, Room 108 15751 Gothard Street Huntington Beach, CA 92647 Thank you to the California Desert Arts Council for accepting and awarding this body of work a grant under the Keep-Arts-Alive initiative.
WEBSITE LINKS
	Jacalyn Lopez Garcia's online artist portfolio
	Tierra Tepati Spiritual Healing Center & Artist Retreat
	Glass Houses: A View of Assimilation from a Mexican-American Perspective
	Email me a request to add your name to my maillist -- tierratepati@gmail.com
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