Process/Politics: Joey Gonzales IV

By Laramie Fain & Tuna

When we were first sitting around discussing the idea of what covering the arts’ scene in Corpus Christi would look like, the conversation kept coming back to the role that art plays in revolution. We knew we wanted to take a critical look at the art being made locally and the artists behind that art- their morals, ethics, beliefs and politics. The roles they play in their communities and building a better world. The worker must have bread, yes, but she must also have roses. Put another way- what is the point of fighting for a better, more equitable world if there isn’t anything cool to look at when we get there. Welcome to Process/Politics.

Joey Gonzales IV is a local artist many of us at Chisme Collective have known through organizing for quite some time now. Their art- primarily focused in printmaking, but spanning ceramics, drawing, and painting- deals largely with gender expression and identity in South Texas. Gonzales’ use of vibrant colors and an illustrative style coupled with a strong sense of depth and space lend themselves to creating settings and characters that invite the viewer to imagine themselves occupying that space. The ambiguity of these characters and settings allows an invitation for each  viewer to assume an identity and occupy a space in a way that is authentic to themselves while also being a safe way of doing so.

Animals Gonzales saw in their backyard growing up, such as snakes and birds, are common motifs as well. These animals become a representation of the abundance of natural life in South Texas. In this way, Gonzales is able to draw the correlation between nature and queerness in a culturally and politically conservative landscape; both are always at risk of disappearance and must be documented, advocated and fought for.

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF

I’m Joey Gonzales- a printmaker, artist, and ceramicist. I’ve been doing art for about six or seven years now consistently as a professional practice. I’ve been creative all of my life but I definitely decided to pursue it as a full time major about three years ago. I took my first drawing class here and I was like: I definitely have to pursue this more professionally, rather than as a hobby so that way I can actually immerse myself in the creativity and artistry. So I can develop a visual language, something that I wasn't really accustomed to growing up here in Corpus. Like I said, I've always been creative but it’s not really something that’s pushed for whenever we’re telling kids to go out and get a job. Most people are like ‘go into the oil field or do medical things’ and those all have their places, sure; but art is definitely one of those things that isn’t thought too fondly of or pushed for kids.

WHAT ARE YOUR EARLIEST EXPERIENCES WITH/EXPOSURE TO ART

Yeah, and I laugh because it’s a really funny story. One of the first art pieces I did was a mural of the Tom Brown bear back in like 2011. So Tom Brown is the middle school I went to and my eighth grade art teacher really saw that I was getting involved with the wrong people. One way that she had separated me from them was giving me more creative liberty. She let me do this huge butcher-paper size Tom Brown bear head/logo. I finished it; it took me the entire week to do. So the next thing you know she tells the principal there; the principal is like “Oh my god, I need to see that.”

 Me thinking “Oh my god yes! My art is being recognized by the principal!” He asks me if they can use it at a pep rally, I say “Absolutely!” I come back the week after and I'm like “Hey where’s my Tom Brown bear mural” 

He’s like “Oh…Well we used it”

So I say “What do you mean we used it?”

He tells me that the football team ripped through it during the pep rally. I had to learn loss. I had to learn creating just to create all in those few weeks. So I think that was my earliest memory with art. I guess other memories I have are when I was younger and I would worldbuild with my My Little Pony playsets.

WHY DO YOU MAKE ART

I think that it was a hobby, one way to release stress. I really think about art as this meditative practice very similar to praying or very similar to a religious experience. Look at what I’m doing right now [carving a woodblock for a relief print]; I'm making all of these tiny marks in a very particular way that is very similar to when someone prays the rosary. You don’t pray the rosary out of order. You have a process that you follow and you continue to do that process until you get the image that you want. For me, I decided to take it more professionally once I started TAMUCC. It was just the professors talking about the way that they pursue art and the way that they practice their own creativity that i was like “Hmm… maybe i should do that too.”

HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN CORPUS

All of my life. There have been moments where we’ve moved but  most of my adulthood and most of my adolescence has been here, including my childhood. I’ve lived in all different parts of Texas: the RGV, Houston, but we’ve always come back to Corpus for some reason. That’s always been- I don’t know if it’s because most of my family is here but we’ve just always stayed in the area.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE/DISLIKE ABOUT CORPUS

I think that what I'm realizing now is that Corpus has always definitely been fun. But there have been certain factors that have held me back from having fun. I only say that because of my own familial trauma or my own gender experience here. There are just so many things that you can’t experience as a queer person in South Texas that you would be able to in any other big city or space that is safe for queer people. Not saying every big city is made specifically for queer people but there are more resources available and there is greater attention to the care for LGBTQ+ folks.

DOES LIVING HERE HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE WORK YOU MAKE

Yeah. Taking my first few classes here [at TAMUCC] really opened up my ability to create and then after that what really helped me start creating towards more specific social justice causes was when I started working in the nonprofit world. I started becoming an organizer and started actively paying attention to how the city funds creative projects around here. After that I was like wait, I can use my art to not only better my portfolio [laughs] but as a way to resist the terrible industry or corporations that are propped up here. You have the oil and gas industry funding our mural festival every year and that’s a recent thing. It’s really unfortunate because if the city were to have put that money up themselves, if they were to invest in the arts themselves, you would have a lot more local artists participating and you would have work that directly reflects the community rather than just some random animals that now cover the side of a building [chuckles].

WHAT ROLE DOES ORGANIZING PLAY IN THE ART YOU MAKE

Basically, working with materials from Home Depot or Lowe’s- these materials are very accessible. For me, that accessibility is what allows me to continue to make in my own private space. Whenever you’re making for an organization or corporation you’re beholden to whatever their messaging is, right? So if you’re able to do your own images through your own means then you’re able to produce whatever you want. So if you want to say ‘fuck the system’ through a print like this one, you can. More people need to do that- seize the means to produce their own work.

HOW IMPORTANT IS COMMUNITY IN MAKING ART/HAVE YOU FOUND THAT HERE

I definitely- well yeah. Art is a very social practice. You have movies that don’t do artistry justice- whenever we talk about the isolated artist who is alone in their studio that only practices with just themselves. I think art is definitely collaborative- very much like you’re playing on a team but your team is the rest of the world. What I mean by that- if you’re just stuck in your own little studio you’re not necessarily gonna get the feedback that you need to make a very successful piece. Maybe you think what you’re making is the greatest image in the world and to someone else it’s just a red circle on a page. And that's ok [grimaces] you can definitely make that. But I think that in order for us to actually invest in the arts there has to be a community investment as well. People have to also buy into it. Because then what is the difference between you making art and target making a cup that says best boss alive. Someone thought that that was the greatest idea out there [laughs] and also it allows you to hear what other people think. Say if you’re going for a particular message; for me one thing I like to discuss in my work is gender or sexuality. If I just stayed in my studio and didn’t get feedback I think a lot of the work I would be making would not be what I’m making now. I feel like I've definitely elevated my practice from making work that didn’t have a lot of description to work that now is filled with narration and filled with storytelling that allows people to project their own personal experiences onto a body of work. But I couldn't have gotten that far without that communal practice or that communal aspect.

WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK ON THE ARTS LOCALLY 

[Sighs] Well, I think there are two pockets of people. There are the community artists and there are the artists that are beholden to certain corporations or industry. Specifically, I think about, like I mentioned, the mural festival every year. Also thinking about the way that certain art organizations take money from big corporations as well. Those corporations have ties to destroying the environment. So it’s kinda like… if you wanna work in the arts you have to choose. You’re either going to  be working for an entity that ultimately kicks money back to big industry or you are going to work outside of those means and you’re going to be very limited in local funding for art projects. That’s the unfortunate part, you have Valero sponsoring our mural festival downtown. You have Valero, Citgo, and the port [of Corpus Christi] sponsoring Art Walk. I don’t know if the port* really sponsors Art Walk but I’m sure they have a hand in it. Corpus is so small it’s not a place where you can hide in a little corner and make your art. If you make art and you’re public about it there are many people that are interested but it just depends on what interest you’re gaining and what messages you’re putting out there. Because you can easily fall into the echo chamber of yes people. So I don't know what’s in my moral compass but I feel like I've gotten a very good feedback system going on where I'm able to create my own images that talk about my own personal experiences and my own gender journey through South Texas.

*editor’s note- a full list of funders for art walk are not clearly listed/readily available. Keep your eyes peeled for a future story

WHAT DIRECTION WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IT MOVE

I would love to see more communal investment. The Garcia Center and the Art Museum [of South Texas] are very open about their communal engagement. They have a lot of good programs that center community. I think that that’s great, definitely a net positive but what I would like to see more of would be community-driven art initiatives. For instance, there’s a specific park that you want to see a community garden in. How can we make that community garden look a lot prettier? Or maybe how we can use native plant life to make inks or paper. All of these things are very accessible means of art making but it’s not well-funded because the city is too busy funding projects that distract people from what’s really going on around them. I haven’t seen the city put money towards a community mural in a community garden, I haven't seen the city put any money towards a community art project in a minute actually. The last one that I'm thinking of is the shitty sidewalk on six points that the news raved about and Paulette [Guajardo] had a little catwalk moment. She was like “Oh my god this is the pinnacle of art in Corpus Christi!”

I was like “Girl? I Guess?” I think it’s a real shame that we don’t have a lot of art projects that center the city's interest in different communities around here. I’m sure that the west side or people in district 2 would love to be a part of more art campaigns. But as the city would say “We’re so limited in our resources.” But I think that that’s BS. I think that they have the resources to say and do whatever they want. But they won’t put money towards these community art projects.

DOES ART HAVE A ROLE IN ORGANIZING

Art definitely has a role in organizing. I’m immediately thinking of whenever I was doing the screenprinting demo at the people’s assembly. You know we made literally like 50-70 bags within those couple of hours. I think one thing that day really taught me was that I can fail in front of people and still be ok, the world wouldn’t end. Because that day those bags… yeah. The first few were… that was my first time screen printing on fabric so I really didn’t know what I was doing. But I knew people could do that. I knew that it wasn’t a foreign practice. So I definitely think that art has a communal aspect to it. People just need to be more- maybe this is callous- people need to be a bit more accepting of failure rather than expecting perfectionism. Expecting perfection is kind of insane. You’re doing something different every time you create something. So if you’re doing something new how can you in a way expect the same result or expect a different result. There has to be some leeway in terms of creation. But yes, I definitely think that art has a communal aspect. But I don't think that we as a community have many examples of that. One way that we can literally do that is either more murals or maybe more community art events. I’m specifically thinking of the community event that created the tile mural underneath the freeway near the Antonio Garcia center at Agnes and Crosstown. That was a day in which people were able to create their own tiles and leave their own mark in their community. People just need to see more ways that they can be involved in their community or see themselves in their own community. It’s easy to see yourself at home but seeing yourself involved in your own community, that’s totally different.

ANY INFLUENCES OR ADVICE

A lot of my influences are from local people. Whenever I have met local artists I’ve gotten a lot better either connection or advice [compared to] whenever I’ve been able to meet artists either at a talk or workshop in bigger cities or bigger names. Specifically, whenever I’ve met Ricardo Ruiz [the elder] a local painter and artist who does a lot of South Texas narration of his own personal experiences in life and journey. I also think of Carmen Lomas Garza who is a phenomenal painter. Her influence on me has really transformed the thinking of my art as a practice. I’ve never met her, she’s still on the list of people i need to meet. She’s definitely someone I would love to just chat and have a conversation with.

Maybe that’s a Saturnian thing or Capricorn thing. Discipline definitely has to play a part in my own practice. I say that because like I said I think of this as a religious experience or something that is meditative and relaxing. So why would I continue to be disciplined about something that is chaotic or spontaneous. That would induce a lot of anxiety in my life. So doing stuff like this [carving] really helps put my mind at ease.