Okay, here comes the

taking-myself-too-seriously part:

I used to think of myself as an athlete before anything else — I was a New England Golden Gloves champ, won nationals twice as an amateur collegiate boxer, and I trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for years, taking some amateur MMA fights as well.

Anyways, for many reasons too long to detail here, I ended up making the smooth transition out of boxing and cage-fighting into the job that best fit the skills of a prize-fighter: I became an elementary school teacher, punching children at recess.

No, really, I did — become a teacher, not the punching children part. And I ended up making a decade-long career as a teacher and then university professor, until I gave myself some time to think through what I loved and really wanted to do.

I began to remember how much I loved writing — from notes to every girl I’d fallen in love with in school, to writing longer stories that I shared only with one or two people.

Also, I remembered being silly with my friends in front of an old-school, still-uses-tape camcorder as we played “Scenes from a Hat” from Whose Line Is It Anyways with our always terrible and unfunny suggestions. I’d want to be behind the camera, but then would want to get in front of the camera to “do it better” than they were doing it (what a nightmare of a diva I must have been to work with, I know). 

Oh and of course the times where I’d dress up in heels and a dress to make my mom laugh, until she suddenly didn’t find it so funny for some reason. Or senior year of high school Halloween when I dressed as a “sexy sailor” in what I think were some cut-off jean shorts and a white polo t-shirt from the Salvation Army that my buddy drew an anchor on. Because obviously this is what sexy sailors wear to first period biology as they shiver trying to learn about prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

Thinking back on life, it sounds obvious now that I should have been in the arts. But I didn’t know myself well enough then to be aware of that.

No one in my family lived as an artist. Not then. 

But now, there are a few of us. My older brother is a musician. My younger brother a sketch artist. 

And then there was I.

After learning much about who I wanted to become, I left the world of Academia and committed to life as an artist. It’s been an exciting and nerve wracking experience, but I wouldn’t trade it for any other path through the world. 

It is with that same excitement and nervousness that I take this next step of making public the works I’ve put together.

Erykah Badu says, “I’m an artist, and I’m sensitive about my shit.” No truer words, Ms. Badu. Also, I love your music and your whole vibe — an inspiration. 

Yeah, I definitely am sensitive about it all. But, I think it would be a shame if I reached the end of my time on this planet and was too sensitive to show y’all what I work so hard on, from the moment I wake up to when I go to bed at night. 

So here it is.

All love,

jr lópez