From growing up with 12 siblings in a small community up in the mountains of Mexico, Roberto Lopez Lopez came to Canada and became a self-taught artist.
“When I look at my art, it looks like my ancestors in Mexico, like Mayan and Aztec,” said Lopez Lopez.
On January 23rd, at 7 p.m. at the Artesian lounge, Lopez Lopez will be having an art exhibition and sale called Retrospective-Renewed.
“Two names are just because I have some paintings of my past and I have been having some realizations,” said Lopez Lopez. “The healing power of the arts…to help me with childhood trauma and to express things that I cannot express with words.”
On display will be pieces he has created from 2003 until 2025.
“Most of the pieces are more recent,” said Lopez Lopez. “Every piece is really personal, like selling a piece of my ear or something, but it’s good to share and to inspire others.”
For Lopez Lopez success is when someone really likes his artwork and is willing to pay for it.
“My passion is to be an artist,” said Lopez Lopez. “As an artist, it’s not so easy to make a living so sometimes you have to do different things. I also paint houses.”
His love of art started as a young boy with drawing, but he realized it more when he came to Regina and started using paint and brushes.
“I was waiting for my papers to arrive so I can work, that’s when I started painting,” said Lopez Lopez. “I started painting and selling old flowerpots at craft sales and people started asking me for painting murals at their houses, painting birdfeeders, and other objects too.”
Inspired by both his artistic father and brother, Lopez Lopez too finds inspiration from situations, people and feelings.
“I don’t paint what I see, I paint what I feel,” said Lopez Lopez. “It’s not the physical that I find the beauty, not only there but more into energetic things around.”
He uses meditation in the creative process.
“Sometimes I don’t find the words to express what I’m feeling, but my art allows me to express deep things inside myself,” said Lopez Lopez.
Calling himself a “flow surfer” he connects to the flow of life where the animals and plants are.
“I like to connect to myself and paint with the heart,” said Lopez Lopez.
As music plays an important role in his artwork, the exhibition will be playing the music that he listens to when he paints.
“I like world music that is made with passion, with honest feeling,” said Lopez Lopez. “I feel like my paintings have movement. They move, they breathe, they have life.”
In determining when a painting is finished, he listens for “the quiet call to say it’s good enough.”
A typical day in his home studio consists of painting with every brush.
“I don’t think I have a piece of clothing that doesn’t have a splash of paint,” said Lopez Lopez.
When dealing with obstacles in his creations, Lopez Lopez admits “I have burned pieces, broken them, restarted and added until I like it…every piece is unique.”
Samples of his work have been on display at many local establishments, and he has been quietly reshaping parts of Regina’s own artistic culture too.
“I am a really big fan of art, and I encourage everybody to create, to express, because things we don’t express make us sick inside,” said Lopez Lopez.
