Today we’d like to introduce you to Asceneth Pinto.
Hi Asceneth, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in LA, specifically East Hollywood. That will always be the neighborhood in LA I feel the most connected to despite it looking different to the way it did when I was growing up. I was always an artsy kid growing up. I loved scribbling on anything I could get my hands on. Whether it was the wall of our living room, the steps in front of our house, the sidewalk, or textbooks and desks, I would draw on it. I have a good handful of sketchbooks filled back to back from when I was little. Mi mami keeps them around “pa’ cuando eres artista famosa las puedo vender”.
I never really grew up with the arts despite how much I loved them. We didn’t have a car until I was middle school and both my parents worked so taking me to a museum was a struggle sometimes. I was primarily exposed to art in the form of animation and murals. Or at least that was the art I felt connected to. I never felt connected to the art at museums or the artists mentioned in school. Granted I never learned much art history as I wasn’t at the right grade level for the class offered and when I did reach that grade, the art class got cut. I went to Hollywood High and whenever people find that out they assume that it was this artsy school, but it wasn’t. My art teacher was fired the year after I took her class. It was the only non performing arts class they had. That same year they were working on the new mural for the outside of the school.
So I never planned to go to art school. I thought I was going to study psychology or English so I could at least be close to that creative outlet I wanted. The later end of high school I found out about this after school program for students interested in possibly pursuing arts in college. “Art school for college” Greetings from South Central. Karina Esperanza Yanez, Rhombie Sandoval, Jose Chavez, and Elizabeth Waner. I never would have even applied for art school if not for them. They showed me there were pathways for kids like me to be artists. They later invited me to give an artist lecture to their new cohort of students. I mention them every chance I get because kids from these communities don’t always have the easiest access to the arts. And whether they want to pursue them or not, just being exposed to the arts is incredibly beneficial. It shows you different perspectives. It allows you to learn about other cultures. It allows you to expand your horizons. It helps you think creatively. It shows you ways people can use it as an outlet or release. Programs like these are very much needed for kids like this. Programs like these are what make the difference between that mindset of thinking something is unattainable and actually believing in yourself enough to try. I get to say I’m an artist because of programs like these.
I am incredibly grateful for all my mentors I’ve had during my time at CalArts. Mercedes Dorame, Ashley Hunt, Taku Onoda, Gabrielle Civil, Rafael Hernandez, Alejandro Sanchez, Kim Ye, Andrew Freeman, Carribean Fragoza, Ken Ehrlich, Muriel Leung. Every single one of them has contributed to the artist I am today. I learned everything from them. They’ve helped me grow as an artist and they’ve helped me grow as a person.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I entered CalArts with very little art world knowledge and especially very little photography knowledge. I knew the basics of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed but that was it. I didn’t even know of a famous photographer or at least the ones I did like I didn’t know their names. I felt extremely disconnected from everyone in my cohort. They all knew this terminology I was barely hearing about. While at CalArts we’ve had many conversations about how “art talk” is its own language of sorts since it takes a different knowledge in order to understand it. I was new to all of it and I definitely lacked the knowledge needed to decipher it. Eventually I learned and understood the words tossed around classes.
This disconnect however made me feel like I was behind everyone else. I had the worst imposter syndrome throughout that first year. I felt like nothing I made was at the same level as the others in my cohort. I kept questioning how I even got accepted here. Especially with the portfolio I had used to apply. I struggled so much with believing in myself. Despite people telling me I made good art. Despite people saying they liked my art. Despite the fact I was approached by a gallery director while installing for our spring foundation show. I thought my art wasn’t good.
Eventually, I gained confidence in my work. Nothing really happened to spark that, it just took time. I began to write more about my art than I did for my art. I think that might have been what helped me gain confidence. I was writing about my art and everything around it. I was able to stand behind my art and have faith in it. Writing about my art helped me feel good about it because I already had confidence in my writing. So having the thoughts and emotions behind my art written down helped when I had to do critiques. I had something I could fall back on when I had to talk about my art. By the time my mid-residency show came around, I was genuinely really proud of the show I put up. I loved that show. It helped me navigate so many thoughts and emotions I’ve had growing up and I received a lot of admiration and appreciation for the work from peers and mentors. I felt really proud for making art that had such an impact on others.
Now I love the art I make. Whether it’s longer form projects or little crafts, I love the art I make because of the emotions I make art with. I put so much care and love into art making, that alone it makes me feel proud of what I make because I know I made it with good intentions behind it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a photographer. In the simplest sense I make art about my community. That community is Mexicans. Mexican-Americans. Chicanos. Latinos from LA. LA in general. My family. My friends. My work in its roots is connected to the people who allowed me to reach the point in which I am at currently. I make art surrounding them because I want them to be seen and I need them to be seen from a lens that actually understands them. From a lens that cares about them. From a lens that views them as people, especially in a political climate that is heavily full of disregard towards them. I’ve always argued that I should just be called an artist. That my identity doesn’t have to be placed before the word artist. I always wanted my art to just stand on its own. I’ve always argued that my art isn’t political since it’s about my identity and it’s not my fault my identity has been politicized. I can’t say that anymore. My art is my identity. My identity is my art. I make my art so people can see my community the way I see them.
My art will always get tied back to my identity despite the actual subject matter. And this is something I’ve talked to my friends about. We all went to CalArts. We were the few Latinos at the school and especially in the photo program. We didn’t want to be that token Latino artist despite all of us making art about different aspects of our many identities. But when so few people are making art you can connect to, you start making the art that you wish you had as reference. You start making art that’s the representation you were trying to reach for. Photography is one of the most literal forms of art. We’re taught to think of the frame. Of the angles. Of the way light plays in our images. It’s ingrained in us to think of how our image will be read before it’s even created. So at least for me I translated that into the way I approached writing about my art. A lot of my art stems from writing about an issue or idea I was thinking about. I tend to write about my art before I make it. I need my thoughts written out so I can translate them into images. If I already wrote down how I want my art to be received, it makes it easier to make those framing choices when it comes to the image making. If I have a clear idea of how I want my art to be read, I can make the adjustments needed to ensure that idea gets through to my audience.
I’m also thinking of who that audience is. Of how much space I’m allowing them to have to play with the meaning of my art. Do I want a clear narrative? Is that clear narrative only for a select audience and the rest can play with the meaning? Do I want to leave space for different interpretations? How many interpretations am I okay with before it gets to the point of sacrificing the quality of my work? Is it a straight narrative I want evoked or is it more of a general feeling/idea? How direct do I want to be and do I need that directness for the specific audience I want? These are all things I think about when approaching a project.
Throughout my time at CalArts I’ve made a lot of work tied to my experience as a child of immigrants and to my experience as a Chicana. My mid-recidency show had a video in which I read a letter to my parents asking them if it was worth it moving here. Asking them if it was worth cutting those ties to the country they loved. If it was worth having an American daughter. If that hyphen was worth all the struggle and hatred they’ve experienced in this country. This entire video is in English. I made a video prior to this fully in Spanish. Talking about my parents’ immigration story. No subtitles. On more than one occasion I was asked if I felt okay cutting out a potential audience. That if I was okay with leaving some people feel disconnected. And with the most respect each time I would say I do not care if a certain group of people is excluded from my art because it is not for them. It is for the people who have been excluded from the art world. For the people who have been excluded in society. Because we know what group they were referring to. Because that same group has always been addressed in the art world. That same group has always had art they could relate to. In that same show I included writing fully in Spanish. Up until that point I’d always written in English with maybe a few words of Spanish sprinkled in. a Spanglish of some sorts. But thai was the first piece entirely in Spanish. No translation next to it. I was asked why I made that decision. Not in the same tone as the other times but more in a curiosity of sorts. I’d never written in Spanish before that point. I’m not the best at writing in Spanish. So to create a piece that embodied everything I felt and needed to say in a language I’m only partly connected to, felt important to leave in that language. I didn’t feel the need to translate my feelings. It felt wrong to do so. It felt as though I was going to lose a part of the piece in translation. Whenever I choose to translate my work, I never do literal translation. I do a translation of the feelings and meanings. Still with similar imagery or phrasing but more so trying to translate my Spanish feelings into English ones and vice versa.
I loved my mid-residency show. I had a lot of people coming to thank me for making work like that at a place like CalArts. That this was one of the few shows they felt they could connect to. So when it was time for my thesis show, I knew I needed to focus on creating that safe space again. My thesis went through tons of different iterations. Some more true to what I wanted to create and a few more centered around the fact that this was a thesis show at CalArts. Ultimately I made my show the way I felt it needed to be made. “Wall Paintings & Scribbles” A show about the policing of Black and Brown communities in LA through the lens of graffiti. Mural darkroom prints, hung on plywood by magnets, no frame. No glass protection. Mural darkroom prints I spent days on. But everything was hung in a traditional layout. Gallery height mid point throughout. A straight hang. But it didn’t feel like it was hung in order to adhere to gallery standards. It felt like a storyline. It looked gallery compliant but the little choices made it clear it wasn’t. Canvases with designs on the borders. Plywood, imperfect plywood, as the base for mural prints. A notebook nailed to the wall with my artist statement. An artist statement written in tags that was just barely lit so you really had to stand there for a minute to read it despite the typed and printed version laying on a table below it. And people did stand. They grabbed a sheet and still stood there to read. The legibility of graffiti was something I talked to my mentor about when I was starting to plan my thesis. We talked about how proud we felt when we could decipher a piece of graffiti. That it felt like we were decoding something and just gained inside knowledge once we did. She brought up the fact how she’ll stand and just stare at it until it becomes clear to her. I’ve done the same thing. So we started talking about the work an audience puts in when viewing work. That no matter how direct or clear I could make something, if that audience is not invested, or doesn’t care for the work, the meaning won’t translate to them. And that’s why I don’t care if my art isn’t reachable to everyone because it becomes reachable to the ones who care. It becomes accessible to the ones that want to put in that effort. That they are putting effort because they care. And that care is what I want from an audience. I want them to approach with that care because it gets extended to the communities the art is about. The care for the artwork translates to care for them. And I want people to care about my community. And I want the people who care to feel connected to art. So they too feel seen. So they too can feel that care.
How do you think about happiness?
Going on walks has been something that brings me peace recently. Whether it’s walking to do errands, or to grab coffee, or just to walk, it gives me a dedicated time to just be with myself. People say LA isn’t walkable. I grew up in LA without a car so the city became walkable for me. When I was little my mama would take me around the block to try to spot the neighborhood cats. I gave them all different names. I think walking gives me the ability to disconnect from everything in a way that driving can’t. When I go on walks I’m observing every little thing I pass. I’m looking at the stickers up and down the lamp post, trying to see which are the newest and which have been there since the last time I passed it. I’ll look at the rearview decorations people have in their cars. Walking allows me to just focus on the little things I would probably ignore. This helps me because when I’m stressed or my anxiety starts getting worse, I analyze every little thing but in a way that only adds to my stress/anxiety. Walking allows me to focus on the little things that don’t involve me. Me analyzing interactions I’ve had only adds to the stress but analyzing the flowers each house has out front lets my brain do that same hyperfixation without the stakes being so high.
Being with friends brings me lots of joy. Especially since they’re all involved in the arts in some sort of way so they’re always down to go to a gallery opening or to an art show. I think a lot of the other aspects in my life overlap with art. My friends, my family, my work. We can go hang out anywhere and I will usually end up leaving with a new artist to look up. I appreciate my friends in so many ways. I’m so grateful for all of them and they truly are some of the people that bring me the most joy. I first started hanging photos of them in my studio so that when I was working on things I could look at that wall and think of all the people that care about me and have helped me. Once I graduated and had to clear out the studio, the photo wall moved to my room so when I feel stressed I can still look at all the people who have been there for me and now that it’s on a bigger wall, it can expand more.
One of my current joyful activities includes finding new coffee spots to try out. I love coffee. The caffeine doesn’t wake me up or anything but I love the taste and I love the connections coffee brings. Growing up having un cafecito together was always a time to just catch up with someone. To talk about life, share chisme, ask for advice. Coffee also reminds me of going to the laundromat with my mama. Once all the clothes were in the washer, we’d go to the 7-eleven and she’d get a coffee and a glazed donut while I got a hot chocolate and pink sprinkle donut. Then we’d wait for the clothes to be washed as we ate and sipped. My mama showed me how to make cafe de olla a while ago and now that’s the only coffee I’ll drink at home. But I love fun flavored coffees. Any latte with a cold foam makes me happy. So recently I’ve been trying to find different coffee places close to work. So far the two I’ve really loved are Cafe Calle and Anhelo Coffee. Both are latino owned, which with everything that’s been going on in LA the last few months, I’m going to invest my money into the communities being affected.
Crafting makes me really happy. I have a whole Pinterest board full of different crafts I want to try to recreate. I go to Michaels and Blick regularly and grab a bunch of supplies that I will probably only use for that one craft. Recently I was really into making things with beads. Before that I was invested in working on my lettering to make those old school Chicano love letters. There was a time I was really into piñatas. Currently I’m mainly into talavera paintings. I got vases so I can paint them with these designs. But something that’s been a constant throughout the back and forth of crafts has been sticker making. It started when I made stickers for my thesis show. After making those I felt more motivated to keep trying to draw digitally and use my iPad more. All the stickers on my phone case are ones I’ve made. I hand them out randomly and keep a few in the car. I’ve done sticker trades with friends who also make stickers. I think crafting and sticker making are important to me because of the personal aspects to them. When I make my art I add a lot of the personal elements behind it into the art. So even when making a silly little craft, I add that personal element to it. I love giving people crafts. I love crafting with people. I think because of how much I put into my art, crafting allows me to put in the personal without the stress of art making. If I mess up a craft it’s no big deal, I still had fun. I mess up a print and I might be behind on a show or submission deadline. Crafting lets me make art that is purely for fun while still having that same level of investment in it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frijolitospinto/#
Image Credits
head shot: Josue Monterroso
photo of me documenting my work: Andrew Freeman
photo of me sitting on the table: Rafael Hernandez
photo from above of print in water: Adrian Anguiano
