WordPress.com



Vanessa CaldwellEnglish 475Robert Nazar11 May 2016Cuntina CocaineWearing a “Satan is my spirit animal” T-shirt and basketball shorts, Jose swings open the door to his motel room. With great enthusiasm he flies onto the couch, springing up onto his knees. The room is littered with Four Loco malt liquor cans and empty bags of hot Cheetos, along with a glass pipe, lighter, and an empty plastic bag on the table next to him. Jose apologizes for his recycled look of the day. His bleach blonde bed head sticks straight up. A native of Colombia, he speaks with a thick accent. His frame is bone thin and his skin pale. Spread across the unmade bed, are what look like hundreds of colored pencils and markers with a few sketch books, open to various drawings such as tattooed pin up models with cartoon like features. “Creating art is my escape from reality,” Jose Perez, a drag queen artist, methodically states. He pauses for a moment, looks down, then up again and continues, “It’s the only thing I have control over.” The form of Jose’s art began to change as he acknowledged his sexuality. He went from drawing trees and animals to more provocative pieces. For example, he began to draw transgendered figures like a woman with a penis. Jose recalls his earliest memories of being attracted to men, he laughs at the thought. With a matter of fact giggle he begins, “It was so natural to me. I didn’t know I was weird.” He talks about how all of his friends were girls in grade school, “I didn’t even know what being gay was until someone called me that. I had to look it up online.” Jose explains how in Spanish, this was a derogatory comment, not casual English slang that is tossed around all the time as it is today. As normal as he felt, Jose’s father did not agree with his sexuality. Jose becomes agitated, excessively scratching at his knees as he talks about the night his parents found out he was gay. His speech picks up as he explains, “I got my ass beat that night. My dad was on top of me ‘So what, are you a faggot?’” Jose cries, “So what if I am?” Three days later, without a chance to say goodbye, he is shipped off to the United States at 15 years old. Jose reveals that life in California has been anything but easy. With all the teenage angst he felt at the time, he did not think leaving Colombia would be hard for him but when the dust settled, he fell into a deep depression. His aunt was paid off by his mother to let him live there. “She was an evil dictator, she tried to ‘fix’ me. I got myself kicked out within a year. That didn’t last long!” With a sneer look on his face, “She was an un-cultured swine and over indulgent pig.” Jose believes the only way he was able to get through that time in his life was by drawing. Turning his attention to where his life is now, he admits to being homeless and addicted to drugs. He also acknowledges being in a toxic relationship with someone who is just like his parents. Jose reluctantly shares, “Now I realize I looked for someone to literally replace my parents. Which didn’t work out because he is exactly like them. Willing to take care of me but everything comes with a price.” He states, at 21 years old, he is not where he wants to be in life but art is the one thing that keeps him going. Jose believes that illustrating women became a coping mechanism for his life. Early on, he was captivated by anything creative but with drawing, he proclaims that once he picked up that pen, he never stopped. “I remember in school one day having detention. You weren’t allowed any books or paper. So I drew an entire sleeve of fake tattoos on my arm because they didn’t say no pens”, his eyes brighten, “Creating art is like therapy without having to tell anyone anything. I can release my deepest feelings in subliminal ways without being exposed by others.” He explains how it became a healing force of its own. The main theme of his artwork honors the female body and facial features. A bright colorful world of Pin up models, and bearded ladies. After attending his first drag show, Jose believed this was the inspiration of his artwork. “All I could think was ‘What the fuck, I want to look like this’, so I made it happen. The makeup comes naturally; it is just like painting or drawing,” Jose explains. He considers dressing in drag another medium of art. The “queens” he created on paper mirrored himself and suddenly brought on the realization that this had become something bigger than a picture for him. He now wanted to physically embody the female physique. Jose becomes very relaxed as he talks about the process of performing while he flips through Instagram pictures to show off his various looks. “Trust me, this is a lot of work honey, I didn’t wake up like this,” as he points to his favorite zombie school girl get-up. “Think Britney Spears, 2004, but dead inside, like really dead. That’s how I felt so I created her. As Cuntina Cocaine, I can become any one I want to.” Jose sees himself as a work in progress. He is fully aware of his abundant artistic talent and knows that he is capable of extraordinary things. He acknowledges the emotional issues he must conquer to reach the next level of his life, to take his career places he has only ever dreamed of. “My suffering will not have been in vain. I may not be where I want to be right now but just wait, everyone will know my name,” he exclaims with a look of determination on his face, that still has last night’s makeup on it. “I don’t know or care really what medium get me there; pen, pencil, makeup, performance, fashion design. They will know Jose Perez,” Jose shares as he raises an eyebrow and through his blue colored contacts, gives a flirty wink.Works CitedPerez, Jose. Personal interview. 29 Apr. 2016. --. Personal phone call. 7 May 2016. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download