We were lucky to catch up with Natalia López recently and have shared our conversation below.

Natalia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

This last year has been all about new endeavors, and pushing myself. The most meaningful projects I’ve had are my recent live painting performances. I’ve done two so far, and it has been career changing. My first performance was at THE EFFIGY with musician and fellow artist Robert Aquatic in Oct 2024. The more recent of the two being at POWERS OUT with Briannin Gross at The Coven Phoenix. This was as a collaborative project at Danielle Plaza in January of this year. I never thought of myself as a performer let alone thinking people would enjoy watching me paint. We’ve all heard the expression “watching paint dry” to describe something boring but that’s exactly what people were doing! They were watching me paint and enjoying it! After graduating art school at Arizona State University I was so fearful I’d be one of the statistics of a failed art student. Last I checked the statistic was only 1 in 10 art school graduates actually pursue a career in the arts post graduation. Well, I took a little hiatus and I wasn’t liking that I didn’t have a fun, creative, artsy job like I thought I would. These live painting performances have really helped heal my artist block and I have grown to love having people watch me create. I thought I’d be too shy to ever get in front of people and create but I absolutely love it!

Natalia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

If you’ve never seen me or my art before, I would describe it as something chaotic, colorful, and a little on the weird side! During my time at art school I grew very fond of surrealism and using lots of intense color in my pieces. I also found a weird love for mixed media, which I never thought would be a medium that I would be drawn to because I always thought of it as collage work kids did. More recently, I’ve been trying to put myself outside of my comfort zone. I’ve done so by being apart of projects that I normally wouldn’t go for such as life painting performances that I mentioned previously. I’ve also become more involved in the artistic spaces of Arizona and networking with fellow creatives in the valley. A lot of my paintings consist of weird swirls of colors and I add a lot of eyeballs. People always ask me if the eyes in my paintings have deeper meaning and some of them do and some of them don’t. To be honest I don’t know why, but I’ve always felt really drawn to eyes. Animals, humans you name it! Something about that part of the body has always called to me and I just feel like it needs to be in most of my work if not all.

In high school I discovered a thing called art journaling and this is what opened the door to mixed media for me. I always thought that my art journal was just for me and that nobody would ever think that it was actual art. When I started my journal, it was just one step above scrapbooking in my eyes. However, it wasn’t until college that I realized other people didn’t see it that way. I would show them my journal once in a while, and they would think it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. I felt so flattered but at the same time, I didn’t think this was art. I thought this was just for me. I didn’t realize that people would think that cut up pieces of paper could have more meaning to them than just trash. Besides the final work of the mixed media pieces in my art journal I realize that it was something that could be very collaborative. To my surprise, lots of my friends and fellow creatives wanted to have a meet up to create mixed media art and journal. Well I did just that and so this past year I hosted my first ever mixed media meet up at Jarrod‘s coffee, tea and art gallery in Mesa, Arizona. Whom I might add, have created a glorious space for artists to use and hangout in. One of my friends Lea Byrnes who has gone on to be an art teacher, has even used art journaling as a way to help her students express themselves. Art journaling has really helped her students learn to create without pressure and these kiddos have made AMAZING pieces!

I am beyond grateful to be where I am today. Although I don’t have an explicitly art oriented job I still feel like what I have to create means something. I’m using my spare time that I have to focus on what I can do. I do have a normal ‘9 to 5 job’ for now, but I still make time for my Art. Although I don’t get to create as much as I’d like to, I think that I’ve come a long way from where I started. There’s no shame in having a “normal job” to fund my creative career. I’m excited to keep creating and I’m happy for what the future holds for me this year. I plan to move into my own space with my significant other and set aside more time to create in my studio that is soon to come.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I would say the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is networking and meeting so many amazing people. Sometimes I think when people hear the word artist, they think of either somebody really snobby and weird or somebody that is a little on the unconventional side. Whatever artist means to you I always feel drawn to people that consider themselves artists, whether that be painting, photography music, you name it! I wanna meet you and I want to connect with you and your craft! I hear so many people say that they don’t have a single creative bone in their body and I just don’t believe that’s true. Everybody has something they’re good at and art is subjective. It can have meaning it can have no meaning, it can be something small, It can be something extravagant, but to me it’s all the same. It’s something that’s done by you and it can’t be made without you initiating it.

I always feel such a sense of euphoria, but also shyness when people talk to me about my artwork. I would say I’m still working towards my goals of being an up-and-coming artist, and I would like to think that the future holds more for me. It’s taken a lot of self work to not only push myself to keep creating, but also to accept peoples compliments. Accepting compliments and being open to talking about my art has been the hardest thing to learn, but has also been the most rewarding. Without people networking and willing to work with me I don’t think I would’ve gotten to the point that I have today and I can continue to grow. There’s creative people such as KB at Contagion Media who are trying to network artists across many different platforms to work together. I also have to thank KB for the amazing networking events that she and Contagion Media have put on. I’ve had the pleasure of going to a couple of these events and they have been nothing but rewarding. Getting to meet new people, fellow creatives, and even people who just like to view art has been amazing. I always thought when I left art school that I wouldn’t ever find ‘my people’, but I find more and more that I am connected now more than ever.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

In my opinion, the best thing that you can do to support your local artist is to share and attend! There’s so many amazing artists that I know that create such beautiful pieces of work and yet they have little to no following on social media. I myself, am still trying to figure out the social media game. I always get emails from people pretending to be a part of some agency asking if I want to buy followers. In exchange for a small $50-$500 fee I can gain up to ‘4000+ followers’. Now most people are aware that obviously these 4000 followers aren’t real people. They’re more than likely bots and bots do not provide engagement. Do I kind of dread that social media is ‘the’ pathway to become successful? Truthfully a little bit. However, I have become so connected with people through social media that in my eyes, it’s worth maintaining. A lot of people argue that the best way to support an artist is financially and though this is a great way to support the arts it’s not always the main way. In my opinion, sharing to your social media my work and tagging me has been the most beneficial and flattering way my friends can support me.

I would also like to mention that a lot of my friends, and family being present at my performances, gallery appearances and other events has been the most significant form of support. Knowing I have so many amazing people that take time out of their day to come see my work and cheer me on has been the ultimate gift any artist can receive. That being said, anyone reading this that has ever attended one of my events, shared my art or otherwise been there for me, thank you so much! From the bottom of my heart, you mean the world to me! I wouldn’t be where I am today without your support. Thank you!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ailatan.art?igsh=MWpvMzN5amJjd2tiNQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15mumDeJPE/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@natlopezart?_t=ZT-8uFUpIhx9qQ&_r=1

Image Credits

Rockin Photography – Michael Quintana
Trimble Productions – Christopher Trimble