Paloma Montoya’s work draws visual inspiration from classic cartoons, using her character Lola to play with teen internet culture in a way that is dark but funny too. She was a recipient of the 2020 NRA grant and joins us on the show today to talk about what her work is all about and how she handles the different sides of being an artist. We kick things off with Lola talking about some of her recent projects, making art during the lockdown, and how she copes with the challenges of networking at real-life art events. From there we get to hear more about where the fierce and satirical imagery Paloma makes comes from. Paloma shares about how she came up with Lola from the word ‘LOL’, and draws different grotesquely funny versions of her along with other language abbreviations from online culture. Along with all this, we speak to Paloma about staying true to her childhood dream amongst the pressures of corporate America, the challenges posed by the business side of being an artist, and how best to approach being disciplined about art-making to keep inspiration and sincerity levels as high as possible. Wrapping up for the day, we get into ideas around self-care in a capitalist world that values constant production, and what being a part of the Not Real Art team means for Paloma’s practice and for sticking the middle finger up to all the high art snobs out there!

Key Points From This Episode:

• A reminder to vote; voting for Biden even if you do not like him as a vote against Trump.
• What Paloma was doing when she found out she was a recipient of the NRA grant.
• How Paloma’s work has been affected by the lockdowns; productivity, commissions, and events.
• The last corporate job Paloma did for Converse to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.
• Paloma’s feelings toward Instagram as a social media platform and marketing tool.
• Anxiety around IRL art networking and whether Paloma is that affected by this.
• Paloma’s perspectives on her art and how it contains a tension between darkness and satire.
• What inspired Paloma’s character Lola and her different iterations and messages.
• Paloma’s journey trying to stay committed to art amongst pressures to get a real job.
• Art as a transcendental and therapeutic experience for Paloma.
• Challenges presented by the business side of art and how Paloma copes with them.
• Keeping inspiration up; how Paloma keeps up with managing routines of creating work.
• The value of self-care which challenges the capitalist idea of constant production.
• Believing in gods versus in the power of oneself; Paloma’s thoughts on spirituality.
• Where Paloma heard about the NRA grant and her thoughts on its name.
• The snobbishness of ‘high art’ and how the ‘Not Real Art’ name critiques it.
• Where to find Paloma’s work online to learn more about what she does.
• What Paloma is busy with right now and some new projects on the horizon for her.

For more information and photos, visit here: https://notrealart.com//paloma-montoya