My name is Jonnie and I am the summer 2019 intern at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry! I am a third generation native of Los Angeles, residing in the San Fernando Valley, as I have for most of my life. After a long journey, I finished my BFA at California College of the Arts (CCA) in Oakland California this past December. I completed my degree within the Individualized Program, where I was granted the freedom to create my own curriculum. I spent most of my time working in textiles, animation, and sculpture while digging very deeply into my humanities and critical studies classes. These studies culminated in me creating a large-scale, interactive installation all about body dysmorphia for my thesis exhibition.
My interdisciplinary work pulls from my own struggles with mental illness and reality, as well as my ancestry and thoughts on inherited trauma. Research is integral to my making process, as it is my curiosity that drives me to create in order to make sense of, well…anything and everything; always beginning with a question I need to ask myself. Before settling on art school, I had plans to study History.
I have been out of college for about 6 months now after being in school literally my whole life and I have just moved back home to the Valley. Let me tell you, it is weird and uncomfortable; but my second day in I am already finding solace in the thoughtful work and inquisitive atmosphere that is the ICI. This entire space is filled with scratched itches of questions past, and boy is it an amazing relief that I get to bask in it for the next two months.
Currently I am tasked in assisting with preparing for the 25th Anniversary of the AIDS Chronicles and I am beyond excited to be part of such an impactful and loud project.
When I am not at the ICI, I am working at a honey farm educating people about bees and conservation. In my spare time I love to garden, weave, mend, bake, build with clay, paint, play guitar, dance, sing, and swing in my hammock
-- Jonny