ABOUT • Jesús López VargasJesús (he/they) is a visual artist, photographer, arts producer, writer/director, and educator for the arts. They graduated from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) with a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA, 2021) in Stage Management, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA, 2018) in Technical Theatre with concentrations in Stage Management and Lighting Design from UT at El Paso. Jesús has worked in the US and internationally as a photographer, arts producer, director, lighting designer, educator, production and stage manager, publicity artist, cinematographer, video editor, writer & musician.
Jesús is a founding member for MOON Collective, an independent group of creatives and storytellers whose passion anchors on an insatiable curiosity for human nature. In 2022, Jesús returned to their alma matter (UCI) as the Director of Outreach for the New Swan Shakespeare Center and as the Production Coordinator for the Center's Summer Shakespeare Festival. Since 2020, Jesús has also worked with Transversal Theater producing and devising new work internationally as a director, writer, designer and manager. In the Summer of 2016, Jesús published their first book of poetry and photography for young adults titled I See Red, under their blog penname K. Zakrevski - available worldwide for distribution through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. They are currently working on their second poetry and photography book, as well as on multiple literary and research projects with members of MOON Collective.
Jesús was proudly born in Sonora, México and has spent their life studying & working in both the US and México. They are bilingual in English (United States) and Spanish (México) - most of their written and performative work is in verse in both of these languages. Jesús proudly lives with both of their partners, Armando Acosta (lyricist, rapper and performer) & Merle DeWitt III (technical director and designer), with who they parent three cats. |
CURRICULUM VITAE | RESUMES |
|
|
Some of Jesús' biggest inspirations in the arts are photographers Duane Michals, Francesca Woodman, Arthur Tress and Lucas Garrido as well as artists Nicola Samori, Marina Abramovic, Björk Guðmundsdóttir, Roberto Ferri, James Turrell, Eugenio Salvador Dalí, Rembrandt, Anna Malina, Arca, Robert Wilson and the choreographer & director Damien Jalet. Jesús' literature & poetic inspirations, whom have motivated them to continue pursuing a new unconventional style for playwriting and experimentation for lyrical productions are Ed Alvarez, Frank Bidart, Anne Carson, Mark Danielewski, Roberto Bolaño, Mary Oliver,Wisława Szymborska, Sarah Kane, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Wes Anderson, Dylan Thomas and the Wachowski Sisters.
To learn more about Jesús, one can read the following articles written by his alma matter: "Institutional Critique" and "Renaissance Man". |
|
|
|
|
TEACHING
Philosophy
• • •
|
As a philomath I live my life through a lens of unyielding curiosity. All people one meets, all experiences one lives, all complications triumphed or failed prove to be lessons from which one expands their understanding and furthers their development. As a teacher I translate these values within the spaces I mediate. Students should not settle by achieving a single goal, they should pursue constant movement towards understanding, whether it be by learning or unlearning. I seek to be a guide that supports exploration through facilitation, co-experimentation, empathy, and active mentorship.
I also believe that "the teacher" is not the only one able to pass on knowledge. It is the community itself that teaches its individuals, via analysis, discussion, and practice. The soft skills which I excel at teaching are communication, inquiry, analysis, and leadership. |
"WHO AM I?"
Master of Fine Arts, Thesis Excerpt
University of California, Irvine - 2021
Aliya Kerimujian - Dancer / Director / Educator
|
I struggle still to this day with this question - language fails me. All of the languages! Whenever someone asks me who I am all I want to do is answer: Rain, Noise, A Battle Cry. Y al mismo tiempo silencio, un vasto silencio. (And at the same time, a vast silence).
But you can’t do that in interviews cause you freak people out. So I’m still struggling to answer that because I am in the process of unbecoming and furthering every single second that I breathe - I contract and expand and morph and regret and learn and... sometimes I get stuck. Still. I struggle with definition every day. So who am I? |
Am I what do? What I dedicate my time and energy doing? My actions? My career? People around me have always pressured themselves to define themselves - who they are - by what they do, and I am starting to realize how conflicted I feel by this. I am not just what I do. I am not just what I am good at. I am not just what I have done or what I will do. So no - I am not a stage manager. Not a director. And I am not an artist. I am not a storyteller or a photographer or a lighting designer. But am I? So much of who we are is how people perceive us. And so I am stuck again.
Am I maybe then where I come from? Porque yo vengo de México. Nací en Hermosillo, Sonora, un estado del norte de mi país. Aprendí a hablar español con ayuda de mi mamá y mi papá que hoy están aquí presentes - quizá ellos saben quien soy? Quizá ellos me pueden definir mejor que yo. Y si no él y ella - porque no mi tierra? Y que el término tierra no sea confundido con el término nación que no son lo mismo. Yo hablo de la tierra, el lodo y las raíces y sus huesos y su polvo. Quisa cuando regrese a ella, la tierra me podrá definir. (Because I come from Mexico. I was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, a state in the north of my country. I learned to speak Spanish with help from my mother and father who are present here today - perhaps, they know who I am. Maybe they could define me better than I could. And if not him and her - why not my land? And let the term land not be confused with the term nation, for they are not the same. I speak of my land, the earth, the mud and the roots and its bones and its dust. Perhaps when I come back to it, the earth will be able to define me.)
Or maybe I am defined by where I am going? But then we are back to the beginning cause fuck knows where that is. I don’t really know - but, I am no longer scared.
So maybe - who I am - is no longer afraid. It feels good.
Am I maybe then where I come from? Porque yo vengo de México. Nací en Hermosillo, Sonora, un estado del norte de mi país. Aprendí a hablar español con ayuda de mi mamá y mi papá que hoy están aquí presentes - quizá ellos saben quien soy? Quizá ellos me pueden definir mejor que yo. Y si no él y ella - porque no mi tierra? Y que el término tierra no sea confundido con el término nación que no son lo mismo. Yo hablo de la tierra, el lodo y las raíces y sus huesos y su polvo. Quisa cuando regrese a ella, la tierra me podrá definir. (Because I come from Mexico. I was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, a state in the north of my country. I learned to speak Spanish with help from my mother and father who are present here today - perhaps, they know who I am. Maybe they could define me better than I could. And if not him and her - why not my land? And let the term land not be confused with the term nation, for they are not the same. I speak of my land, the earth, the mud and the roots and its bones and its dust. Perhaps when I come back to it, the earth will be able to define me.)
Or maybe I am defined by where I am going? But then we are back to the beginning cause fuck knows where that is. I don’t really know - but, I am no longer scared.
So maybe - who I am - is no longer afraid. It feels good.
