Just Keep Going
Luke Godinez grew up on the Eastside of L.A, went to an all-boys Catholic school where the emphasis was on sports and had never set foot on the UCLA campus before he applied as an art major. He entered the program with a practice in painting and drawing, but leaves also as a performance artist and sculptor.
The pivot happened after a junior year residency at Yale Norfolk, which he embarked upon with the full support of UCLA faculty. There he was encouraged to think about a more authentic approach to his aesthetic.
"It wasn't as raw as I wished it was," he said. "The art, the work I make now, speaks to my queerness and my sexuality, a side of play that I never had access to growing up."
Performance had always come naturally, but somewhat privately. Singing in his bedroom, in front of a mirror. Bridging that into a formal practice required the same kind of courage as applying to UCLA in the first place. He credits faculty member and senior capstone advisor Rodney McMillian as an important mentor. Eva Aguila, a visiting professor, helped him develop his new genres work. And a photographer named Amina Cruz, then a graduate student at UCLA, was one of the first people who made him feel welcome enough to stay.
His senior thesis show is a world he's been building over the course of a year. A dance floor in the shape of a star, lit up. A stage he built in the fall for a persona to inhabit. A ginormous high heel shoe. He's always seeking something to perform with, to play with, to build meaning around. He weaves video work through all of it and is deliberate about the rough edges.
"I really emphasize the scrappier aspects of art — spontaneity, making within your means," he said. He remembers joyful moments making party decorations with his family as a kid.
At the same time, he's been building an additional arts fluency at the Fowler Museum, where he's spent the past several years facilitating events and public programs, inspired by a sophomore year Getty Marrow undergraduate internship doing similar work. He's also given student tours at orientation events for the School of the Arts and Architecture, offering the kind of mentorship that had meant something to him when he was the one being shown around. After graduation, he'll return to the Getty for an events job, maybe grad school one day.
At a talk at the Hammer not long ago, a woman he'd never met approached and asked if he was an artist. He said yes. She told him to just keep going. Don't be afraid.
"That stuck with me so much," he said.
