Today we’d like to introduce you to Isa Guadalupe Medina.
Hi Isa, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Since I can remember, art and nature have always been present in my life. Art was my favorite subject in school and my favorite thing to do, whether it was painting, drawing, sewing or some sort of craft. I knew that when I grew up, I would be pursuing something in art or nature. I grew up in Tijuana and moved to San Diego when I was in elementary school. It was in my high school years that I got interested in fashion design. I looked at fashion as an expression of art in one’s own body as wearable art, everyone styling themselves differently as a way of revealing and presenting a part of themselves to the world. In my freshman year of high school, I began taking sewing classes and a year later, I began an internship as a designer assistant at a local children’s wear company. There I learned all the skills and hardships of working for a small design house, from sewing, cutting, pattern making, grading, etc.
I worked there for five years and after my 20th birthday, I moved to New York to study fashion design at Parsons The New School for Design. While studying, I was working on small collections and selling my designs on Etsy and to my friends and family. In my third year of university, I studied abroad at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, School of Fashion and Textiles in Australia. It was there where my creative thinking and vision sort of shifted. My professors there opened my way of thinking and helped me explore other ways of creating and experimenting with other materials. I returned to my final year at Parsons to close that chapter with my final thesis project, Jaguar Azul. A project about the fragility and ephemerality of life. This project marked my path not only because of what it represented but for what I wish to become and create in the future. I clearly remember the day of my presentation one of my judging panel critics saying that my project lay in an in-between state of fashion and art, and it was the best thing anyone could have told me that day.
After graduating in 2018, I moved back to San Diego and later returned to my old job as a design assistant for children’s wear. In February of this year, I moved back to Tijuana and decided to rent a studio to continue working on my own designs on the side. Then the pandemic began and I was out of a job. I think this was what pushed me into really starting my own brand and focus on what I love to do. So, I decided to challenge myself and dedicate all my time and fully commit to Isa Guadalupe’s designs.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I honestly never thought that at this point in my life, I would be where I am today. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions and lots of self-discipline to keep up. At first, it wasn’t easy, it takes a lot of investing and sacrificing of things and outings, but at the end, it is worth it. Seeing people’s response to my work and noticing things flowing is when I knew I should keep going. Yes, sometimes it is also difficult to keep making things but that is when I take a mental break and go to my favorite place, nature. It is where my inspiration comes from and just being outdoors and noticing the little things. Nature’s rare beauty and constant change has the most rewarding visuals and feelings for inspiration. One thing that I try to really absorb from my experiences in nature is the importance of accepting change and learn from and appreciate the process of everything. I feel like if you really love what you do then it’s worth risking things and trying it out, because what is the point of life if one just keeps dreaming of doing something but never taking the chance to achieve it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I appreciate things that take a long time to create, as the art of beading and embroidery. One of my greatest inspirations is the beading art from the Huichol community. They create intricate designs with tiny beads that are breathtaking. Beads are one of my favorite mediums, therefore for my senior year in university, I created a fully hand-beaded garment that took about 300 hours to make. It was one of my most memorable projects and one that I am most proud of, Jaguar Azul. There comes the point in life that everything comes to an end; things break, situations become unjust, animals become extinct, people die, life goes away.
Throughout the years, I’ve comprehended that nothing lasts forever and that everything happens for a reason. People come and go, while others stay with you until the end, but each person and moment that has passed has formed part of who we are. During this project surged the need to create something that would involve a lot of time and labor to create like hand-beading, which represents that connection and attachment that hurts to let go. The Jaguar Azul (blue jaguar) represents that pain, the pain of impermanence, of the ephemeral of life, the souls that have died, the friendships and lovers that leave, the injustices that keep happening, the animals in danger of extinction, and all the losses of life. The project is presented in a short film, at the end, all those long hours of hand beading dissolve into nothing. After that project, beading and embroidery have appeared in my work.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Through my journey, I’ve learned that nothing lasts forever. Things and people come and go and it is because of that constant change and lessons from life that we do what we do. My experiences are always reflected in my work, whether it is through color, hand-beading or embroidery, certain shapes or illustrations. Every detail has a meaning of something that I have experienced or something that I want to understand more deeply. Life is very fragile and I think especially in these times, we all have had that experience of fragility and ephemerality. I feel that this theme is a lesson and it invites us to become more understanding of our part as creatives and human beings in this world.
Contact Info:
- Email: isagmdn@gmail.com
- Website: isaguadalupe.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isaguadalupe/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/266223968
Image Credits
Photography: Gabriela Walther Models: Coco Delgado, Andrea Flores, Denia Fernanda Villegas, Isabella Esparza, Claudia Lam
