Meet Chicome Itzcuintli Amatlapalli

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chicome Itzcuintli Amatlapalli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chicome Itzcuintli, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I have a terrible time relaxing. I work constantly – from about 6 in the morning, until 7 or 8 at night. I work for 3 to 4 hours a day most weekends as well. Being self-employed, and the boss of my own small business of 5 employees, requires an unceasing amount of labor from me. However, while part of this labor is tedious – paperwork, emails, taxes, and all that sort of thing, at least half of it is spent painting. I am an artist, and the long hours include time spent working on my artwork, which, while technically “work,” is something I find relaxing, meditative, and a great joy. When I was a child my mother was a seamstress, with her own shop. I saw her grow from a home-based shop, operated out of our living room, to opening a successful store. And I also saw her work extremely hard to achieve her success. She taught me to be unafraid of opening my own business, and also, via her example, I saw how much work was necessary – I think she worked much harder than a person with a 9-5. And yet, I also saw her satisfaction at being her own boss, and ultimately, at achieving her dream with her shop. My mother was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico when she came to the US. Her hard work-ethic is something which is, I think, common to immigrants, who have to work twice as hard in order to achieve only modest success. But, via her example, I was able to win a scholarship for Latinos to go to University to study art, and since then, to achieve success with my own art-business. I work really hard, but have been a self-employed artist for 20 years now. My long hours, maintained over many years, seems like a small price to pay for the ability to paint every day. And, I also want to point out, that these long hours are not really necessary. Because, like I said, I find painting to be a form of meditation. I truly love what I do.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am Mexican-American, Native-American, queer, and mixed-race (half white, and half Mexican/Native). I am an artist, primarily a painter but I also make sculpture, books, and textiles. And I also write (I have several books which I have self-published as part of my work). I practice indigenous ceremony, and in that capacity am the captain of my group of Native dancers – dance is a form of prayer for us, and I lead us in ceremony. As an artist, my work and my life are intricately entwined. I make paintings for galleries, products, like clothing or stickers for sale, and objects to be used or worn in ceremony, which are sacred and can never be sold. There is no clear division between one part and another – all of my work explores Mexican, indigenous spirituality, and is meant to connect us to our ancestors.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

As an artist, the first element that really set me on my path was technical skill. I learned how to paint in University, with classical technique – that technique has allowed me to express myself, and to find a personal voice, and to tell the stories I want to say. This cannot be self-learned. It requires a teacher. Likewise, I learned to think in University – critical thinking, art theory, queer theory, and black studies (my school had no Indigenous or Chicano studies classes, so I took black studies as a way to come to art from the perspective of a minority). These classes and reading allowed me to think about my art in a way that has nourished my practice ever since, and also to speak about my art in a way that gallerists and curators understand. I don´t think its necessary to go to University, but one does need teachers – to learn technique, and to learn what to read, that will expand ones mind and set one on a good path. Finally, as an artist, a certain business sense has been necessary. I learned this on my own, without any kind of teacher, and I am still learning! Honestly, I wish I had taken some business classes when I was young, to help me navigate and learn a lot of things which I have learned the hard way. Teachers are necessary.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

I have made a living for many years, primarily, by selling online. And this has been accomplished by having a lot of followers on social media – the more followers I have, the more I make, and the more opportunities arise. However, Instagram (my primary social media platform) changed their algorithm about a year ago, and ruined my business. My income plummeted. It has been an uphill journey, to learn what it is that Instagram, and social media platforms, now require of me – video making and editing, for example. The lesson, primarily, has been that I needed to have a more diverse flow of income. I am now making money through my social media presence again, but I am spending a lot of time figuring out how to sell my products whole-sale. I am hoping to establish myself that way, so that, if one or another income-stream becomes difficult again, I have a back-up.

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