JESUS LOPEZ
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​
TEACHING
Philosophy

•     •     •
​As a philomath, I live through a lens of unyielding curiosity. All people met, all experiences lived, all challenges triumphed or failed prove to be lessons from which one expands their tool-belt and furthers their development. Students should pursue constant movement towards both learning and unlearning.

I seek to be a guide that supports exploration through facilitation,
co-experimentation, empathy, and active mentorship.
 
I believe that "the teacher" is not the only one able to pass on knowledge. ​It is the community itself that teaches its individuals via ​discussion, but most importantly, via practice and analysis of said practice.
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Producer for New Swan Shakespeare Festival, 2025 | Photo by Kiya Ashley

​"WHO AM I?"
MFA Spoken Thesis, Excerpt
University of California, Irvine - 2021​

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 because you freak people out. So I’m still struggling to answer "who am I?", because I am in the process of unbecoming and furthering every single second that I breathe. I contract and expand and morph and fall and regret and learn and... sometimes I get stuck. Still. 

I struggle with definition every day.                  ​So who am I?
​Am I what I 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 afraid....

So maybe - who I am - is no longer afraid. It feels good.
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​Copyright © 2026 Jesús López Vargas

​*All photography in this website was taken by Jesús ​López Vargas unless stated otherwise*
  • PHOTOGRAPHY
    • Photography Portfolio
    • Stage Photography
    • Headshots + Portraits >
      • Headshot Tips
    • Photography Services Info
    • Testimonials
    • Dance | Studio Light
    • Dance | Natural Light
    • Film Photography
  • STAGE/FILM
    • Artistic Director + Producer >
      • Zu Sein
      • When We Watch (WWW)
      • New Swan Shakespeare Festival
      • No Erasure
      • Don Quixote de La Mancha
      • TZAQIK
      • /ECHO
      • In This Light There is Silence
      • Distance in its Movement
      • Curie, Curie
      • Video Colleges
      • Duality Broken
      • Symptoma 20
      • Brace for Impact
      • Mary's Wedding
      • RED
      • FAWNZ
    • Lighting + Projections Design >
      • After Images or Marie Curie Remembers
      • VIVO Teatro SilCo
      • the shadow of loving (you)
      • IN THIS LIGHT
      • University Designs
      • New Swan Shakespeare
      • FAWNZ Dance Company
    • Coordination + Management
    • Makeup Designer
  • RELATED WORK
    • INDIE ART PROJECTS >
      • "Visual Poetry"
      • Collages (nsfw)
      • "sil nce"
      • "Define the Unmade"
      • "HUU SHK"
      • Film Photography
    • "i.see.red" poetry & photography book
    • Publicity Art
    • Paint Studies & Sketches
    • MOON Collective
  • ABOUT
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • Collaborator's Quotes
    • TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
    • Press + Media
    • Awards + Education
    • ♫ MUSIC
  • CONTACT
    • OTHER CONTENT