Allie Aguirre: Portrait of an Artist

With photos by Jilliann R. and Riley G.

Allie Aguirre walks into Flipper’s wearing cargo pants, a No Doubt T-shirt, donning her signature black cat eye glasses. She holds three journals. She sits, laughs. and says, “Yeah I have a separate journal for different aspects of my life. I thought I’d bring them along. The journals help me gather my thoughts…writing helps me materialize them.”

We order queso and chiltons like the good ole’ Texans we are and catch up for a bit. She starts substituting for a new school in a couple of days. Allie has been working as a substitute teacher after her graduation in the Fall of 2019 with a B.F.A. from Texas Tech. She excitedly tells me about a project she had her students conduct last year, “I was trying to find something process-oriented. Something where they wouldn’t be concerned about making the final product perfect. I had them paint on coffee filters and then spray them with water. It was so fun, they had a lot of fun. That’s what art is about, the experience surrounding the creation. Not the final product. If someone asked me to recreate a painting, I couldn't do it. I put most of my focus towards using my current state to create."

If you follow Allie on social media, you’d very quickly realize that music is a huge part of her life, at the least part of her creative persona. “What’s your process like?” I ask. “Well I love to make playlists, obviously. I’ll curate a mood I’d like to explore and see how that affects my brush strokes, any of my movements.” She laughs, “A lot of my playlists are filled with songs that are very similar, very sensual. Maybe that’s why there’s such an analogous theme in many of them. I’m a sensual person, it’s going to show in my art. My sister said if I was born in another time I’d be a princess or something glamorous. I just love things that bring visceral pleasure into my life.”

“Have you always wanted to pursue art?” Allie nods. “I did. I thought about quitting for a while because I kind of plateaued in high school. I’d see other people's art and feel inferior about mine. I considered taking up architecture instead, I really liked math. But then I took a calculus class. So I decided to give it a shot in college. I absolutely fell in love with what I ended up creating during my time at Texas Tech. The piece I'm working on right now is actually one I started during college, it's a Van Gogh cubism piece. I took a bit of a break because I didn't like the direction it was taking. I needed to take a step back, but I'm excited to finally finish it."

“So what do you write in the journals?” I ask, gesturing to her books spread out on the table. The artist points at one of them, “Well this one is for my inspirations…and manifestations.” She leafs through it quickly. “I like to write down things that resonate with me when I’m reading or listening to a podcast. I like to find synchronicities and explore them. If a theme is a recurrence in the media I’m consuming or the situations I’m in, I’ll do some introspection to try and understand it further.”

Allie continues to read through her journal, her brow furrowing in concentration. As she flips through a couple more pages, she chuckles and shuts the book. “There’s a lot about self-love. Love in general. What it means to me, how I can embody it.” “Well, what does it mean to you?” I ask. “Love is…” Allie trails off and glances at the ceiling wistfully, “Love is supposed to be freeing. When I was younger I was such a hopeless romantic. I had to let go of a lot of beliefs about love. Mostly romantic. But when I started working with children I started thinking about love in general. We think children don’t know anything, they understand a lot more than we give them credit for. They’re extremely expressive. They just say what’s on their mind. They'll come up to me and say, 'I love you'...and they mean it! They don't think twice about it. They just tell you how they feel. We make it so complicated when it's really simple. Love can be revolutionary if you allow it to be.”

She’s silent for a bit as she contemplates. “I feel as if we live in a society that deprives us of that. Of love and community. I want to be surrounded by a community that loves me. But sometimes I feel so exhausted and I don’t feel like getting out and about. I’m working on fixing that.” She picks up the inspiration journal and flips to a recent page. “Recently I was reading a book and 'community' was a theme that really stood out to me. I tend to isolate myself due to anxiety and other reasons, but I've really enjoyed exploring being authentic around people. I used to care about people's judgment but now I don't care if I sound awkward or weird. That's just how I am."

You can view more of Allie Aguirre's work on www.alehondra.com