Hello! Thank you so much for being here!My name is Paola Lagunas, I am a 24 year old female immigrant from Michoacán, Mexico currently living in Oakland, California. Now that I told you my ASL, let me tell you something else. I am really nervous to do this. I have thought about starting a blog to connect with more people before but have never written anything. In fact, I even bought a website domain once, an email, the whole thing for a year, and never once used it... yet at the end of the year I still contemplated wether I should keep the domain or not...don't worry. I didn't.
Anyways, all you can do is start and thats why we are starting this blog today. Arte x Lola was born from my heart and the outside confidence to finally start sharing my art a little over a year ago. I was so nervous at first because I didn't think I was good enough to take up space on the platform, and in many ways that is how I feel about all this blog today. It's a lot of energy, and in the off chance that somebody actually reads this, I want to say Thank you. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read something I have to say. Thank you for being here on my journey with me.
Ive thought about the ways I should introduce myself, and I don't want to give you my whole life story on my first post. It's one, unlikely anybody cares, and two, an invasion of my privacy as we people are complicated little environments composed of our past environments, and as with anyones life story, would not have its justice in one blog post.
Instead, I will tell you about my interest, in attempt to broaden the possible reach and post of this blog. I will tell you about the things I love to do, my hobbies, my paintings, and some ideas I have for the future of this blog.
Since this is my Art Website, yes the blog will cover a lot of my art process! In all honesty, my paintings often take weeks if not months. I go through creative blocks, study periods, many different possible outcomes, a lot of detail study and quite often, a lot of research goes into the symbols I decide to use in my artwork. It's hard to share all of this information on a place like Instagram, and it also puts me as an artist in a vulnerable state. I do however, want to share this with people in some sort of way. I hope to not only include my progress, but hopefully small tutorials, the types of materials that use, and some of the links to free artist resources and classes I have found online that have helped me improve my art skills.
Besides my art, I actually am super passionate about food. I love to eat all kinds of food! I have worked in the food industry for the last 10 years, and have a passion project called "Alma y Sazón: Vegan Flavors from the soul of Mexico" in which I have big dreams of sharing my vegan take on Mexican cuisine with the Bay Area! Yes, Im Vegan! I slowly shifted my lifestyle into a vegan lifestyle over two years ago, and currently experiment with food and flavors and all of the fruits and veggies I can get my hands on. Food to me, is also an art, and I hope to share with you how food and flavors inspire me.Food and Art are very special to me, they are crucial parts to any culture and culture expression. Through food and art I have met and worked with so many people that have impacted me and the way I look and live in this world. Because these two key aspects being such an important part of my life I will also use this blog to talk about history, of both art and food, and the way they have shifted our cultures via time. I want to also demonstrate outmost support for all cultures and culture expression, and figure out ways to more directly assist those that are more highly marginalized.
In an effort to hold myself accountable for understanding the current crisis in the world outside of myself, I also want to take space in this blog to educate myself, a long with whoever is reading this on more important issues. In the last months, we have seen the Black Lives Matter movement grow in support, and the term "performative activism" came to light. I will continue checking myself, my privilege, my subconscious behaviors when it comes to racism. I will continue to amplify black voices of those around me in support with my friends and family, and I will educate myself on black issues, indigenous issues, and world wide health issues daily. I actually already have a lot of ideas that have to do with food and climate justice, systematic racism, and public school racism. I hope to also have this blog in spanish para que mi familia Latinx pueda tambien ser parte de la conversación.
This for me is a personal blog, and I want to fill you in quickly on a couple more things this blog might cover. Im currently very interested in building habits to fully live the way I want. I try to live as sustainably and as consciously as possible- I hope to cover little tips from my garden and my currently growing indoor plant collection. Im very interested in spirituality, mediation, and healing of our bodies and our past traumas via yoga, color, and element thearapy.
Okay, I think that covers most of it for now. If you read this far.. Thank you so much, I appreciate every second you spend here with me and my art. I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope my future post are of some help to you.
X, Lola