Our Residents
We are so proud of the creatives that choose to spend their precious time with us at Lake Chapala for a 360 XQMX residency. As you will read, we are thrilled to welcome writers, musicians and artists from every medium. Our sub-tropical climate, the generous Mexican people, the vibrant culture and time-honored traditions are the magical elements that makes this place so special. Every month our family of artists grows and the individuals you will read about return here time and time again … because it feels like home to them. We are confident you will discover the charms of Mexico while exploring what comes next for you during a residency in Ajijic.
Like many artists Anthony Delgado felt his calling from an early age, eventually earning a BFA and MA in Fine Art in the 70s. However, since jobs for Fine Artists were nowhere to be found he turned his talents to graphic design and illustration, and spent his working life as a graphic designer. Ultimately, he chose a freelance life, creating work for over 20 years for the San Francisco Giants and local business event production companies.
Autumn Tranquilino is a self-taught painter based in Seattle, with a profound connection to the spiritual and visionary realms. Working primarily with acrylics, Autumn’s artwork explores themes of indigenous cultures, mythology, goddess deities, and the cycles of the natural world. Each piece is infused with divine inspiration, as Autumn channels a deep sense of energy and intuition to bring their visions to life.
Surface design and patterning have influenced Deborah Kruger’s work since her textile design training at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Kruger’s art practice balances making objects of beauty that convey layered meaning about habitat fragmentation, bird migration, species extinction and loss of indigenous languages. Her artwork is made with recycled plastic screen printed with images of endangered birds and languages.
FRANCO is a Mexican and autodidact artist born in Tonalá, Jalisco. His art blends and embodies Mexico's vibrant culture and folklore, combined with nature's beauty and kindness. Inspired by animal figures, FRANCO distills emotion into vibrant expressions, inviting viewers to resonate with his inner world.
Hamant Singh is a Singaporean writer who is inspired by the Sublime in horror, different cultures and the occult. Andromeda Dreams (2024) is his fifth release after The Sibyl (2002), CHAOS: RRR (2023), NÁUSEA | CONFESIÓN (2023) and VALTOHA (2024).
Influenced by the ‘Beat’ poets of the 1950s and ’60s, Clinock left home in the UK to travel the highways of North America. Enroute, he fell in love with Canada’s west coast and remains there today. He failed high school art in England and didn’t even consider studying or practising visual art until 1977 in Victoria, BC. Since retiring, he has continued his art studies and practice and has used my experience to teach and help others discover and explore their own creativity and find healing and joy in the act of art.
Justine Myth is a writer currently residing in the outer reaches of Los Angeles County, California, USA. She earned an MFA in creative writing from California State University at Long Beach, where she was nonfiction editor of the campus literary journal, RipRap. She has a BA in film and television from the University of California at Los Angeles with a concentration in screenwriting. Her short fiction can be described as fabulist or quietly fantastical, whimsy with a case of the blues, or whack-a-doodle with a chaser of harsh reality. But her short-form creative nonfiction is too candid for such adjectival theatrics. Her work can be found in the archives of a few lesser-known presses. She earns a living by noodling financial content while moonlighting as a pet sitter.
Kara McMullen is a writer and research scientist currently based in Portland, Oregon. Her writing has been featured in Diagram, Quarterly West, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for Best American Short Stories and Best of the Net.
Kelly Snyder is an award-winning artist who draws inspiration from her experiences living in Europe and Asia. Kelly is a multidisciplinary artist that started as an acrylic painter and branched out her eclectic style to include oils, pallet knife painting, mixed media, watercolor, mural painting, and other handmade crafts.
Kitty Hoffman’s essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in journals, magazines, and newspapers including The New Quarterly, Prism, Grain, The Malahat Review, Boulevard, The Common, and The Vancouver Sun. They have been published in anthologies including Fault Lines, Still Dancing, Listening with the Ear of the Heart, and Celebrating Canadian Women.
Kristina Ryan Tate is an Arizona-born creative writer and artist. As the third of nine children, writing for Tate has become not just a mode of expression, but a voice that cuts through the noise. Most of her work sits in the realm of autofiction, a liminal space between what is real and what is made up. She writes into the facts—and the lies memory tells her—to find the story that didn’t happen within the one that did, a Truth that resonates above everything else.
Linda Facci, the founder and creative force behind Facci Designs, is a celebrated fiber artist known for her unique and innovative creations. Specializing in needle felting, embroidery and branch weaving, Linda transforms simple fibers into intricate works of art.
Dr. Melinda Luisa de Jesús is Associate Professor of Critical Ethnic Studies and former Chair of Diversity Studies at California College of the Arts. She writes and teaches about Filipinx/American cultural production, girl culture, monsters, and race/ethnicity in the United States. She edited Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory, the first collection of Filipina/American feminisms (Routledge 2005); her first collection of poetry, peminology, was published by Paloma Press in 2018.
Montserrat Alsina is a multidisciplinary artist from Valencia, Venezuela, whose work spans art, education, and holistic practices. She holds degrees in Art, Education, and Psychology from Rhodes College and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a cultural innovator and collaborator, she co-founded Nahui Ollin: Ceremonial Dances of Mexico, 18th Street Pilsen Open Studios, Colibrí Studio Gallery, and the Arts and Culture Committee of Pilsen in Chicago. Additionally, she is a member of the International Yoga Alliance and divides her time between Chicago and the Dominican Republic.
Nessa is a contemporary abstract painter and teacher living in county Wicklow, Ireland. She paints to be in that state where she feels wide eyed with curiosity, a delightful place of freedom.
Pamela Sneed is the author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery, KONG and Other Works, Sweet Dreams and Funeral Diva published by City Lights in Oct 2020. Funeral Diva was featured in the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Lit Hub, Art Net and more. Funeral Diva won the 2021 Lambda Lesbian Poetry Award and recommended by The New York Times alongside Barack Obama’s memoir. Additionally, she has appeared on panels for The David Zwirner Gallery and has spoken at Bard Center for Humanities, The Ford Foundation, The Gordon Parks Foundation, Columbia University, The New School, New York Public Library, The Brooklyn Museum, MOMA, DIA, NYU’s Center for Humanities and The Whitney Museum.
Rene is a Financial Advisor with over 30 years experience helping people manage their wealth. An early part of his career his was helping a bank understand how its lending practices led to a critical level of loan defaults at one of its newest branches. The accumulation of his hands on experiences led him to write a book. Credit, it’s a drug. Cure the addiction for a dollar a day; explores how debt can take a hold of your life, who’s to blame, how it happens for some and not others, and a path to recovery.
Valerie Armstrong is a mixed-media painter working in acrylics and cold wax/oil. She is based mainly in Woodbridge on the beautiful East-Anglian coast of England. After her children were born, as a way to work from home when they were at school, she began a business painting murals, painted folding screens, and furniture to commission. As they grew up she became a printmaker and a painter. Now painting, exhibiting, and some workshop teaching occupies all of her time.
