By: Dani Nalangan

Dewey Tafoya is not the “elusive Master Printer.”

As SHG’s current Master Printer and Assistant Director of the Professional Printmaking Program, Tafoya works to make learning about art, printmaking, and mentorship accessible—something he says he didn’t have as a kid growing up in Boyle Heights. Trying not to be the lone, isolated Print Master locked up in his studio, I often see him out and about, laughing with other coworkers, greeting me with a “How’s it going, friend!” and asking what I was having for lunch that day.

Not having gone to school for art—dipping his toes into the career printing shirts and designing album covers for friends only in college—Tafoya wants students to realize that because he can do it, they can do it too. I spoke to him about his path to SHG. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: I was interested in learning about your upbringing and where you grew up, your interests, your experience in school?

A: I grew up right here in Boyle Heights.  Specifically, on top of the hill near Whittier Blvd and Soto St. Growing up, my interests were mainly music.  I grew up at a time when there was lots of new music coming up, whether it was punk rock or hip hop or metal. I liked listening to all of those. And sometimes some of them in secret because you couldn't, like, listen to metal and listen to The Smiths, you had to choose one. It's not like now, where kids now, they wear like Iron Maiden jackets and The Smiths patches and The Cure and I'm like, you guys mesh it all together, you're doing a really good job. 

But that was kind of my childhood. School, I dropped out when I was like 17. I went to lots of different high schools around here, ended up at Boyle Heights Continuation. And that's kind of where I had a teacher there that was kind of like, “Hey man, like you should, when you turn 18, you should go to community college, and try to figure out life from there.” So that's kind of what happened. I went to community college for a little bit, right when I turned 18 and I took a drawing class and History of the Americas, and nothing really that had any credit. It just was more classes I wanted to take because I wanted to learn. And I didn't talk to a counselor, so I felt like I didn’t have any guidance, I just was like, “Yeah, I'm gonna take all the classes!” And then I think I eventually started working, and I worked at UPS for five years. And it wasn't until after that, that I went back to school. 

Basic childhood, basic working class childhood, with no direction and kind of no goals. I think that was recently really strange for me, because I think I grew up in an environment where I felt like I didn't have control. I think friends were getting arrested or going to jail or getting killed. So I think for me, that's what I think my path was. So I automatically was like, “Well, screw it, I'm gonna just do whatever I want. Because I'm not gonna be around that long, either gonna be incarcerated, or dead.” So I think there was no like, “I should go to college,” or “I should like, do this,” because that's not what I was around, or what I knew. Nobody that I knew, knew anybody that had gone through that path, it was just whatever—work, go to work, make money. Live that life.

Q: Was there a point where that changed at all? Because I was reading your bio on the website and saw you went to UCLA at some point.

A: Yeah, so way later, after when I realized like, “Oh, I'm not dead and I'm not in prison. Now I need to figure out like, okay, what I want to do.” So like I said, I worked at UPS. That's kind of like a job that lots of folks in the neighborhood would—that was like their goal job, like, “Oh, I want to work at UPS because there's benefits.”

The only thing was that it was a part time job so they promoted, like, “work at UPS and go to school and get a career.” But I think for lots of people who grew up where I grew up, it was more of, “that's the job.” Like, that's gonna be your lifelong job. And I have friends that still work there that were hired when I was hired. And they're managers and stuff like that. But I think for me, I could have been there forever, but also just had that feeling where like, I didn't have kids, I didn't have a family. So I was like, you know, I could take a risk, and quit this job and go back to school. 

Actually, I was working there one night. And it's like a super toxic work environment where they're like, yelling at you, your managers get yelled at by their boss, and then they come and yell at somebody else, and then they'll come yell at you. And everybody's super stressed because it's the mail, right? They have to get it on time. It has to go on a train. So everybody's pissed off at each other. So one night when I was sitting there, it was like, three in the morning, and guys were yelling and guys were talking and I kind of was like, “This is not how I envision my life. So I need to figure things out.” And I think for me, that was quitting and going to East LA College and being like, “Okay, I took some classes. What do I need to do to go to CalState LA?” 

I think for me, that was the easiest goal, to go and finish up whatever classes I had for transfer, and go to Cal State LA with the goal of being a high school English teacher. Because I think that whole experience for me in high school was also kind of like, realizing that there was nobody that looked like me in a teacher position. So it was just really kind of weird. LAUSD, especially the schools here in the neighborhood, just seemed like they were like a dumping ground for lots of the teachers that weren't really good teachers, or even weren't really mentally stable, because some of the teachers we have are kind of weird. I think for me, for a while, I lived with my cousins, and so I was able to experience a different school district, and then coming back and being like, “Oh, this is, like, not really good.” So just kind of having that in my mind. So yeah, definitely as I was older, maybe in my late-20s, I went back to school, I finished off my transfer credits, and I transferred to UCLA.

Q: So why literature then? What drew you to that degree?

A: I wanted to be a writer, I used to write, and write poems and stuff like that. But it was also something I was really interested in. I was really interested in English, my English class, reading literature. That was really my big thing. And I think also, not knowing that there's lots of other jobs that you can do. I think, you know, specifically when you're a young kid, when you’re a young brown kid growing up in the hood, it's like, oh, there's these certain things that you need to do, whether it's like, go be a teacher, or go be a cop, or—and then that's it. There's no other things. So that was my trajectory. I was like, “You know what, I'm gonna go be a teacher. I'll work in the hood, and it'd be cool.” So that was my goal, but when I went to school, that was when I was like, “Whoa, there's all these other things that I could do, where I could be like an ethnomusicologist. And just like listen to music.”  

So I took a bunch of classes. Yeah, I think it was all that opening up and just realizing, okay, sometimes school isn't that trajectory that you want to go, sometimes it's those experiences and kind of taking advantage of that. So actually yeah, when I was at school, my last semester there, I went in as an English major, and then I switched to American Literature and Culture. And then I picked up a minor in Chicano Studies because I had taken a lot of Mexican American literature classes that were all Chicano Studies, and it was enough to have a minor. And then I was like, you know, two more classes and I can have a Chicano Studies major. So I just did that. So I double majored in American Literature and Culture and Chicano Studies with the idea of teaching and talking about Mexican American literature as American literature. Just like African American literature as American literature, Asian American literature as American literature, and just the same stories, right, the same stories. But I feel like those hyphenated American people don't get the “capital letters,” we get the “lowercase letters” like Asian American literature, Mexican American literature, where it's not just “American literature.” Or even African American literature, I think in the past few years has been accepted. So now they're “capital,” African American literature.

So just kind of like, going to school for that, and kind of navigating those areas and just wanting to be a teacher. And I think my last quarter, I took a community service learning class through Chicano Studies at UCLA, they called that Barrio Service Learning. And basically, it was a seminar class and they give you this big book, and they say, “Here, choose a nonprofit, and go and volunteer for them, and then report back.” So out of that book, I was like, Oh, my God, all these other orgs that I knew, I'm gonna go and they're gonna make me file stuff away. It's gonna be something that I guess I didn't want to do. And then on the list was Self Help Graphics. And I was like, okay, that's in my neighborhood. I'm familiar with the place, but I'm not too familiar with it. I know that they have punk rock shows because I had been there for punk rock shows, and I had been there for events like quinceaneras and stuff like that. And I was kind of looking in, like, what is this? They do art here? And kind of not knowing what they do. I had friends that went there to do classes, but it seemed very exclusive, right? I just couldn't go and be like, “hey, what's going on here?” It was just a place that artists would go, and they would paint their faces like skeletons and dance. I think it was a chance for me to kind of check it out, do something that was kind of fun for my service learning class. And it was close to my house. That's kind of how I ended up here.

Q: You graduated with a degree in American Literature and Chicano studies, though I know you work as an artist here. How did you get to that point? Were you practicing art at UCLA? Or was that something that happened after?

 A: It's something that happened after. I knew about art, I mean, I would go to friends' art shows. I was kind of in that scene, kind of underground in LA, music, art. So I was familiar with all that. I knew lots of people, but I never really thought about like, “Oh, let me be an artist, or let me sit down and make something.” I think, just from growing up with my dad and growing up with, I don't know, the Mexican man kind of like, “I can make that!” I mean, when they see stuff, they think like, “I can go home and make that!” I think that's kind of in my DNA, where I’ll see something I can make and then go and try to make it. And sometimes it'll work and sometimes it won't. So I think that's kind of more of my art world kind of experience, which I think comes from my dad. My dad would be like, “Hey, come outside and make something!” And I was like, “No, I want a video game,” and he's like, “But there's wood and hammer outside,” and I was like, “Yeah, but that's not a video game.” He's like, “Well, go and do something.” So I think just having that push for me to go and figure things out with my imagination and kind of make things also helped me really kind of start making art. It wasn't until I worked at Self Help Graphics that I was exposed to artists, and then they invited me back, like the year after to work the Day of the Dead workshops. And even then, I had worked with Self Help Graphics for around a year or so before I started even thinking about making art.

Q: So what was your first experience doing art? Was that here, printing, or did you start doing art at some other point?

A: I used to always draw when I was a kid. That was something I always did. I always made stuff and did stuff. I think when I first came to Self Help Graphics, I used to make paper maché masks and piñatas. When I was here, I had a friend, and she actually bought me a silkscreen kit from Michaels, because she was like, “Oh, you make all those cool drawings, you should try this kit!” And I was like, “I don't know, it looks really hard. It looks really confusing.” So I put it away for a long time. I think it was maybe a year until I finally got it out and kind of printed some shirts, people were like, “Hey, where'd you get that shirt?” For me, that was kind of like, “Whoa, people actually like my images, so how do I go about learning more about this, and making more stuff?” 

I think that was the beginning of me learning about printing and also sharing my images via print. So it was all kind of like, okay, let me experiment and make stuff and print. I think for me, it was just about like, let me just like print and make stuff and make mistakes and print. And that's kind of how my journey started making art.

Q: So what kinds of things did you like printing initially?

A: My first prints were photos of telephone wires. So there's lots of telephone wires with different backgrounds. And again, just learning the basics of printing, and how to transfer an image on there. Some of them were just drawings of skulls. So it was a little bit of that. And then also just having friends who are already artists, once I started doing stuff, they're like, “Oh, hey, like, can you do this stuff for me?” So I ended up printing for friends for their album covers or T-shirts or Day of the Dead banners. Very early on my friend Rico, I had these giant drawings of Day of the Dead skulls that I just kind of drew, and he was like, “Hey, man, we're having this event in Orange County, it's a Day of the Dead event, you should come and try to sell your shirts. You could share a booth with me and we could just set up and have fun and have drinks. Oh, and by the way, I used your images for the banners.” He was like, “Yeah, you can make shirts and you can make money that way.” And I was like, “What!” So it was kind of those little kicks in the butt that were like, “Okay, I need to keep doing this.”

Yeah, definitely very different from literature and that whole other world. I mean, along with that was also me trying to find a job trying to do something. It was the early 2000s, so that's when everything kind of had crashed, and there wasn't work. I mean, even for people fresh out of college. So it was also kind of like, “Okay, what can I do to sustain myself?” That was one of the things, besides working. I worked as a TA. I worked at an elementary school which was lots of fun, then at night try to do stuff and make stuff on the weekends.

Q: I'm curious, you said one of your first prints was of a telephone wire. Why a telephone wire?

A: I think for me, it was just the fascination of where I grew up and kind of like urban landscapes and like all these wires. We don't have trees, but we have telephone wires, electrical lines with birds on them. So I think for me, it just was a big fascination. And I'm still fascinated by that stuff. 

Q: I'm interested in what kinds of things you like exploring in your work now?

A: Now, I really, oh my gosh, I think for me—culture. Especially growing up within American culture, you know, deep in the heart of American culture, you know, we're bombarded with all this American culture. For me as a kid, I've always been a reader. I think that's what led me to study literature. So it's just having these stories about America and American culture, and realizing that I'm not in them, or nobody like me is in them. So as I got older, or when I started making art, it was—maybe consciously, but sometimes unconsciously—creating images that were pop culture images, but with a little spin on them. So for example, I made an image of the Millennium Falcon, because I'm a big Star Wars fan, but I matched it up with Aztec sandstone. So it was kind of taking things like that and deconstructing it and kind of making it again, kind of how I would have liked to see it as a kid, or even as an adult. Just kind of having fun with images like that, as well. I think I still like to do that.

I like to think that, in lieu of writing poems and books, I'm creating stories with the image. So a lot of times, I'll make something that'll have lots of different meanings to it, and sometimes the meanings are purposeful, and sometimes the meanings kind of happen as you're making the print. So if you look at it, and if you know a few things about what's going on, then you can kind of interpret that story.

Q: When you're making your designs, how do you come up with them?

A: Sometimes it happens really fast, and I'm like, “Oh!” and put something together. Sometimes I'll just have one thing and I'll have that thing for months or even years and kind of not know how it interacts with something else. So it'll just kind of live there and then something will pop up and I’ll mash them together or create something out of it. So I think it's hoarding ideas, and hoarding images. And sometimes not using them until I find something that kind of connects with it, that it can make something. And then sometimes it just happens, like really stupidly, really fast. 

So, yeah, I think I just like to stay open to ideas and things. I do have lots of friends like, “oh, I have artist's block.” And I'm like, “I don't know what that is like, don't talk to me about that.” I think there's ideas, and they're all out there. I don't think too hard about it because I think if I did then I would have block. So I just kind of stay open to things and observe and listen and soak things in. I think most of my images are from just me soaking in TV and radio and music and movies and conversations, historical things that happen, and then kind of having them in my head and then every once in a while I’ll vomit it out so that it looks like something cool. Or not cool, or whatever.

Q: So you mentioned working here, after college. How did you eventually become Master Printer?

A: Oh my god, I've only been Master Printer for a year and a few months. But I've been a volunteer here at Self Help since 2003 or 2002. First, it was volunteering, and then they would ask me once in a while, like, “Hey, can you like, do this workshop?” and then I would get paid for that. But I was never staff—I came around at a time where there was no staff. When I first started out of college, there was staff, and then they closed down. Then they were opened up, but it was small, it just was some of the board members and some volunteers. So I think for me, that really helped me kind of mesh with the place. Because I would come in, and help clean up and help do things and help keep the space open. For me, it was also, I guess, the idea of becoming part of something and feeling that I was a part of it in some kind of way really helped me to kind of learn and make it my space. So eventually, since I had done that, when they did hire staff, it was kind of like “Here, you can use the back corner to set up your T-shirts.” I think for me, that was really fundamental, just the folks allowing me a space to kind of create, and kind of do stuff. I think that's allowed me to kind of experiment and do things, and just print and experiment with printing, learn about printing, and be in contact with artist friends who have these crazy ideas—if you have artist friends, they have crazy ideas, like, “Let's print on this!” And I'm like, “let's do it!” 

I think for me, it's all a learning process too. I think after ten years, all that experience finally led me up to—or even more—led me to be invited to create prints here at Self Help Graphics. So before I was Master Printer, they had a couple of folks doing those duties, because I worked other jobs. So they were like, “Oh, if you have time, can you come this week, and we're gonna print with this artist,” and sometimes I could and sometimes I couldn’t. So I think that's kind of how I started, I guess dipping my toes into the world of printing for other artists.

Q: What other jobs did you work leading up to becoming Master Printer?

A: Before the pandemic—because during the pandemic is when they released the application for a Master Printer—I was mainly a Teaching Artist. So I worked for Self Help Graphics as a teaching artist, worked for another org called ArtworxLA as a teaching artist. I worked for SPARC in Venice as a Teaching Artist. And then of course, I would make shirts and sell them online and do all that stuff on my own, then also get invited to do printing events on my own. So, you know, I was fortunate enough to have all these kinds of sources of income. 

But yeah, like I said before, I think the pandemic has made me realize like whoa, I was working a lot. For example, a day for me would have been waking up maybe on a Monday, driving to Venice from Orange County—I live in Orange County—teach at a high school in Venice for SPARC, get out of there at one o'clock. Come here. Meet with the artists here to work on their prints until like eight or nine o'clock at night. Go home. The next day I worked for ArtworxLA. I would drive to Pico Union and work from the worksite and teach three hours there. And then again, come here and work with artists. So that was kind of like my schedule. Or if I had an event later that night I’d set up for printing at a friend's gig or something to do more printing. So it was really busy all day.

Q: So as Master Printer or as an artist in general is there anything with your career you want to accomplish or do, or any kinds of art you want to create in the future?

A: I still want to make all kinds of art. Yeah. I think that's never gonna stop. I think it's more therapeutic, where I feel better after I make something. So whatever that looks like, as long as I'm making something, I'll be happy with it as long as I have time, and that space to do it. As far as Master Printer, I think for me, my main goal is to learn how to become a better mentor. Just so that I can share all that stuff with somebody, maybe like Gabby, who wants to eventually take over when I move on, or when I die here from training. [Dewey laughs] 

But yeah, definitely. As I get older, I think about that, like, how can I become a better mentor for some of the younger folks? Because that's something that I didn't have. And just that realization like, oh, even as an older person, how do you mentor an older person? How does that work? So I think just that. That’s what I want to leave behind, that I taught some people how to print. I think I've taught a few people how to print. [Dewey laughs]

But yeah, the whole mentor thing. It's a trip just thinking about that, like, how do you share this stuff, right? How do you pass it on? Even to your kids, how do you do that, because they might not want to do this. They might be like, “I want to become a corporate billionaire!” But yeah, it's just thinking about that. How do I share this? Because I feel like in the past this position has been something where it's been really like, “Oh, let's not share.” It’s like, you're the printer and you're in that room by yourself and nobody can come and see. The printer doesn't want to talk to you, he doesn't want to share it. So I think for me, it's kind of like, how do I change that? I think I've done alright. I think for me, the whole learning process and teaching process is also sharing all that knowledge. So that somebody could be like, “Oh, I want to print. He did it, I can do it too.” And they could call and ask, “Hey, what kind of ink do I need or what kind of screen should I use, or what kind of stuff do I need?”

Dani Nalangan is the summer/fall Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Arts Journalism and PR Intern at Self Help Graphics & Art. She is a musician and illustrator studying Musicology and Communications at UCLA.