La Cima Summer 2023

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Our goal as the editors of La Cima, is to empower our fellow students. We do this in this issue of La Cima by providing them with information about potential industries of interests that can benefit students in their journey through college. To empower our peers we are also sharing unique stories and perspectives from creatives to help encourage fellow students to be different and be themselves. In this issue we have also included new technological innovation to keep in mind as we push into a more technology centric world, and to encapsulate the feeling of summer we are giving some lessons on when to put a drink down with our drunken stories throughout the magazine.

This year we have a small but passionate team that has put our full effort into making the two week deadline. We have enjoyed every minute of the process and hope that you, the reader, enjoys this passion project as well.

We would like to thank our friends Sebastian, Danny, and Dana for their assistance with props for the cover shoot. Endless thanks to Adrian for his support. We want to make clear that we appreciate dublab for providing us with access to the studio. Special thanks to Averie Rivera, and Rachel Day for making time in their busy schedules for an interview. We too would like to show our gratitude to Sarina, and Kassie for assisting modeling and choice of drinks to feature in our section on summer beverages. Finally, we want to thank you for reading La Cima Summer 2023. We hope you enjoy it.

-Sincerly, La Cima Staff 2023

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Joy and Culture with Monica Juarez

dublab Bringing Human-made Mixes to You

It’s 5’Oclock Somwhere

Creating Spac ground Co

Pages: 4-9

Pages: 10-15

Pages: 16-23

Pages:

TABLE OF C 2

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ce for Underommunities 24-27

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Music for Seance: Wisteria

Visual Technology Looking Towards the future

ESOTERIC REALITIES: Behind the Artistry of Alexandra Gonzalez

Pages: 28-35

Pages: 36-37

Pages: 38-45

CONTENTS 3

Ángel Chavez: Did little Monica always know that she wanted to be an artist?

Juarez: I was always drawing and I always had a lot of ideas. When I was younger I had this folder of ideas for children’s books that I wanted to write.

I didn’t know I wanted to be an artist necessarily but I always knew I wanted to be a storyteller. I wanted to tell my stories and tell my family’s stories.

Now as an adult, I see myself as an artist and also a storyteller. And I think it all connects.

I can definitely see that with a lot of your work. It feels like you’re trying to say something with everything you do. And with the pieces that we’re featuring, what specifically are you trying to say with them?

My artwork is me creating a world.

And because I like so many different mediums like video, writing, or sculptures I feel like all of the things I make together are making a world. And specifically with my inflatables they’re coming from a place of this idea of joy.

But also exploring other things.

For instance, I’m really interested in architecture and like the idea of sights of ritual but also sights of play.

My family is from Mexico, and where my grandparents are from they have these things called los guachimontones which is a ceremonial sight. I think about the idea of these different sights from the past and also how those sights change throughout time.

Los guachimontones still exist but there’s also a lot of architectural sights throughout Mexico where sometimes those mounds are destroyed and new temples or new places are erected on top of them. In the D.F. [Mexico City], if you go to the cathedral it’s built on top of Tempo Mayor. In puebla, the same thing.

I’m really interested in how things are created and destroyed or built upon.

For me, the castles I erected reference that history. And that a lot of us who grow up in la or the San Fernando Valley you see, on saturdays in someones yard or at the park or at a party, a bounce house. You feel joy being inside them, but they’re also very temporary sights since they’re 4

only up for a day or so then they’re gone. I like that the inflatable is a place that’s temporary just like those sights.

It must make you feel some type of relief. Like, as opposed to those sights being temporary because they get destroyed and your art is only temporary because YOU make it temporary. You’re in control of that.

You mentioned you do ceramics and many things aside from that!

What’s your evolution with everything? I’ve seen you do pastries and pan dulce, what’s your timeline for it all? Like, your different eras!

My eras ha ha. When I was in middle school and in high school I really wanted to be a fashion designer. I worked towards that in high school. I learned how to sew. The sewing machine I use for my sculptures is the same one I’ve had since high school!

Oh my god ha ha.

It’s been alive for a really long time ha ha. Like half my life basically! I really wanted to do fashion design and I wanted to do it in college. You know you go to school to study something that’s gonna, like, get you a job or steady income. That’s how I saw it at the time. But art school was too expensive for me, I couldn’t really afford

it. But I still wanted to do design so I decided to go to community college first and see if I could maybe transfer.

So while I was at community college I was doing fashion design. But at the school I wanted to go to they wanted you to have technical skills like drawing. So I was taking drawing classes and eventually I took Drawing II. In that class we had to do, like, these hyper realistic pencil drawings. From there I had this series that came out of it that were self portraits. In them I was looking in a mirror, in the mirror there was this text that was very vulnerable writing about myself. I had to show it to my class.

How did that feel?

I guess I was fine with people seeing it. But I also knew they were thinking like “oh, you’re calling yourself that?”

It was my first time being very vulnerable with something visually! It was kind of my step into making art. When I was ready to transfer, I went to the school I wanted to transfer to. They had counselors there that’d look at your portfolio. I remember the person that looked at mine was a professor of art. He looked at my design portfolio, looked at my technical pieces and he also saw my drawings. He told me “I don’t know if you wanna hear this, but I don’t think you’re a designer.” At that moment I was insulted because that was a dream I had. Since I was 12

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hrough her heartening creations, soft sculpture artist Monica Juarez from the San Fernando Valley creates worlds of her own. Soft sculpting has always existed but gained traction in the ‘60s and ‘70s. It’s using unconventional materials such as fabrics, rubber, human hair, or leather to create!

Non-rigid, non-durable, items that bend, flop, drape, and sag! Juarez discusses moving on from fashion design to the absolute bliss that are her bounce houses and parallels that exist between her Mexican culture and her sculptures. This artist takes you for a reminiscent ride in everything she creates. Other works of hers consist of a ceramic Pikachu for Día de San Valentín, Courage the Cowardly Dog pan dulces, and her one-of-a-kind Tweety bird handbags.

INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY ÁNGEL CHAVEZ

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years old I wanted to be a designer.

He told me “I think you’re an artist.”

I didn’t even know what that meant.

I thought “artist” was a career that wasn’t viable for someone like me.

I’ve always grown up thinking that I need to go to school then get a job.

He said “I see your pieces and I see you pouring your heart out. I’m probably changing your entire world view.

That’s just what I think you are. I could tell you these designs are really good and you have a good portfolio for fashion design but I see something inside of you.” So that day really shifted everything that I did.

I decided not to do design. I started doing painting. And painting was a way for me to EXPLORE art. But then I started to feel restrained with painting, so in my painting class I started making sculptures. That’s when I first made my first bounce house, in community college. When I made the sculpture it felt like another shift.

I was like okay I think in a more 3D way. From there I started trying new mediums and seeing what works and what didn’t work. Then I started doing ceramics and then video art. There are some things that I still want to explore.

It’s apparent, when I first met you and I saw your inflatable for the first time, it stuck with me. It felt like something deeper, you know?

It felt like there was a lot behind it.

Now that you’re saying all this it makes a lot of sense. I know you mentioned earlier that you would draw a lot when you were younger, would your dad be really supportive of that? [she smiled really big here] Yeah. I have one memory of where we were driving down the 101 [freeway] in his car and I told him a story. I remember that story just like made him laugh so much. I think about that in the back of my mind

So did it feel like after that moment when you thought “well I don’t wanna do fashion design” that everything fell into place? Did everything feel easier?

Kind of! But a part of me still wants to do some type of fashion design. I want to make handbags eventually. I still am on that path to explore my creativity. It’s been a journey for me and my art. I definitely feel like I’m being guided. ..When I was a senior in high school…. my dad had passed during that time. It’s been a long time since that happened. But I feel like he’s one of my guides through this whole journey that I’ve had. A lot of my work is just processing grief and also things in my familial lineages and what happens intergenerationally. My work is always a way for me to work through those things and the things that happen within my lineage. Also breaking through those things and forging new paths.

when I’m making my art or when I’m writing something. It’s like in a way I’m sharing it with him and have the confidence to continue. Some of the themes beneath my work are a little bit deeper, but I also try to have joy and fun with it. For instance, my video work it’s kind of like comedy and experimental. I want to make people laugh and feel happy when they see my work.

You can feel all of that! I hope you know that everything you’re trying to put out there, people can feel it.

Exactly what you’re saying about having feelings of joy, that’s how I feel when I see everything that you

do. It really takes you back, even though we didn’t all live the same childhood. It just takes you back.

Your pan dulce or any of your ceramic pieces, if you stare at them long enough it takes you back. Like a little time machine. Everything that you do.

Yeah like, I call all the work I do “soft sculpture”, even when I bake or when I make pan dulce. To me there’s strength in that, even though it’s all “soft” and colorful and fun. It’s important to have that!

Do you have like any piece in general that you really have the biggest soft spot for?

My first one that I did. Because it came from a time in my life where I, like, really started my healing journey.

I grew up really Catholic so my whole life I’ve always been around people who wanna heal things that they have.

It’s always been about healing and doing this or that to heal. At the time I made that sculpture it was like.. 2017?

I literally JUST started to heal wounds from my whole life . That piece.. It just came into my mind. I felt like I was being guided to make it. I was like.. I need to make this piece. I went to the fabric district and tried to find colors that were in the vision I had in my mind. I thought, I need to make this piece happen! It was important for me as an artist and for me to heal. Because I also feel like art can be very healing. When I made that, it was just this moment I felt a shift within myself.

It felt really good. I’ve felt that before.

For instance, I recently did an artist residency in Tennessee.

Drunken Confession:

My husband and I got together with friends. Our friend Josh was there... light weight.. lol and he got so drunk.. on the ride home he kept saying “I’m BATMAN” in a batman voice. We got to my suegras house and he walked his wife to her house down the block. When she got inside he laid down on her driveway and took a nap!

-Anonymous, age 30 7

During the workshop I was working on my performance work. While I was building this structure in clay I knew that this was, like, another shift and more healing happening. So I feel like [shifts/healing] it’s like this ongoing thing.

You said for this piece specifically, when you had the idea you went to the fabric district and tried to find everything. What’s your process now? Do you, like, draw anything out first then plan it out?

I definitely still use a sketchbook! And I’ll do free drawing. I’ll take a bunch of pens and markers and just draw all over the page. I’ll also do sketches and structures I want to make. And sometimes I’ll go back to them and reference and see what’s the next sculpture I wanna make.

Or, like with the first sculpture idea that I had, sometimes I’ll just get an idea. Or with the carousel that I made, I knew I wanted to keep making them.

There’s one [carousel] that I’ve been wanting to make for like over a year.

It’s still in my mind and I’m still building it so sometimes they take time.

You mentioned earlier that you felt like being an artist wouldn’t be a viable job. Do you think you call yourself an artist now?

I think so, yeah. It’s taking me a long time to accept my path because I felt a lot of guilt knowing I’m an artist. I’ve always seen my mom or my grandma just work all their life. For them they didn’t necessarily choose their path.

My grandma cleans houses and my mom works in an office. Since they were like 16 [years old] and 20 [years old] they’ve just worked. And I had the ability to choose. My family at times they don’t really understand it because they want me to have a job where I make a lot of money. But I’m very content with what I do. For work, I mostly teach and then I make my art.

Something that helped me with my art is that I read this book called “Convenience Store Woman”. It’s about this person that works at a convenience store and they love working there. But everyone in their life wants them to be a career person or have a family.

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So they try to fit into the mold that society wants them to fit in. But they eventually realize, “I’m a convenience store woman.”

So I feel like I’m like that as an artist.

My path is different from others but it’s something that I want to continue to do. I have, like, trust that things are going to continue to work out for me.

That being said, where do you see your work in like five years?

I hope to continue to make sculptures!

Um.. I don’t really know ha ha.

I mean you said you’re content with everything you’re doing now! Even if you keep doing what you’re doing now that still sounds pretty cool.

Being content for five years straight doing what you love!

Yeah definitely! Five years from now I hope to keep making work and to not stop being creative. I just want to grow creatively.

Do you think that you have any type of mentor or one person that specifically inspires you? Or is it kind of like everything you mentioned before, just like a collection of experiences?

I feel like there’s different people in my life that inspire me. My friend Susan inspires me a lot. She always reminds me to keep making work. We’re both on the path to continue to create.

Whenever I check in with her she’s very motivating. And in general, just the community of friends that I have inspires me to continue. Also my boyfriend Alfredo continues to inspire me and give me advice to keep moving forward. I can always talk to him.

You talked about what inspired you then. What would you say inspires you now?

One thing that I always reference in my work or that I constantly think about is the 1960’s. I think about different things when I think about the ‘60s. A big thing in my work is the idea of outer space and sci-fi. The mid century was the space age and, you know like, people racing to outer space and

sci-fi. The mid century was the space age and, you know like, people racing to outer space and building rockets to go there. But also that period of time was when my grandparents immigrated from Mexico to here. So I think about those two things. Where we live in Canoga Park there used to be a Rocketdyne. It’s like an aerospace company and they built the Saturn rocket engines and it was used in one of the Apollo missions. They have a different sight now on De Soto. That history was there in Canoga around the time they [grandparents] were also traveling to a new place and new world. So I think about that. I also just really like outer space. And seeing the stars at night always inspires me and the night sky, I take that in.

Do you think one of the inflatables is outer space inspired? Since it’s shiny and bright? Ha ha Ha ha now that you say that yeah!

Like the carousel one with the animals! I see the animals as like travelers from other worlds or other planets.

I don’t necessarily know their story yet. Right now my inflatables are taking a step into.. the ceramics and inflatables interacting with each other.

If you were on a deserted island what would be three things you’d take with you? [big smile] I would take my boyfriend Alfredo. Sunscreen, it’s a necessity.

Gosh I don’t know what I’d take for my third thing.

You wouldn’t need anything else huh ha ha.

Ha ha. Maybe a bounce house! Like one that goes in the water.

That sounds fun!

Okay soooo, where can everyone see your latest piece right now?

I have a group show around July 15th [2023]. Then I have a little solo [show] coming up in September!

Okay cool! What’s your Instagram? @monimonimonimonimoni_

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B ringing H u m a n - M a d e M ixe s t o Yo u STORY AND PHOTOS BY GABRIEL DIEGO PEREZ intelligence (AI) created playlist on streaming platforms like spotify and apple music. Rivera makes an emphasis on how everything done at dublab is “100% human.” What he means by this is that all of the mixes played at dublab whether prerecorded or live, are curated by human DJs. Those same mixes are also archived by the humans that work at dublab to ensure they are permanentized for their audience. These mixes are categorized by genre and intention which is quite the opposite of the AI generated playlist of recommendations done based on screen time, play time, or clicks.

Averie Rivera is seen during his DJ set at dublab May 29 2023. This set was during their three day membership drive.

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verie Rivera, an intern turned apprentice at an online radio station called dublab says to seek no further because the very place of his apprenticeship is the cure for algorithmic fatigue. Dublab is an non profit online radio station that serves a large and broad community of listeners. This non-profit started in Los Angeles, California, in 1999 and has grown to be much more than music. In its 24 years of existence dublab has managed to expand itself to produce films, host art exhibits, hold record release events, provide educational programs for the youth, and to aid creatives in their process. Dublab’s values are aimed toward serving the community which include its listeners, DJs, artists, and the people around them. The non profit prioritizes this by keeping a strict policy against gate keeping, which means providing resources and access to information to people who may not have them.

Dublab is all about expression of oneself, and is welcoming to all communities of people. It is also important to note that this online radio station is one of the first ever, which makes it a massive inspiration for freeform music.

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Rivera who is creatively referred to as Quantoom gives a perspective on both ends of what dublab is, due to his apprenticeship and djing at the station. Rivera is a creative based out of Pico Rivera, CA who specializes in a large range of creative work that includes Photographing concerts, video production, and music production.

What his daily task as an apprentice at dublab entails is archiving and broadcasting management. This means that he assists DJs in getting their shows live on the air and helps get their shows up on the dublab archive along with adding their tracklisting. He got his start DJing through his internship at dublab that began in December of 2022. According to Rivera “I started djing out of respect and consideration for the DJs I work with… I needed to understand their process and workload” he furthers this by adding his intention for his listeners when he stated “My intention with Djing is to provide solace, comfort and vulnerability in ways that language cannot.” Rivera certainly does as he has recently had his first show during dublabs membership drive on Monday,May 29, 2023. Rivera plays a mixture of house and electronic music to break out of the algorithmic funk that is artificial

According to Rivera, dublab has taught him much about how to step out of the algorithm and be more community and human based. He describes this as “dublab taught me that the best way to grow is to grow wide and not tall.” He elaborates by saying “When you grow wide you create more space for people to sit on your lawn , for people to cultivate , and for them to sit at eye level with you.” He adds “When you grow tall you are creating space between you and the other person, I look at this like a corporate approach where it is ok to step on people.” With that being said if you are in search of community and real human connection, dublab may be the place for you. You can tune in to dublab via dublab.com where you can access all archived broadcasts dating back to 1999. These archives include all genres of music along with talk shows, interviews, and poetry.

If you are interested in djing and want the potential to play live on air as Rivera and other disk jockeys have then here are two simple tips on where to get started from Averie to you. He starts off his by telling aspiring djs “Dont look up tutorials” and finishes with “Just spin what you like who cares if its not on beat?”

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It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere

What better way to enjoy the

summer sun than with an ice-cold drink in your hand and a soft buzz or spending your summer nights hitting the town sipping on something classy and intoxicating? For anyone old enough to drink, a fun beverage is a must in the intense heat of Southern California. Worried about spending money on alcohol at bars?

These recipes can easily be made at home without burning too much of a hole in the pocket.

Story: Andrew Oyola 16

Drinking From Home: Vibes Without the Crowd

Drinking at home has many advantages, such as its peaceful environment. After a long strenuous day, there is no beating the feeling of creating your own personal oasis- or dancefloor -and crafting a drink that will have you unwinding in minutes.

Home mixology allows you to experiment with a variety of flavors, ensuring your drink perfectly matches your unique preferences. Along with personalization, many people do not consider the benefits of investing in a high-quality bottle of liquor that lasts a while over time, has better taste, and, most importantly, promotes less severe hangovers.

Photos: Andrew Oyola

Drinking On The Town: Living With Edge & Class

While the allure of home mixology is undeniable, the experience of sipping cocktails in the energizing atmosphere of a club or bar is an adored summertime tradition. Joining friends or loved ones and raising a class to the carefreeness of youth or the blessings of life is a joyous occasion. The feeling of sophistication while holding a tall martini glass is undeniable; gossiping with your friends and flirting with strangers leads to unforgettable memories. Immerse yourself in the bustling scene, bask in the companionship offered by friends, and let the ambiance enhance your enjoyment of expertly crafted drinks.

This enchanting cocktail combines the classic Mojito’s invigorating flavors with coconut’s creamy and tropical essence. With each sip, you’ll be transported to a sun-kissed beach, where the gentle sway of palm trees and the refreshing breeze revive your spirit. The exact origins of this drink are unknown, and it is believed to have emerged as mixologists sought to infuse Caribbean flavors into the classic Mojito recipe. Introducing coconut’s rich, velvety taste transformed a delightful drink into an authentic taste of paradise.

Coconut Mojito

Recipe: 2 ounces white rum 1-ounce coconut rum 1-ounce fresh lime juice 1 tablespoon simple syrup 6-8 fresh mint leaves Soda water Ice cubes What To Do: In a glass muddle together the mint leaves and lime to release the oils and fresh juice.

Fill the glass half-way full with ice, then combine all liquid ingredients (hold off on the soda water) in a shaker.

Shake for 20 seconds then strain into the glass topping it off with soda water.

Garnish with a lime wheel and a sprig of mint.

Drunken Confession: “My comadre and I went on a bar crawl in Santa Barbara and we both got wasted. Towards the end she started trying to fight me and had to be held back by people at the bar. I thought it was hilarious and was laughing the entire time which made her a lot more angry. I don’t know what caused it, I think she was angry with how much time I was spending with my boyfriend at the time.” -Anonymous.

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Ingredients 2 cups fresh watermelon chunks (seedless) 2 ounces tequila 1-ounce lime juice 1-ounce triple sec 1 teaspoon agave nectar (optional) Ice cubes Lime wedges and watermelon slices for garnish What To Do: Cut up your watermelon and freeze it on a baking sheet for at least six hours.

If on the rocks is more your style skip the freezing step.

Salt the rim of the glass by rubbing a lime around the rim and then dipping into a plate of salt Add all ingredients to a blender.

Blend until the drink is completely smooth Pour into glass and serve with a lime.

Watermelon Margarita The Margarita, a beloved classic, has been a go-to cocktail for decades, known and loved for its tangy citrus notes and stimulating flavors. Adding watermelon takes this unique beverage to new heights, infusing it with a tempting refreshing burst of summer flavor. The origins of the Watermelon Margarita can be traced back to the vibrant cocktail scene in Mexico, where bartenders sought to create a refreshing twist on the traditional Margarita.

They harnessed the season’s spirit in a glass by incorporating the juicy essence of ripe watermelon.

Drunken Confession: “We were leaving the bars in Boyle Heights and saw a couple having sex on the street. I stopped to see if the girl was okay and they ended up chasing us down in their car.” -Anonymous

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Paloma The hot summer sun reflects off your sunglasses as you sit shoulder to shoulder with a friend at a beachfront bar; what’s that drink in your hand? The tall, cold, refreshing drink that projects tequila’s smoothness is the Paloma. This Summer gem from Mexico combines the flavors of Blanco tequila, lime, and grapefruit soda to soothe any thirst for a refreshing bittersweet, sour, and salty drink. Try this Mexican favorite and a fun, zesty change from the classic Margarita

Ingredients: 2 ounces tequila 2 ounces fresh grapefruit juice, plus wedges for garnish 2 ounces sparkling water ½ ounce lime juice ¼ ounce agave nectar or simple syrup, or to taste Coarse sea salt for the rim of the glasses What To Do: Salt the rim of the glass by rubbing a grapefruit wedge around the rim and then dipping it onto a plate of salt.

Mix all liquid ingredients together in the glass and fill the remainder of the glass with ice.

Adjust sweetness to taste.

Garnish with a grapefruit wedge.

Drunken Confession: “I went to a party with my boyfriend and all of my friends, and I saw my crush... I ditched him, considered hooking up with said crush. I am going to leave the ending amibuous...” -Anonymous.

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The Dirty Shirley

Ingredients: Ice 2 ounces vodka 1-ounce grenadine 8 ounces lemon-lime soda (such as Sprite or 7Up) 1 maraschino cherry for garnish What To Do: Mix the vodka and grenadine into a highball glass filled with ice.

Next, top with lemon-lime soda and stir gently but briefly to combine the liquids.

Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

If you’re looking for a drink that will bring back that childhood nostalgia or something fun to order, the Dirty Shirley is the drink for you. An adult spin on the traditional Shirley Temple created in the 1930s and named after a famous child celebrity. This drink stays true to its original recipe but with the exciting addition of vodka, which is still adorned with a maraschino cherry. The Dirty Shirley will make you feel like an excited child ordering a mocktail while enjoying a nice buzz that can boost any mood.

Drunken Confession: “Anything I said when I was drunk, I meant. But you would never catch me saying that sh*t sober. Except the time I broke up with my ex-boyfriend on New Years, I’d do that sober again.” -Kassie Celine.

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Ingredients: 2 ounces vodka (Absolut Citron preferred) 1/2 ounce triple sec, Grand Marnier or Cointreau 3/4 ounce cranberry juice cocktail; see notes 1/4 to 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice One 2-inch orange peel/twist What To Do: Combine the vodka, ime juice, triple sec, and cranberry juice into a cocktail shaker.

Add Ice to the shaker then shake for 20 seconds or until chilled.

Strain into a chilled martini glass.

Garnish with the orange peel/twist.

The Cosmopolitan This classic cocktail was created by bartender Toby Cecchini in the ‘80s; it has a flirtatious pink color, a tart taste, and a twist of lemon. Balancing sour flavors with the acidic kick of lime juice, the Cosmo will have you feeling like Carrie Bradshaw out on the town in an episode of Sex and the City. The show that adopted the pretty pink drink as its own redefined the meaning of the drink, turning it into a symbol for women to feel sophisticated and seen as more than just a pretty drink. Put on your Jimmy Choos and drink a Cosmo.

Drunken Confession: “My bestfriend of five years and I went to his family cabin with a few friends and we spent most of the trip drunk. One night we got really messed up and him and I hooked up... Girls and guys can be friends, just not us...”

-Anonymous 21

The Espresso Martini Coffee and Vodka? If a more sophisticated approach to summer drinks is your style, the Espresso Martini might be your calling. This luxurious mixture of vodka, coffee liqueur, and espresso will go down smoothly to provide a rich, delightful hybrid drink that exudes sophistication with its creme top, full-bodied espresso shot, and sweet finish. The creation of British bartending sage Dick Bradsell is credited to a young model from the 80s, rumored to be Kate Moss, when she asked for something to “wake me up and f**k me up.” As quoted, this drink will energize and provide that sultry drunken feeling.

Ingredients: 2 ounces vodka 1/2 ounce coffee liqueur (usually Kahlúa) 1-ounce espresso, freshly brewed (or cold brew concentrate) 1/2 ounce simple syrup Garnish: coffee beans What to do: Combine the vodka, coffee liquer, espresso, and simple syrup into a cocktail shaker.

Add ice and shake for twenty seconds or until chilled.

Pour into a chilled martini glass and garnish with three coffee beans.

Drunken Confession: “I once got really drunk at my ex-friends party and said something really embarassing on the mic in front of all our friends. I felt terrible but she turned out to be a snake and we stopped being friends for other reasons.

Still feel kinda bad, but I do hope that humbled her.”

-Anonymous.

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The Lemon Drop

Ingredients: 2 ounces of vodka 1/2 ounce Cointreau 1/2 ounce lemon juice 1 tsp agave One thinly cut lemon wedge What To Do: Combine the vodka, Cointreau, lemon juice, and agave into a coctail shaker.

Add Ice to the shaker then shake for 20 seconds or until chilled.

Coat the rim of a martnini glass with sugar by rubbing a lemon wedge around the rim of the glass and dipping it in a plate of sugar.

Strain the liquid into a chilled martini glass Garnish with the thinly cut lemon wedge.

Looking for a drink that borders between tart and sweet with a buzz that sneaks up on you? Fans of Cosmo will enjoy this pop of sweet-tart flavor known as the Lemon Drop. The drink is not too sweet, but the sugary rim provides a lovely introduction to the glass with a subtle kick of liquor as the drink goes down. The exact origins of the Lemon Drop cocktail remain shrouded in mystery, but its popularity surged in the 1970s, taking the cocktail scene by storm. Mixologists sought to create a drink showcasing lemons’ vibrancy and tartness, ultimately crafting a cocktail that has become a timeless favorite.

Drunken Confession: “I hate homophobes and I hate when they try to justify it. Like STFU!” -Hazel Rodriguez

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STORY AND PHOTOS BY

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achel Day has been the Program Director at dublab for the last four years and has had a passion for her work and all the people she works with. Day’s job as Program Director is to keep the broadcast and archives running for both live and pre recorded shows, to cultivate new connections that can bring new shows to dublab, and to keep an eye on the community of dublab to ensure that it is inclusive of all people and multicultural. Day creates a “safe space” and platform that is non exclusionary for people to be both creative and themselves. She connects with all of her 180 monthly DJs both face-to-face and via email to ensure that all feel welcome and are on the same page. According to Day there is a problem in the music industry and in her own words that problem is “A lot of the music industry is filled with white men only… and it’s in a way that can make it feel exclusionary of other kinds of people.” Rachel works tirelessly to make dublab a solution to this problem of exclusion, as she says “The underground communities that may not have support otherwise , dublab is … here to offer assistance and a platform for” She

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Y GABRIEL DIEGO PEREZ

adds “A lot of the work I am doing is also …building connections with other organizations, other people who are doing work that’s aligned with ours… whether it’s people who have their own radio stations or other non-profits” She finishes with “I work to connect them with resources that they may need.”

This work is crucial to keeping different types of underground creatives here.

When the workload that comes from being program director gets tough, Day reminds herself of the core values that dublab holds and feels that it is all worth it because it is nothing short of important work.

Day is still working to keep dublab culturally diverse by continuing to cultivate through events like membership drives, and to be on the lookout for what is new and underrepresented in the indusrty. If you wish to assist in this effort, or to be introduced to a plethora of music and culture you can visit dublab. com. To keep up to date with all of their newest events and updates follow their instagram page that is @dublab.

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Music for Seance:

Wisteria 28

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n an intimate conversation between two homies, Armand Rodriguez gets into his music career. His band Wisteria has been around for about three years. It can only be described as “music for seance”, with its penchant for enigmatic synth beats. This mix of emotional and raw sonido will have you looking inward and dancing no doubt. Rodriguez unveils his inspirations, his new music project Numb, and the peaks and valleys of making music.

INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY ÁNGEL CHAVEZ Chavez: Okay so.. Armani suit [joke] you are in Wisteria and you also have a new project [Numb] - let us know what that’s about.

Armand Rodriguez: So the new project is a guitar-based side project. I don’t even want to say it’s a side project because I feel like it’s strong enough to be an equal to my Wisteria project, but it’s kind of like a way for me to make guitar-based music that’s in a different emotional setting. Because I wanted to make something along the lines of... well Wisteria is more mysterious sounding stuff, there’s a specific emotional setting for that. Numb is more shoegaze-based, but also a way for me to make like... summary music and incorporate other influences. It’s a little bit more eclectic. I can drop from a lot more things. So it’s just a way for me to pull from other influences without changing what Wisteria was.

I didn’t want to change what Wisteria was because I want Wisteria to be very specific to what it is. With Numb,

I can venture off more.

What is Wisteria then?

Wisteria is... very visual music. I wanted Wisteria to be like.. you listen to it and then imagine 80’s Asian cinema.

Like Wong Kar-Wai films or other ‘80s noir films. This isn’t even necessarily Asian cinema, but they kind of do it a lot where it’s like a city at night and then there’s smoke going by. And for me Wisteria embodies a night city life kind of thing.

And I think I know what you mean

by Asian cinema. When I listen to Wisteria, I think of exactly that. City night and city lights. But THOSE city lights specifically…. that’s the imagery I get when I listen to it. I just... I can definitely see that.

Now that you’re mentioning it. It’s becoming really clear.

Yeah that’s why… I didn’t want to have to change what that was for Wisteria.

People were telling me “oh you should just like release the Numb songs as a different Wisteria album.” But for me it just didn’t make sense, I didn’t want to disrupt what it is. If I start going more in the Numb direction that’s cool.. but maybe down the line I’ll do more Wisteria stuff. I do have other Wisteria stuff to release. It’s just that I wanted them to be separate for purity sake.

What’s your favorite Wong Kar-Wai movie?

I’m, like, blanking. Ha ha.

There’s “Fallen Angels”, there’s “As Tears Go By” that one’s my favorite Oh, “In the Mood for Love” I love “In the Mood for Love”! I haven’t watched a whole bunch of his movies.

They’re just hard to find. To watch “Fallen Angels” is easy now ha ha..

Yeah and there’s some other Hong Kong directors I’d watch. I would go on Canopy and look at what they had and I’d just watch a bunch of random ones from other directors too. It’s just a lot of stuff like that. Honestly in my head sometimes I feel like I’m imagining movies and I’m like “oh wait what movie was that” and it probably doesn’t even exist.

So do you think that a lot of your music is inspired by films?

By films and… specifically for Wisteria yeah.. all the music I make is kind of like.. you watch enough of one genre and then it starts to permeate your mindset. If I watch enough of a genre..

I start to feel like I’m living in that genre. I want to make music that naturally comes from immersing myself like that.

How long were you doing Wisteria until you started doing or wanted to start doing Numb?

Last year. My brother had some amps, I never used to like mic[rophoning] amps because it was always really hard for me. But my brother started playing on them and then I was like

Drunken Confession:

Linked up with the homie to go to a warehouse event near Little Tokyo and pregamed a three pack of tall can IPAs at home before getting picked up. Before going in we killed a few shots of Casamigos and I was on a sick one for the rest of the night. It was the middle of December so when I got dropped off back home at 5am it was probably about 30 degrees outside. Didn’t have a jacket or sweater on so the air felt frigid. By the time I reached the front door of my apartment I realized that I had forgotten my keys in my friend’s car. I didn’t want to wake up my old school mom at this time and have her see me completely blacked out. Naturally, I had the idea to attempt breaking into my car by using the prong of my belt as a “key” and sleep in there till it was an acceptable time to knock on the door hoping someone would be awake. That idea was a bust. All that I had done was screw up my belt and set off the car alarm multiple times. I decided I would be down enough to wake up my mom in order to get inside. Got yelled at all bad, showed up to work four hours later still drunk to work a full shift, threw up the whole time and then sat through a team building meeting after closing hours. Mixing the different types of alcohol and chain smoking a pack of cigarettes gave me the worst hangover of my life. Still can’t stand the smell of tequila or cigarettes till this day.

-Anonymous, 27 29

“oh they sound really good” so then I started writing. I always wanted to make guitar projects so the summer of last year I wrote a couple of them and I actually recorded some like really rough demos. That’s kind of when it started. It was mostly just because the amps were there and I wanted to use them and it sounded really good.

When did you start playing music?

Probably like in.. middle school. I had an 8-track and I would record stuff on it. It wasn’t very good but I’ve been recording since late middle school/ [early]high school.

That’s pretty sick. Were you like a little goth foo back then too?

Ha ha. I was into death and black metal. And thrash metal.

I can definitely see that. That’s funny. What bands specifically were you listening to?

At that time I was really into Darkthrone and there was this French band called Mütiilation that I really liked.

I wasn’t into the super heavy stuff. I like more ‘80s death metal like Morbid Angel. In the early 2000’s there was a big thrash metal scene in LA I thought that was cool.

I mean, I was gonna ask you if there

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was a sort of breaking point in Wisteria that made you want to do Numb, but you said that the amps were just there. You just wanted to fuck around. Do you feel like Wisteria limited you at all?

Yeah, I felt like I was kind of limited in the ways I already talked about. But also because I had already been doing that kind of style for a while, and it seemed like... Not really pigeon-holed, but it seems like people kind of expect that already. So I don’t want to throw people off too much.

Do you.. feel any pressure to create for either project? Or when you put it out there, do you feel any pressure?

Oh yeah, I mean you always wonder if people are gonna like it. I definitely put out some stuff where I really liked it personally and then there’s not really a great reception to it. But as far as pressure to create, I don’t really have a pressure to create. Because I know that I’m just gonna make songs regardless. It’s always gonna come out.

I guess there’s a pressure to release on a certain timeframe. Just because you don’t want to wait too long and people will start to forget. And also this past year, we’ve been playing a lot of shows that kind of made it harder to release.

You said, the songs are gonna come out regardless. Is that your main form of expression?

Yeah, I’d say that putting songs out is the main form of expression. Writing songs and making the album art and stuff like that. As a whole. It’s not even just the song, it’s the whole way it’s presented is my main mode of expression.

Is there anything that you think of first? Like writing or album art or do you just see an image and you’re like, “okay I want to write this and that for it”? What’s your process?

Usually I write the song first. And then I kind of have to listen to it for a while and see what I see in my head. And then I have a mental image of what I want to do for the album art or for a video. I haven’t done any music videos yet, but I mean for a short video. Ha ha. But usually it’s easier to imagine it than actually doing it. So when I actually do it, based on the constraints we have or my time frame, there’s usually a medium halfway between what I expected and what the vision was and what I ended up with.

And usually it comes out better than I expected. Just because it’s something completely different. There’s a spontaneity to it.

Do you feel like you live in your head a lot? Ha ha.

I mean I want to ha ha. I don’t know, it’s funny.

I live in my head a lot. I think for a lot of people it’s like that.

I know it’s a hard thing for people to do ha ha.

You know what, it’s not like that for a lot of people ha ha.

All my life I was one to be like “I want to be an artist.” At this point it’s something I do, the music thing. And I mean there’s a commercial aspect to it [calling yourself an artist]. I would like to but I don’t know, I feel like there’s an ego part that wants to just say that.

I would say that we’re all artists in different ways and I would like to call myself one. Ha ha.

Ha ha really? I thought that’s just the way it was. I mean for me, I’m living in my head a lot.

I mean as long as you think that it doesn’t limit you too much. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. If you’re able to think of an image and bring it to life and it comes out better than you thought it just seems like YOUR mind is a very good starting point for everything that you do. You specifically as an artist. It seems like you have enough trust in yourself and it definitely shows!

What are you trying to say with Wisteria and what are you trying to say with Numb?

I always think that question’s interesting… with Wisteria It’s kind of… you’re holding on to ideals that are painful to let go. Like looking back at pain. It’s kind of like a vague thing, but I think it’s a universal feeling everybody feels so I guess that’s what I’m trying to say with it. It’s not even really a message, I think it’s a unifying feeling a lot of people have.

What about Numb?

I think Numb is similar, but it’s explored in a different way. The lyrics and everything are kind of similar. But looking at it in a more bittersweet way.

Wisteria isn’t necessarily bittersweet ha ha. I just want to make something people can listen to and maybe be like “I feel that too.”

I don’t know what that feeling is. It’s not “relatable”, it’s a deeper thing than that. Even though we don’t have the same experiences there are, like you said, unifying feelings in everybody’s life that make us all the same in some way.. Do you think that you see yourself as an artist? Like do you think you can call yourself that?

How did you come up with both your bands’ names?

Wisteria.. I was having a lot of trouble looking for a name. I was reading a Beach House interview and they were talking about how they came up with the name Beach House and how it came naturally. Like.. once they stopped thinking about it, it just came to them. I was like “oh, that’s cool.” And then they had a list of band names that they threw out the window and Wisteria was one of them. So I was like “I’m taking that one” ha ha.

Drunken Confession:

All my friends were assholes.

None of them had a nice thing to say about me behind my back.

Too weird, not queer enough, always had a thing or two to say about my body. That’s what I got for being friends with a bunch of bros.

I had a masculine rage always pent up inside. Ask me to hit you as hard as I can and I will.

I did. Followed it by playing bloody knuckles with some of them, my idea…

He only had a black eyes for three days and I was in a cast for months. Two pins put inside my right hand then taken out 8 weeks later.

5 or 6 people and wayyy too much liquor. Whiskey, wine, mickeys, and probably way more after I had blacked out. 19 but it took a couple more years for me to learn my lesson. Don’t talk to any of ‘em anymore and still haven’t paid the hospital bill either lol -Anonymous, 25

Ha ha damn I didn’t know that! You were like, yoink!

Ha ha yeah, I just thought it was funny that they were giving this inspirational thing about how you finally find something when you stop looking and then I was just here mining their interview for something. That’s like my favorite band so it feels cool to, in my own head, be a remnant of them.

Yeah, like be connected to them somehow. That’s pretty cool.

And then Numb, I just couldn’t figure out a name. Then I just saw it somewhere and I thought that would be a pretty good band name for this kind of band. I looked it up and I was like “oh shit, there’s no other band with this name. I can’t believe this wasn’t taken. I have to make it like right now.”

I’m sure there’s another band or there was a band at some point in the past or I don’t know.. maybe I just never heard of them and I’m sorry that I just

took it ha ha.

Do you think being active on social media is something that you need to do right now as an artist?

Yeah, unfortunately, it’s like part of what we’re talking about earlier, like the presentation. It has to be a whole thing. People need to see you as a person. Even if it’s not necessarily honest and there’s nothing bad about it not being honest! It’s how you present yourself. People want to see a persona alongside it. Just like they want to see music videos alongside it.

It’s like a whole aesthetic package. I don’t know.. I have thoughts on that, it is exhausting having to do it.

Yeah, these days people are like “give me more, I want more.” You can’t just put out a little single, that’s really not enough and it’s not 31

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enough to stay relevant. It sucks that that’s something that needs to be taken into consideration because it kind of feels.. artificial.

I think so, because if you’re forcing your output then it all starts to become forced. It’s better if you just let an artist release stuff when they release stuff.

Then it’s not a competition of themselves to have to constantly do it.. It’s a double-edged sword, I guess.

What’s been the best advice that someone else in a band or some other artist has given you?

You just have to put stuff out. Just do it. A long time ago Chris [from Closed Tear] was telling me, before I put anything out, I had my whole Never Waved album unreleased and he was like, “just put it out there.” And I was like, “well, nobody’s gonna listen to it” and he said “you don’t know that.”

And then I put it out and opportunities opened. You just have to do it and put yourself out there and at least have a little bit of a game plan. I don’t remember who told me this, but they said “you just have to put what you have out there and then that way you can move on”.

Would you say, Chris is one of your biggest supporters?

Oh, yeah, for sure. We support each other in a lot of different ways and we’re best friends. So, we kind of have to be ha ha.

Who else would you say is a supporter?

I mean, the people I met in the early days.. like you guys [Chavez and Adrian Castillo] and the circle that you guys have. You guys make it feel a little bit more safe to be in some of these things. And then there’s been other people like bigger artists that reach out to me. European artists especially and that’s pretty cool, more famous bands reaching out in a really sincere way. And also fans that message me. I don’t know if people realize how much that means because you feel validated and like, “okay, I’m not wasting my time.”

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Dude, how did that shit feel when the dude from The Kooks mentioned you [in a podcast]?

Ha ha oh, yeah, the guitarist. That was pretty cool. I thought that was kind of surreal because I knew their music right after I got out of college. Yeah, it was pretty cool. That was like one of the validating ones! I told Cody from CD Ghost and I just thought it was funny because he was like, “that was like my favorite band in college” ha ha.

Um, so.. Ceremony is my favorite [Wisteria] song.

Oh hell yeah.

What’s the story behind that one?

I was on the bus playing around on GarageBand and I wrote it. I wrote the early version of it and I recorded the vocals on the bus on my little headphones. It sounded like shit. But, I guess the story about that one is.. you think you know somebody, but you don’t really know the deeper parts of them.

The fact that I’m always on the fucking bus and I’m always listening to that song on the bus like that’s funny. Ha ha. How was tour[ing]? How’s tour life?

The Texas tour that me and Chris did was actually pretty chill just because it was just me and him. And we have similar schedules. And we had our flow going. So tour life is cool. I don’t know if I like to do it for really, really long periods of time. I mean obviously like, you want to be back home. But it’s cool to get perspective on other parts of the country! I really love Texas now after going through it and playing through it! It’s cool. Then you get to see what the East Coast is about and it puts being home in L[os]A[angeles] into perspective. It makes you appreciate that we live in LA, like a cool city ha ha. Because if you’re constantly here then it starts to feel kind of small.

What was your favorite show [performance] during the tour?

I think Houston was probably the coolest show because even though the crowd was relatively small everybody was going crazy and dancing.

It sounded horrible, for me, but they were fucking with it. I thought that was really cool.

If somebody doesn’t play music they can’t tell ha ha. You’ll think “the sound was bad” or “they could have turned my shit up a little more” this and that, but people cannot fucking tell dude.. ha ha. What was your worst show?

Like, ever?

Ever.

I’ll just say, I think it wasn’t my worst show but a show that really sticks out for me for some reason was at Zebulon, not the recent one. Maybe last year. I don’t know what it was. The other times I played there were really cool. But for some reason that time I played, in between every song it was like dead silent… and I kept thinking to myself like “man.. do I suck?” ha ha.

Well what time did you play, maybe that had something to do with it ha ha.

No! Ha ha. I played late at night. I don’t know what it was. It was just dead silence in between. But I think maybe I was misinterpreting that. I don’t know. It was the first year that I started playing. I hadn’t been playing for a year yet so I’m gonna give myself the benefit of the doubt and think that I was more self-conscious at that time. But that one really stuck out in my head.

I didn’t even know when we first started kicking it that you had JUST started.

Yeah because the first show I played was 2021 in like.. July so that was the early days.

We were probably there!

You guys were there! I remember.

That’s pretty sick. I’ve seen you grow as a person and as an artist. You’re comfortable now. You said like.. dead silence made you feel some type of way. And I don’t think that you would feel that way now! You also have Marlene [Rodriguez’s girlfriend] to scream in between each song ha ha.

That’s true ha ha if there’s any awkward silence she can be there to get rid of that. It’s weird because it’s not even that long ago it feels like it was like a really long time ago. I guess because so much stuff had happened in between.

What do you think was your best show, where you had the most fun!

Either San Antonio, or at the Moroccan Lounge when we played there like all of us. That was a really fun show. Just because we kind of started figuring out the atmosphere and we were sounding alright, everything just kind of started coming together.

Where can people see you guys [live]?

We [Wisteria] might take a break in July so I’m going to say in August we’ll start having shows. I’m trying to slate my first show for Numb in August. I might even just do it at Footsies, that’ll be cool.

Alright, thanks a lot!

Yeah thank you!

I really loved and appreciated everything you had to say, as an artist and as my friend. I really appreciated it.

Instagram: @WISTERIA_LA @NUMB.CALIFORNIA

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Visual technology Looking towards the future Present day

Blue light Glasses

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lue light is emitted from computers and everything technological with a screen. This is harmful to our bodies late at night, because it can trigger a reaction in our brain that will tell it, “It’s time to stay awake”, because it’s receiving that signal from our eyes. This can cause problems like insomnia by damaging our brain. This is why an optician named James Asycough started recommending blue or green tinted glasses to treat certain vision problems in 1752. Blue light glasses actually started being made in the 1960s but weren’t really popular until the early 2000’s due to the rapidly increasing use of technology.

Since not everyone has the experience of altered glasses, some individuals volunteered to share their experience of these specialized glasses, and talk about how it changed their lives.

Interviewee: Marcus Mendoza, 19 years old Q: Do you find the blue light glasses able to fulfill the reason you chose to purchase them?

A: “Yes, I do feel that they do fulfill their purpose.”

Q: Do you think their effectiveness impacts your daily life enough to be worth spending the extra money for another pair of glasses?

A: “I do think that it would be worth it to buy another pair, especially since we are entering an age of technology and aging schoolwork being done on computers, laptops, phones, and even iPads too. Not even to mention the workplace, it’s filled with this technology to boot.”

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Photochromic glasses

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here exists certain glasses that can automatically change from regular glasses to sunglasses as they’re exposed to sunlight. They are called photochromic lenses, and they were invented by William Armistead and Stanley Stookey in the 1960s for their company, Corning.

However, the company did not release this technology publicly until 1991. They work by having many small light-sensitive molecules built into a layer on the glasses.

When they are exposed to Ultraviolet (UV) rays, the molecules change structure and darken the glasses.

Interviewee: Anonymous, 16 years old Q: Did you find the glasses able to fulfill the reason you bought them?

A: “Yeah, they worked well. Put them in sunlight, sunglasses, and when you had them away from direct sunlight, they were normal glasses.”

Q: Do you think the effectiveness was worth paying the extra money for them compared to normal glasses?

A: “Not really, it was $80 extra for them, I would’ve much rather bought normal sunglasses. I would rather wear normal sunglasses, but it depends on the person. The transitioning glasses were able to keep my prescription when it turned to sunglasses, though.”

Now these types of vision altercations are all we have in present day. However, let’s look into the future and speculate how it’s going to change over time...

In the future

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The Apple Vision Pro

n early 2024, Apple is planning to come out with the Apple vision pro, a futuristic pair of goggles that may change the world as you see it, quite literally. The purpose of these goggles is to blend the real world with the digital content we all know and love. Consumers can access their favorite content across the web at whatever time they want, with just a hand motion or a simple voice command. Yes, all you need is your eyes, your hands, and your voice; adding to the ingenuity of this revolutionary device. It’s projected to cost $3500, have about two hours of battery life, and capture pictures and videos in the moment. These goggles have sensors to track your eye movement, so you can capture everything you see at any moment, just like a screenshot. Seeing that it’s a new piece of technology, and it’s almost an entirely new concept that they’re introducing, some interviews were conducted to see what the general public thinks, and get some fresh new ideas in the mix.

Interviewee: Kristen Advincula, 17-years-old “We know that technology is going to develop and become more evolved over time, and I know that there can be a lot of benefits from it. But overall I think it’s more negative at this time in society. People today are still trying to get used to TikTok and virtual reality in itself, and with that it can be very hazardous and dangerous depending on when you choose to wear it. On top of that I think that when it is released many people won’t be responsible and use it for bad intent. I understand that time still needs to go forward, but in this case it feels like they’re skipping a whole decade.”

Interviewee: Jaiden Camacho, 18-years-old “I think this is a fascinating idea because it allows us to blend the human imagination with the real world. However, we should be careful with this technology because although the Apple Vision Pro caters to a wealthier audience, if it is made for the average consumer it could lead to increased time spent in the digital world. This could become unhealthy should people use this technology to engross themselves in this world as a coping mechanism or if they become addicted. Although in the short term the Apple Vision Pro is revolutionary and should be studied for recreational and possibly therapeutic applications, I think completely unhampered this technology could spiral out of control. My question is, what other ways the Apple Vision Pro could be used for besides entertainment. Are there possible medical or educational applications as well?”

Considering these different points of view, will you be buying the product?

Interviewee: Alexander Mont, 51-years-old “It depends on what applications you’re going to use besides games. I mean, in gaming, if it’s checking your eye movement, obviously your eyes are going to react a little faster than your hands, because it’s all visual as far as gaming is concerned. Your hand-eye coordination is a little shorter because it’s just your eyes.” “I was never going to be a first-end user to pay 3500 dollars for it. I am not an Apple person.” “Cost, and my personal view on Apple and the way they do business, I don’t agree with, so I’d rather spend my money somewhere else.” “I don’t know if the cost is worth any convenience that it brings me, except for it being the ‘newest thing’ and I happen to be a first-end user.”

Welcome to the future 37

ESOTERIC REALITIES: Behind the Artistry of Alexandra Gonzalez INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY ÁNGEL CHAVEZ An artist’s unforgettable sculptures are where reality meets reveries. Using anything she can get her hands on, multi-talented artist Alexandra Gonzalez has a profound commitment to staying true to herself and constant self-discovery. Gonzalez provides us with some insight on her mysterious pieces of work ranging from mosaic, ceramic, plaster and metal wire. She also delves into the challenges of being an artist and how she’s become the artist she is today.

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havez: I’d like to start by saying I really value you as a creator. I want to kind of go off a conversation that we’ve had in the past, like about the [social media] algorithm and creating versus the algorithm. How do you feel social media affects your work?

Gonzalez: So right now, I’m putting together an art show. And I felt like I had to share some of the work that I had been making, before I shared the flyer for the art show. I guess because in a way I felt like I had to prove myself as an artist. I wanted to have work shown there [Instagram] to grab the interest of other people. So people are aware of what I’m showing. But, it just didn’t even happen that way. I didn’t make the time to post it. I was thinking about just making sure that this art show happened, that I haven’t had the energy to photograph my pieces the way I’d want to share them. There are people who have clearly shown interest that they want to come without having to see all of my work.

hey believe in me without having to see through Instagram. Another aspect to it all, a lot of the time artists have two accounts. They have an art account just for their art and then their personal. The art account is more for someone else and not really for them.

They want it clean so that when they do have a chance for an opportunity, say for a gallery, or they have to submit their artwork somewhere, and the gallery or this person is asking for their Instagram handle, they feel like it’s going to be more professional to use that Instagram as a portfolio.

They don’t want to mix their personal life with their art. But for me, I’ve tried to do a whole art account, but that’s not who I am. I feel like what happens around me in my everyday life contributes so much to my art.

You’re like, they got to know the whole story ha ha.

Ha ha I feel like it’s necessary to understand who I am to appreciate my artwork as well. Those two things go

hand-in-hand, so why separate them?

Why not enjoy this person for what they have to show and then also appreciate their artwork? Why does it have to be separated? That’s something that I struggle with in terms of Instagram as a whole. Wanting to separate my artwork for someone else’s pleasure and then staying true to myself. I think I’d rather make a website. I don’t want to conform to how Instagram is viewed nowadays as a portfolio.

I do hear from a lot of artists where they say social media just feels like a whole thing. You have to become good at advertising in that way. Because it sounded like you wanted to advertise the art show correctly.

Yeah, I wanted to share the work that I’ve already made that I’m proud of and what I wanted people to associate me with so that they knew that.. I am an artist. Just because I don’t have a lot of work on my Instagram, doesn’t mean

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I’m not working or I’m not making art all the time. But, you know, it’s like a battle, because I don’t need to prove myself to anyone, those who do believe in me will show up just because they know that I’m an artist in all ways.

I think by you even having that mindset, you’re breaking down that barrier of what art is right now.

Where you have to be an advertiser, you have to push out content, like, so by maintaining this mindset, you’re maintaining the integrity of yourself and your artwork, like just your beliefs, you know?

see a moment in time, or friends, or some type of a word or a phrase that’ll instantly remind me of something that I am going through in my life.

You’ve mentioned to me in the past about adding a mosaic component to a certain ceramic piece AND adding wire. A lot of mediums basically ha ha. It sounds like a lot of stuff sometimes but then when I see your work completed it looks very cohesive! How do you visualize and execute your art into solid concepts?

And that’s definitely like the key aspect to a lot of my artwork is I try to not consider what people are gonna think or how they’re gonna perceive it, because then I’d be straying away from myself and who I am.

Your pieces look like something you’d see in a dream. Like, images that you see fast in your dream that you can barely remember. What are the ideas behind them?

A lot of my inspiration does come from dreams. It comes from experiences. It comes, I mean, it’s gonna sound stupid, but it comes from my subconscious really. I notice that I’ll draw certain images that stick out in my head to me the most. And then I’ll find out later that something that I drew correlated with something that happened in my life, like a couple months ago, or something that just happened. Almost like my brain remembers things that my waking state doesn’t. When I’m dreaming is when I feel most at ease, when I feel most in control. Ever since I was small, I’ve always felt that way. For the longest time I was scared about it. I couldn’t understand why my art came from the place that it did. I felt crazy. But then I slowly started embracing what was shown to me, and it helped me understand who I am as a person. So every time I make a piece, it honestly helps me understand myself better. I’ll create, I’ll sculpt, or I’ll draw, and I’ll look at the piece afterwards, and I’ll 40

art, discovering something visually that you didn’t expect to understand or see until it’s created.

It’s really funny you said you start off with stick figures because you can actually draw really well ha ha.

Are there certain times where you feel more like drawing or where you feel more like sculpting?

There’s a lot of moments when I feel like I run out of ideas to sculpt actually.

I take those times, where I don’t have the push to be in the [ceramic] studio to just be at home in my bed and draw whatever comes to mind. And usually in those moments I always find something in my sketchbook that sticks out to me and I’ll want to incorporate that into my ceramic artwork. With any type of medium you do, drawing goes hand-inhand.

What is your favorite material to work with? Not thinking of, like, time constraints you’d face or how accessible the material is or isn’t.

Glass! But what I spend most of my time with and what I can always make time for is ceramic, because the clay is just so forgiving.

I know you went to school and you did art at school. What was your evolution of art during your entire time in college?

I start with very rough sketches or rough doodles that are stick figures basically, as long as I have a small basis to go off of! I’m more of a visual learner and I can’t see concepts come to life until I actually try multiple mediums in mind. It has to do with the way I understand how things work in life, where nothing is ever just one thing.

I’ve always thought so many mediums can complement each other. I’m always thinking of how I can take one small aspect of something and put it together with another medium to make it feel complete. That’s the beauty in

I think about this all the time. So that’s funny that you asked. I started off with just drawing because that was my favorite thing to do. I already knew that I enjoyed drawing.

At that time, that was the only way that I was expressing myself. But once I got to Mt. Sac [Mt. San Antonio College], there were so many art classes that were readily available to me that I signed up for a class in all mediums.

Just because I wanted to learn. Just because I didn’t know the direction I wanted to go with my art. The only way that I was going to find out was by experimenting. At the beginning, I was leaning towards animation because I felt like I did have a lot of characters

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that I enjoyed drawing and that I wanted to see come to life. But I knew that there was a certain dedication behind animation that I couldn’t... completely.. Find the passion for. In animation, if you don’t have the passion for it, I don’t think you can ever... succeed in it.

Yeah, because it would feel like a lot of work.

Yeah, it would feel more stressful than fulfilling. I didn’t have a passion for animation. I just enjoyed experimenting with it and it was something that I appreciated A LOT. Then I realized that I fell into 3D aspects of art. So

then I took a sculpting class for my second semester of art school and I quickly fell in love and I realized that this was something that had been missing, like, in my life this whole time.

It was a complete sense of figuring out who I was.

What was your outlook before sculpting?

Before sculpting I always felt drawn to create. I always felt drawn to the idea of being an artist. But I thought that it wasn’t achievable because of what was pushed on to me growing up.

Growing up, people around me were always telling me that

I needed a career in the medical field or something to do with the city. Something that was going to be very secure because the notion of struggle was always evident in my family. Everyone was always struggling with money or they always needed to make more money. And it was definitely pushed on to me that I needed to succeed and in order to succeed I had to pick a serious career.

Like, serious in their mind.

Serious in their mind, yes. So I kind of DID do that. I did that for my two first years of college. I was going to school for anthropology and I was going to

Drunken Confession: I was so drunk and faded one night out that I lit a cigarette backwards. THREE TIMES IN A ROW. The first time I did it, all my friends laughed and I didn’t know what they were laughing at. I laughed along with them. I dropped the cigarette on the ground and tried lighting it a second time. It was backwards and I didn’t notice again. Everyone laughed and I laughed AGAIN. I thought I told a super funny joke or something or I was being super cool [*Eric Cartman voice*]. The cigarette fell on the ground again and yes when I picked it up I lit it backwards again. I think I was 20 at the time. I would never do something that faded now lol.

-Anonymous, 27 42

minor in photography because I still wanted to do some type of art. I thought I wanted to do, maybe, photojournalism. I loved the idea of how humans connect, I associated that with anthropology and I felt like it was a great stepping stone into understanding and being able to learn about the world and who occupies it. But just.. after those two years, there was just a strong push for me to change my path completely. And I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I just knew that it had to be art related. And yeah, my family definitely did not like that I changed my path. They thought that I was kind of fucking up the direction that I was going because I dropped out of a four-year [college] to go to Mt. Sac, a CC [community college].

Essentially I did everything backwards.

I got my general education at the four-year and then after two years I went to community college to start taking art classes.

And then once I found sculpture and once I found art, my family quickly saw that this is what I was passionate about and this is what, no matter what they had said, I was going to put my all into it. And that I was going to find happiness in living my life led with art.

at Mt. Sac? Each semester I took at least one or two sculpting classes and then other classes were drawing classes or a printmaking class, but most of them were actually drawing classes.

I needed to understand my drawing style in order to sculpt authentically to me. Because in my sculpting classes, my teachers were just telling me basically what to sculpt and giving me tips and I had to sculpt what was in front of me. But once I started drawing more and finding my style, then I was able to incorporate my style into my sculpting and my sculptures

“

Your mom was there at the Santa Fe Springs Art Fest.

What did she have to say about the pieces that you showed there?

What are three words you would use to describe your work as an

into like… this.. I don’t know, I don’t black out, but when I’m creating something, even after I see it complete, I don’t take it all in. I don’t actually SEE my piece until I’m looking at a photo of it, and I’m like, whoa. It almost feels like a complete separation, like I don’t believe that I did that. It feels separate from me... It’s crazy, yeah. And like I said, for the longest time it was very scary. It took a long time for me to like, embrace my artwork and not let it... not let it control me.

So what do you think you’re trying to say with your pieces?

I’m trying to send myself messages.

Or also with my piece, that vampire blood jacuzzi, the reason why I made that is because it had been an image that I had seen for such a long time already and I loved it so much. I wanted to bring it to life.

But I wanted to still do it in my style and the way I did it with my style was by adding a character involved in it, by basically putting myself into an already existing concept. I feel like that was the way that I was able to connect to that piece, even though the idea wasn’t mine.

It’s not just having an idea and wanting to execute it. It’s.. the way you see your life and the way you want to experience this lifetime. “

My mom doesn’t necessarily understand my art. She hasn’t taken the time to ask me what they mean or why I create the things that I create. But she’s very proud of me! She loves that I, despite everyone around me telling me not to pursue art, she loves that I’ve stood my ground and that I have found my own successes by being an artist. That was her first time seeing my artwork in person and in a gallery.

That was her first time ever seeing my artwork displayed like that. And I remember she gave me flowers before we left and she was really proud of me and she was happy that she got to share that experience with me!

What other art classes did you take

entirety, like drawing, sculpting and everything?

Emotional. Dark.. I don’t want to say dreamy because I have described my work like that before as dreamy.

It’s cool that you did see that in my work. But another word I want to say is familiar, but I think that might just be biased. I feel like for me, it feels familiar.

I think that’s a good word though.

If it’s dream-like it does feel familiar. Like a flash of an image that you’ve seen, but it’s just right there in front of you to just stare at, you know?

Yeah, because honestly, I swear I go

It’s hard to stay consistently motivated, what are some ways you stay motivated?

Going out and taking days away, days off from creating. I definitely try to balance making art and taking time for myself. I’ve come to understand that the way I work is when I’m either happy or sad, and the only way I usually get those emotions is by literally living my life. Understanding that my social life and my own other personal goals are just as important as making art.

That’s really cool. I’ve never really thought about it like that. I mean obviously that’s something that I think of in the back of my head, but I guess the pressure to create puts it further back in my mind. When did you first start creating art?

Since I was small like literally since I could move around a pencil! I’ve 43

always been doodling all my life and throughout my childhood. In [grade] school if there was ever like an art project or moments where it was more creatively led I was really happy.

What do you think is like the bravest step that you’ve taken as an artist?

Probably what I’m doing right now [putting together an art show]. Even though it’s not all my effort only, I feel like the bravest thing I could have done is starting everything up. Like talking to people, having the drive to do it, pushing myself to this first step into something bigger, while also understanding that I had to ask for a lot of help.

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If you were on a deserted island, what are three things you’d take?

I would want to listen to music.. I need to be able to make my own music. I’d take a güiro [percussion instrument played by rubbing a stick on its side]!

I’m like a hands-on person and I know I would just have fun like I would be making myself laugh. I would take that and then I would take a machete and a hammock. A hammock because it’s multi-purposeful.

That sounds like a chill ass little setup ha ha. What’s like a dream project that you have in mind? Or something big that’ll come later down the line maybe.

I want to have my own mosaic sculp-

ture garden. That’s like one of my life goals and it’s gonna happen! A big sculpture mosaic garden. It could be community-based. It’ll probably have to be, you know? It has to probably be as a group somehow. But that’s one of my goals, it could just even be like an art garden. I’d have mosaic sculptures, plants, veggies. But specifically mosaic sculptures.

Do you have any advice for younger artists?

Honestly, hang out with your friends in person as much as possible. Be outside as much as possible. Like it’s great to get inspiration through Instagram. You learn so much. You learn so much through the internet. But ultimately, you’re gonna feel most

fulfilled by being present with what’s around you.

Yeah, I agree with that. You’re gonna end up learning more through your experiences. There IS a lot of stuff on the internet you can learn from, but your experiences are gonna feel like what’s real to you. Do you have any new projects coming up?

I’m gonna be redirecting my energy into more film work that’s still very

sculpture-based.

Would you call yourself an artist?

That would be so cool to see your stuff in motion!

Yes. I’m an artist. I think about art in all aspects. Every day it’s on my mind. It really is a lifestyle. It’s not just having an idea and wanting to execute it.

It’s like the way you see your life and the way you want to experience this lifetime.

Yeah, since I was small I’ve always wanted to make movies. But the whole film school aspect, that’s not what I wanna do. I wanna have the creative freedom to do my own thing in terms of my art. And I feel like I love sculpting so much, so why not incorporate those two?

Instagram: @SLOWWWORLD

Drunken Confession: Went to Supply and Demand, there was no parking (the usual). So Danny parked at a 7 Eleven and I was like dawg don’t do that. He didn’t listen. We went back to the car like 3 times to take shots and it was still there. The show finished and I walked back and got my jacket, car still there. We maybe took like 10 more minutes inside and when we came back it was gone. They towed his 4Runner. And when I called the guy at the tow yard he was being a dick.

So drunk ass Danny and his friend leave me and the girlfriend in the fucking cold and to WALK to the tow yard (like a 30 minute walk). And then they stole the 4Runner, they backed it up into the fence and I was like dawg? Y’all are gonna get caught. And Danny was like no I put my shirt over my head. Danny had to pay to not go to jail and now he’s paying off a loan for 5k.

-Anonymous, 25

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