Post 1- Introduction Gabriel Lopez

Hello! I am Gabriel Lopez or Gabe Lopez. I am a Colombian artist and I'm an Illustration Major here at NJCU working towards getting my BFA. My work consist of mostly of portraits of people, both from fantasy worlds and real life. I use mixed media in all my work such as using color pencils and graphite to using charcoal pencils down to using Acrylic paint. I like seeing people/animals just in a state of being and my goal is trying to capture that essence in my work. I grew up in twodiffrent world between Colombia and the United States. There are times where there is disconnect between me and my American peers where our childhood games are vastly different. Had grown up in an Catholic/Christian Colombian family as someone who doesn't fit the mold of what is expect and how has that impacted me I want to translate to my work.

Catlada, Pencil - 2024

Untitled, Pencil and Color Pencil - 2024

Untitled, Pencil and Color Pencil - 2024

Untitled, Pencil and Color Pencil - 2024

Portrait of a Warrior, Charcoal pencils - 2024

Self Portrait, Mixed Media - 2020

Day at the Park, Acrylic on Canvas - 2023

I have a select group of artist that really make me wanna push myself and my work further. This artist are Keith Haring, Jean Michel Basquait, Fernando Cidoncha Perez, and Fabian Chairez. Keith Haring work where he had expressed his sexuality and how he shows that is a main part of him. I want to express that in my work as well, to be able to show without shame. Jean Michel Basquait for he comes from an immigrant household and has included Spanish words in his work as well. Being Colombian is a big part of my life and my family dynamic that I want to include in my work. Fabian Chairez is also an artist who expresses his sexuality and both culture through his paintings.

Solace in Togetherness (2023)

Basquiat, Después De Un Puno, 1987

The Great White Way, 1988

Keith Haring, Once Upon a Time mural, 1989

Idilio 2021

Two quotes from the Susan Sontag article that really stuck out to me were 

"To collect photographs is to collect the world. Movies and television programs light up walls, flicker, and go out; but with still photography the image is also an object, lightweight, cheap to produce, easy to carry about, accumulate, store." 

and 

" To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge."

The first quote to is more so refers to how the act of watching a movie or the tv has to put life into whatever it is that light that makes it flicker. But with a photograph that light that life is already captured. It can pass many years but that will never be captured again. It is a snapshot of a moment in time forever frozen that can be moved around and pass down to be witness by so many. Then in the second quote I can relate to doing more a self portrait whether it be an accurate of such for the artist themselves or a representation of who the artist is. It shows that power the a person or power holds of the knowledge of what makes it up. All the pieces like a puzzle photographed into a cologne of them. Both of quotes can connect for my artwork expresses the cartoon version of myself and how my cats act like the angel and devil on my shoulders. That artwork is a capture of me during the pandemic and my cats who would get older as time passes and what fun thing I remember of them.