We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paula Lovo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Paula, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my most recent project. I recently finished a five month project with elders in my community in the project I created, the Senior Storytelling Project. In this project, the group of elders and I gathered from July to November to share stories, build trust, and develop film scripts. After the scripts were created from their true stories, I collaborated with a local director, Katie Avila Loughmiller to bring in 3 Spanish-speaking actors to conclude with a reading for the community. This project was inspired by my own work and collaboration with the elders in my family and wanting to build a space where older adults could share their own stories without the inclusion of reflection by other family members. I also recognized that many of us do not take enough time to sit with our elders, listen to their stories, and learn from their experiences. It was amazing to spend the time with them and learn about their lived experiences. All the members were from around Latin America and the oldest participant was 93. It was also a challenge for me because I was very used to working with teens and children but hadn’t had the opportunity to work with older adults. This project was meaningful to me because I believe many people connected to their stories, it challenged me to new limits, and this was a collaborative project that can continue to live on.

Paula, 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?

My name is Paula Lovo, I am a Latine artist and educator from Milwaukee, WI. I was raised by two immigrant parents who arrived in Milwaukee by way of Nicaragua and Mexico. My artist journey began with music. I grew up in the Latino Arts Strings Program, this is a space that supports grade school to high school students in classical training and mariachi music. I played the viola from ages 8 to 21. In this program, I got the opportunity to learn various traditional styles of music, participate in solo recitals, and perform alongside amazing musical artists. In my senior year of high school, we were presented the opportunity to record on La Santa Cecilia’s Buenaventura album. It was later nominated for a Grammy that year. In my senior year, I also started to gravitate towards video and film. I decided to study film, with a focus in documentary work. I realized that the topics that I was drawn to were intergenerational relationships, women, spaces that create community and those who build it, memories, and migration. These are topics that have been prominent in my life. During film school, I wanted to play with language and what representation could look like. I started bringing in my family members. I had them share their stories about arriving to the U.S and the connection to what hope meant. I was excited by the experimentation of research and lived experiences. My senior thesis was a short film by the name, Colorin Colorado. In Colorin Colorado, I incorporated my paternal Abuela’s stories about love and intuition to traditional Nicaraguan folklore. Not only did I want to play with the theme and connect two things that might not have commonly been put together but play with the form. I am drawn to research and truly love doing the pre-production elements. So in this film, I learned about the uses of traditional masks in Monimbo, Nicaragua during the civil war as a way for indigenous communities to shield their faces from the military, to how Lotte Reiniger used puppet cut outs to create fairytale characters in animated films in 1920’s Germany. I’ve incorporated my own writing to tie in the element of reflection and connection. There are just so many instances of expression and research that I wanted to incorporate. I wanted to express the connecting lines between intuition and folklore. This film is much more DIY than I anticipated, and I’ve learned to appreciate it for what it is. Budgets in college are nonexistent, at least mine were. However, The process was beautiful. I spent time along with my abuela, learning about her stories, documenting them. We created the masks together. I spent time with my partner filming the stop-motion animation, and spent so much time with texts to understand women’s power in intuition. I even got the opportunity to screen this film in film festivals in Mexico, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and the East Coast. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve looked for and received grants to grow upon my projects. The intention and dedication stay the same. Criaturas was a film funded by the Hispanic Access Foundation. Criaturas is a series of short animated films that share the story of three insects affected by different aspects of climate change. These films are both in Spanish and English and are told in a folkloric style to expand the audience from adult to children and done by hand drawn animation on 16mm film. At the start of 2024, I received an Artist-in-Residency at Arts@Large is an organization in Milwaukee dedicated to making the arts accessible to all. My residency included a dedicated gallery to my work, masterclasses and workshops for elementary to middle school students. I titled my residency: A Familiar Place: Un espacio para cine, charlas, y convivio ( a space for film, conversation, and gathering). Through the residency I was able to explore different art forms like woodworking to carve two doors in order to create my installation, El Viajante. A project about what it is to move through two different worlds, displacement, and to question what documentation even means. I worked with students from my grade school to talk about southside Milwaukee love and how our neighborhoods shape us. I worked with adults and children on the experimental style of direct-animation. A form to repurpose 16mm film and create something new from trashed film. I loved every part of this. I was able to share my familial stories and gather in conversation on these resurging themes like food stories. I find accessibility an extremely important aspect of creating art spaces. So I see my role as someone who can connect others to the resources they need in order to achieve their artistic goals. Either that be with searching for funding or creating spaces where we can share moments of joy. As my full-time job, I work as an educator for a local nonprofit, Teens Grow Greens. In these programs we provide teens paid internships in culinary training, food justice and urban farming, and entrepreneurship. I enjoy teaching and finding ways to bring communities together. I previously used to program free-low cost film screenings at Cactus Club, an artist-run, queer-owned, multi-disciplinary arts and performance space. My latest project that ended in November was the Senior Storytelling Project. This was a five month project working with a group of Spanish speaking elders from the United Community Center Senior Center in building scripts inspired by their lived experiences. We spent months building trust and sharing true stories to finally see them read aloud by three spanish-speaking actors for them and the community. I wanted to do this project because I think we constantly look over our older adults in the community and don’t recognize their stories, memories, and lived experiences. I absolutely had a blast working with them and finally being able to share their stories. It’s safe to say that I try to tackle a lot. I don’t think there is one problem I am trying to address but always want to unpack the interconnectedness between folks, celebrate women, and share the resources I have.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is to create an archive that future generations of my family can have to learn and understand where they come from and who came before them. In this effort, I hope to inspire others to do the same for their families. I am deeply inspired by the women who came before me. I see them as warriors, lovers, and deeply spiritual women. They have overcome difficulties that I know many would understand. Through them I understand myself more and work to unpack the coping mechanisms that no longer serve me. My goal is to celebrate them, always. I also hope that I am able to share any experiences or skills that I have that can serve others. I don’t believe in hoarding skills, resources, or any material that can be beneficial to others. I hope to be a resource to others.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the connections that are made. Like how I mentioned earlier, my projects are profoundly personal, however, still relatable. I love that others can relate to my work and identify their own familial relationships. I believe that also can inspire them to create their own living archive and take time to explore the stories that their families have and keep those memories alive for future generations to come. I enjoy hearing young people say, “I saw my Abuela in this” or “I remember making this dish when I was growing up.” Or even hear from family members of the elders that took part in the Senior Storytelling Project say “I didn’t know this about my mom.” I want others to identify themselves in my work because I know my experience is not unique. I know all families have members who have suffered through alcoholism, have relatives who had to raise families on their own or rely on their surrounding family to raise a child, women who have felt like a single parent when that was not the case. These experiences are cyclical and universal so I ask how it would be when we recognize this and realize that we are kin. I feel profound joy when I see young people uncover an art form that they can explore. To know that they can take away some 16mm film that I have and that they can repurpose to share their stories or feel inspired to talk about their cultural celebrations, whatever the case I feel so much when in community. I hope to continue to build community and share our stories.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @paulalovo_
• Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user106341256

Image Credits

Jovanny Hernandez C.
Jeff Zimpel
Kelly Michael Anderson
Mara Lovo
Paula Lovo