DIEGO LÓPEZ

With over fifteen years' professional experience as an independent story and visual development artist, Diego López has worked with ad agencies, production houses, filmmakers, and nonprofits on hundreds of projects, including ads, film and TV productions, and narrative illustrations. His work is influenced by a childhood in Puerto Rico, where he was raised on a visual diet of colorful religious iconography and Saturday-morning cartoons. At fifteen, López began an apprenticeship with sculptor Ricardo Espiet. Through Espiet's workshop, Diego was tasked with restoring wood and stucco polychrome saints and architectural interior decoration. He earned a BFA in painting from Parsons School of Design in 2001, then landed his first job as a storyboard artist at Ogilvy and Mather before pursuing a career as an independent illustrator. In his personal work, López uses digital media, egg tempera, and clay modeling to highlight the importance of interiority in a materialist culture. A selection of his illustration work is available at diegolopezart.com.

COURSES TAUGHT

Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wétiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism