Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paloma Núñez-Regueiro. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Paloma, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

“Counted/Uncounted: So You Know Us” is my favorite project at the moment. It means a lot to me because it is about bringing much needed visibility to minorities, in this case immigrants, LGBTQ. BIPOC, and disable people.

“Counted/Uncounted: So You Know Us” is a printmaking installation that has 30+ beautiful linoleum print portraits. These snippets of day-to-day life, put together in image and sound experience, create awareness of the difficult moments we navigate as minorities, and propose a change in attitude toward us.

I myself am a immigrant, and a Latina woman in the U.S. I relate to these feelings, issues, and dreams of belonging or not belonging.

It fills my heart with joy to bring this kind of conversations to the table in order to create change in our communities. As an artist I believe in being of service to my community.

Paloma, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a Mexican printmaker living in Ann Arbor, MI. As an artist, I am part of a collective artists group called Ypsi Alloy Studio nestled in Ypsilanti, MI. We are around seventeen artist working in different mediums and different projects in the same space.

I earned my BFA at RIT – Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY., in 2000. I’d say that earning a degree in fine arts was just the beginning of the work. I feel that as today, my work has being a continuos compilation of experiences, experiments, investigation, and the creation of a network of alike minds and institutions along the way.

I work primarily in relief printmaking. Currently, I am passionate about portraits. My last art piece is an art installation called “Counted/Uncounted: So You Know Us.” It is a collection of minorities portraits that hangs as a cascade from the ceiling of the gallery of the Saugatuck Center for the Arts. All the people in the portraits in this installation are some sort of minority: Immigrants, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and disable people. I was fortunate to be able to interview each one of the participants and relate to them and their stories as I myself am a minority. I am an immigrant and a Latina woman from Chinese ascendance.

As an artist, I not only created art that is community oriented. At the Saugatuck Center for the Arts, for example, I am helping them created outreach educational program for public school, public libraries, and other local organizations under the theme “rootedness”. The goal of my work there is to create awareness and visibility for these minority groups and to observe our own roots in the place we inhabit. What can we do to feel rooted? How can we help feel other rooted?

At the moment, I am also working with other institutions such as the Ypsilanti Public Library, Embracing Our Differences of SE Michigan, the Lansing Art Gallery, and Signal Return in education, community, and art oriented programs. Creating art for the betterment of our communities make me feel useful and happy. Because of this, I am able to create from a place of love.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

At the beginning of the pandemic it felt as if everything crumbled down. At that time I was looking forward to spend some time in Mexico with friends and family, obviously that trip got canceled and it brought me great sadness. For a long time I felt that what was holding me up were those trips to Mexico. My New Year’s resolutions for 2021 was to be happy where I was with the few friends I had around. That little shift in my mind created enough space for things to happen. My first project was writing a proposal for a group show for out Ypsi Alloy Studios group. My friend Jessica Tenbusch jumped right in and together we wrote a proposal for the group show “Eye of the Storm” which took place at Hatch Art Gallery in Hamtramck, MI. last March. This was the first “YES” of many more ever since. I believe that little bit of resilience on my part created a shift not only on the vision I had of myself as artist but also in the vision others had of me. I believe that what they see know a creative that is happy within the community I inhabit. These is one of the reasons why I work in creating visibility for minorities because it is not easy sometimes but sharing our stories and reaching out helps a lot.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

For me the way that society can best help support artists thrive in their ecosystem is by paying attention to the work we do, and applying what they learned or unlearned in their daily lives. Please participate to the best of your capacity! Help comes from giving us a “like” or a “share”on IG or FB to taking a workshop with us. It can also help acquiring our artwork or by donating to the organizations that helps us create the time and the space for us to grow in our practice. People can also sponsor artists directly and help us create spectacular projects.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.palomanr.com
• Instagram: @palomaprintmaking
• Facebook: Paloma Printmaking
• Linkedin: Paloma Nunez-Regueiro