Comics are an art form everyone can relate to. We see them in the Sunday paper full color, one stacked on top of the next; or as a man dressed in spandex, saving a city from certain doom in a 30-page comic book.
This type of relationship with comics is what made Daniel Lopez's comic series, "Boys I Had a Crush on Before I Came Out," stand out. The series is framed in simple black frames with white matting in the North Santiam Hall Gallery at LBCC’s Albany campus.
Each installment is a short story about the time spent thinking about a boy that enters and exits Lopez's life as a young man and the innocent interactions they shared. A time before he came out.
I didn’t have an interest in comics growing up, a lot of it seemed too overtly masculine. I wasn’t interested in gendered activities, neither girly stuff nor masculine stuff. But then I discovered indie comics about more real-life experiences, and that was probably around 2019.
I have this Australian internet friend who does queer comics, a lot of them are about being gray asexual, and I just realized like “Oh yeah, I’m also marginalized and I have these identities and yeah, these things do need to be heard.”
I came out at 25 and with that came a lot of repressions beforehand. And realizing, I’m a Brown person, I’m a queer person, I’m gray asexual and I’m a relationship anarchist. I’m all these things that aren’t the typical narrative and my friend told me that it’s important to get these stories out because not everyone can relate to them and visibility is really important.
So it's a combination of wanting to be visible as well as wanting to learn how to make comics.
Artists have an evolution and you don’t always end up where you start out. So if you weren’t initially into comics or necessarily good at drawing, how’d you start off on this art path?
My very first aspiration as a kid was to be a neon artist. I always knew I wanted to be an artist, and eventually, I picked up photography when I realized I didn’t have to have great hand-eye coordination to do it. So I did a lot of photography in my undergrad. I wasn’t very good at it, I had provocative ideas rather than good ideas.
I am not very good at things but for me, it’s pushing myself to learn new things to accomplish what I want to do at the moment. So for me, making comics is weird and new but I wanted to push myself. I think that’s incredibly important to do, to push yourself to do things you’re uncomfortable with. So, art has been a lifelong process but comics are new.
Now I get to teach art, which is great, I can maintain my artistic integrity. This is something I can get in trouble for because I’ve always been somewhat of a rebel. I like to break the rules but also play around within the system I exist in. Exploiting the boundaries from the inside. My students do it to me and I think it’s great. I’m very much about questioning everything, especially myself.
What kinds of questions are your students asking you?
“Why are we doing it this way?” I’ve been using Photoshop and Illustrator for a long time but I'm not an expert and so students can push back and it makes me question myself like, “Do we have to do it this way?” They bring up a good question and they are using their critical thinking skills. Yeah, I’ll allow that; as long as it conforms to what needs to be done according to the state curriculum.
So you mentioned your education a couple of times, where did you end up going to school?
I did my undergrad in Southern California, and my master’s at the University of Oregon. I graduated from UO in 2016. I was asked to teach digital art soon after that, so I just sort of started making more digital art basically just because I had to learn it and teach it, so I might as well make it. I ended up taking a couple of years off and now I'm teaching here at LBCC and I’ve been here since 2018.
Earlier you talked about being a photographer and later having to learn digital art. Were you not originally doing digital photography?
No, it’s funny because most of my undergrad was in film photography. Half of my work from that time was black and white and half was color, which is pretty obsolete now. Plus, I think there are only about five labs in the country that develop color film. Again, I did this because of a lack of hand-eye coordination. I have good composition skills and how to play around with that, and I know how to make photos so I always tried to push to weirder stuff. My color photos were more like color phonograms, which is basically painting with light. So I essentially was playing around with photography, seeing what it can do and what it cannot do.
Do you prefer one or the other? Do you have a preference between film and digital photography?
Definitely digital, because the film is expensive. Also, I don’t know about any film photo labs. I like the process once you get into it but I don’t know of any color photo labs and I don’t like black and white cause it’s just a lot of liquids and waiting and I’m just not good at it.
Do you have any artists you pull inspiration from?
Yes, furry art is pretty much my favorite thing right now. I’m a casual furry. I don’t own a fur suit, I’m too claustrophobic for any costume. I just love art about fun, cool animals. I also have mixed feelings about AI art. I like the surrealness of it and how AI takes art places humans probably won’t, but I don’t like how images are stolen from artists. I’m also not a much of a fan of NFTs because it’s money-first art. I’m all about artists who have fun artwork that's not hateful and inclusive and loving. So just fun, cute stuff, and weird surreal stuff. I like dark depressing stuff, I like lots of different things.
As a teacher do you have any advice for students who want to work in the art field?
It’s a lot of work. It’s one of those things where you have to want it, you have to be passionate about it. It’s not easy to get a job, it’s not easy to maintain a living from art, obviously.
Yes the opportunities are few and it’s hard to maintain but if you want it bad enough you will find a way. I had a lot of luck, a friend let me know there was an opening at LBCC.
So it’s a combination of needing to do art in some way and keeping your connections open. Be nice to people, don’t burn bridges, even people you don’t necessarily like, they could present some opportunities.
So what are you working on now? Do you have any projects in the works?
I do. I have a stack of canvases in my living room that I want to get rid of so I have to do a bunch of quick silly paintings that I’ll use for bartering with other people. I don’t want people to buy my work if possible. I’d rather barter for something more useful, like once I bartered for a Nintendo Wii. I think art for me is more about giving rather than taking, which is why I like comics because it is a mass medium and anyone can look at them.
It’s really interesting that you are bartering for your artwork. What kinds of things besides Nintendo Wiis are you bartering for?
In my grad school show, for example, all of my pieces were for barter. I’ve definitely bartered for a burrito before. A weighted blanket. Sometimes it’s an action, like texting someone that you love them or taking me out for ice cream. You know, experiences. Money comes and goes but these experiences and game consoles last longer.
I don’t identify with any economic system, so I can’t call myself an anarchist or communist or socialist, or capitalist. I don't really identify with any of those because I’m not smart enough to know the intricacies of each and I don't want to claim something I don’t know about. But I definitely believe in a giving and trading and bartering system rather than an exchange of money if possible.
The term that popped into my head, maybe I just made this up, was “gentle chaos.”
Yes! I like that a lot (laughter). Yep, pretty much.
At a Glance:
Name: Daniel Lopez
Occupation: Visual Communications and Art Instructor at LBCC
Age: 34
Years at LBCC: 5 years
Other Interests: Furry culture, neon art, photography
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