Meet TZASNA PEREZ ESPINOSA!
After being impressed with their work during the second Designing Advocacy cohort, Create CA commissioned Tzasná Pérez Espinosa, a queer Mexican-American artist from Tlalpan, Mexico City and Los Angeles! Their powerful designs center learning, healing, and social impact. Learn more about the trajectory of their work and what’s up next for them.
About Your Love of Art
How has your love for art evolved over the years?
I’m noticing myself paying attention to a narrower set of things. I remember approaching art with untamed and endless curiosity when I was younger. I think this stemmed from allowing myself to play freely. Different artists, mediums, modes of creation, and storytelling were and still are so appealing. As much as I still need that discovery and learning, I feel my intuition developing very strongly toward the kinds of artmaking and processes that best nourish my creativity. I think that has to do with how we develop taste. I get to play with a greater appreciation for the things that truly move me while leaving space for discovery. I remember journaling in my sketchbook and a question popped up in my mind, “What symbols do you wanna keep?” I keep coming back to this question and how the answer is so specific to time and place. I think about the power of art to nourish and help grow the things I love: joy, gentleness, play, healing, learning, and creation.
Pursuing Art
How do you stay inspired and motivated in your artistic practice?
At times it’s been very difficult to remain inspired or motivated. I find that it requires very intentional discipline, but especially a mindset that allows me to be free from expectations I’ve built up. I’ve struggled with perfectionism for some time. Stepping out of it requires me to face mistakes and process them head-on. I want to keep myself in a state where the important part is the process, acknowledging that everything I produce is meaningful and a contribution to my creative development, even if it’s just a doodle I throw out. Doing exercises in letting go, and not attaching too much to the final result has been very helpful. I also notice myself discovering new things through photography and sewing. Two mediums I didn’t think of as my “main” practice. I am finding myself more satisfied in that sense. I am secure in my power as an artist, regardless of how that shows up. We value artists only when they are producing, we value artists for what they can make, and not art as a capacity in all of us, as a needed process for everyone’s wellbeing.
I think about the power of art to nourish and help grow the things I love: joy, gentleness, play, healing, learning, and creation.
Arts Education Experience Growing Up
Were there any teachers or mentors who significantly impacted your artistic journey?
There’s been so many mentors and teachers throughout my artistic journey. I have been thinking about my capacity to be both a student and educator and the responsibilities and initiative I can take from both roles. Recently I finished Teaching to Transgress, by Bell Hooks and it’s made me see all the different situations in my academic and non-academic learning where the right conditions flourished and truly magical things happened. It’s not enough to provide the materials and sit back. Engaging in teaching is a process where we must honor the context outside the classroom and the many relationships within. I think of the spaces that truly nourished me creatively: these were always places where the instructor communicated with their actions more than their words, that their class was a safe space for critical thinking, for making mistakes, for play, for dissent, and for initiative.
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