Student Ricardo Lopez moved from classroom painting to designing and constructing sets for musicals and plays after finding his passion and capabilities for set design. With his painting history only dating back two years, the college was Lopez’s flourishing point.
“I wasn’t being serious until I took a painting class here. It was experiments or studies, messing with colors or patterns – just beginner stuff,” said Lopez. “Then I got here and I had this professor…[who] really started to push me to further expand my painting skill and try to make things not so ordinary.”
Recently, Lopez had extended his artistic hand to The Culture House in Kansas City. There, he designed and painted two sets for two separate shows, “Willy Wonka” and “How I Became a Pirate.”
“I did the original drawings,” said Lopez. “I got to explore all these wacky styles and unreal places and make the different candy lands and the poor street and all these different places that were really creative.”
Lopez’s limits do not lay dormant on painting, however. He has dabbled in everything from sculpture to fashion, as far out as calligraphy. Lopez prides himself in his ability to tear down the barriers between all the art mediums.
“I don’t prefer one or the other. It seems that they are all working together,” said Lopez. “Say you have an illustration you want to show somebody but they can’t read the same architectural prints that you can…so if you painted a picture then they would be able to see what you’re seeing.”
Lopez’s love for art didn’t beginning with the physical creation but rather the understanding and appreciation.
“I started off with art history; it was one of the first classes I took here at [the college],” said Lopez. “From there I started actually looking at different art works but not yet creating it.”
Lopez is currently underway working on a Valentine’s Day design for dance studio named Louis & Company. His design will contain a massive Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe.
“I’m going to make an Arc de Triomphe that people can dance under,” said Lopez. “The Eiffel Tower is going to be between 20-30 feet high – they are also going to be illuminated. I’m going to have to design it and build it and I have a month to do it. That is going to really be a challenge.”
Lopez, even though unsure of his future or his plans, knows it will never stray too far from art or his passions.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a specific one thing for me,” said Lopez. “I think its going to be somewhat architectural but somewhat panting, somewhat sculpting. These different aspects of the art community are too often separated. With my experience I’ve found that if you work them together, they enhance so much more.”
For more information contact Jessica Mitchell, features editor, jmitch54@jccc.edu.