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Teresa López is an artist [1], [2], graphic designer and art profesor living in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is the creator, designer and director of Orificio, an independent art publication of contemporary art from Puerto Rico [3], [4], [5],

Formative years: Although born in Humacao in June 9, 1957, she was raised in Arecibo, a coastal town in the north part of the island of Puerto Rico, where her father, José I. López-Poueymirou, worked as an engineer for a rum factory. Teresa López grandfather, José López Domínguez, another engineer had been the administrador of a sugar cane mill, Central Roig, in Yabucoa. On her mother’s side, Edmée Martínez, her grandfather, Francisco Martínez, had worked as a Port Captain for the Eastern Sugar Co. in Humacao’s port. One of her paternal ancestor’s, great grandfather Remigie Poueymirou y Malville, originally from the region of Pau, France, settled in the mountains of Maricao, Puerto Rico as a farmer in the 1860’s. There he came to own several coffee plantations, among them Guabá and Valentina. (His wife, María Monserrate Avilés y Ojeo, originated from Maricao or Yauco). Her childhood was spent among her four siblings and close neighbors in Arecibo during which time she first became interested in drawing and painting. As an eight year old, she was taken to Old San Juan to the Art Students League where she took art lessons with painter Alfonso Arana. During these formative years, López was very sensitive to color and form and admired the beautiful 19th century architecture of her town and the old part of San Juan, the capital. After her parents separated when she was 10, she was taken to live in San Juan, where her mother had moved. After living with her grandmother in Humacao from 12 to 14 years old, she ran away from home and lived in the Fiesta del Sol Music Festival commune (which later turned into Marysol Festival) in Vega Baja. Her teenage years were spent back in Arecibo, living with her father and siblings, where she studied art with artist Pablo Romero and became, briefly, a member of his art group.

Adulthood: In 1974, she left Arecibo and moved to San Juan and, later, Dallas Texas. In 1975 she met and married Arthur J. McCall whom she lived between San Juan and Satellite Beach, Fla., un addittion to Jacksonville. Her only two male children, Sean and Brian, were born during this time. After she separated from Arthur J. Mc Call in 1982, she took courses in Photography in Sacred Heart University and several Art courses at the Art Students League. During this time she also worked as a commercial photographer with José Santa Cruz, and, later, turning to painting, exhibited regularly in Galería San Juan, owned by Janet D’Esopo. Starting in 1985-6 she exhibited regularly in the vanguardist MSA Gallery (Movimiento Sintetista Actualizado), directed by Teo Freytes and Yrsa Dávila, which eventually led to the formalization of an education in art at the School of Fine Arts ([Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico][6]).In SFA, Teresa López studied and became friendls with Puerto Rico’s most important and renowned artists such as: Julio Suárez, Carlos Collazo, Domingo García, Sylvia Blanco, Adelino González, Melquíades Rosario, Manuel García Fonteboa, Consuelo Gotay, José Alicea and many others. Several years later, in 1992, she obtained her Bachelors Degree (BFA) in Painting from the School of Fine Arts ([Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico][7]).

It was during the years that she studied at SFA that Teresa López and artist Marcos Irizarry became a couple [8]. Marcos Irizarry, a well known abstract graphic artist at the time, was already the Resident Artist at the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico when they met. During the years they lived together, Marcos Irizarry and Teresa López spent summers between Madrid and Ibiza, also living between San Juan and the mountain town of Maricao in Puerto Rico, the rest of the year. In Ibiza, she worked as his Assistant Engraver and also painted in a studio she set up in the old sheep’s stables at the back of the Irizarry's house, C'an Mariano Cova. Back at the Mayagüez Campus in the University of Puerto Rico for the first semesters, Marcos Irizarry and Teresa López also put up together an installation exhibit in Galería Chardón in 1989. Teresa López was also part of the "Taller de Cayey" [9], a collective studio set up in an abandoned tabacco warehouse, originally founded in Bo. Cuyones in Cayey by Marcos Irizarry, Carlos Collazo and María de Mater O’Neill [10], in 1988. After Carlos Collazo died in 1990 and Marcos Irizarry and Teresa López’s final breakup in 1991, López abandoned the "Taller" and new artist joined in, such as Dhara Rivera. In 1993, Teresa López, in collaboration with Rivera and other artists such as Nestor Otero and Elías Adarme organized Situarte93, a one day interdisciplinary event in the Taller de Cayey that included more than 20 artists, to celebrate its closing, all in memory of Carlos Collazo.

After graduating from SFA, she worked several years as an Assistant Designer to freelance designer and artist María de Mater O’Neill. Soon after, she was recruited by the SFA to teach in the newly created Image and Design Department; and then became its second Director. Together with María de Mater O”Neill, Teresa López was responsible for revising and creating the curricula for the new program in 1993. After several years working in SFA, she created Orificio, as a way of getting students and professors to share their artistic and intelelectual production. After forced to leave the SFA in 2002, she continued to direct the Orificio project (ISSN# 1939-3342), this time as an independent art project [11]. This contemporary art periodical published four more editions since then. Orificio #6, the last and most recent edition, was commisioned and exhibited in the Independent Publication section of the Trienal Poligráfica de Puerto Rico y Latinoamérica, celebrated in San Juan in 2009. Among the many exhibits and collaborations in which she has participated: Publica 3, Trienal Poligráfica de Puerto Rico: América Latina y el Caribe, San Juan, PR, 2009; Arte Nuevo Interactiva 2009, Mérida, México, Online exhibit: http://www.cartodigital.org/interactiva; 0508 Net Art + Net Video Colectivo, San Juan, PR., Online exhibit: Optika 2, Visual Narrative Simposium, Sala de exposiciones Edif. Chardón, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Mayaguez.www.0508dondeveoarte.com, 2008; Muestra Nacional Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Antiguo Asilo de Beneficiencia, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, PR.; Tu Tran (colaboración), Charles Juhasz, Fundación Miró, Barcelona, España and Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan; 100 Años, 100 Artistas, Arsenal de la Puntilla, San Juan, PR.; Pequeño formato, Galería Luiggi Marrozzini, San Juan, PR.; Encuentro de Artistas Jóvenes de Puerto Rico y la República Dominicana, Casa de Teatro, Santo Domingo, RD; Retratos y Autorretratos, Galería Latinoamericana, San Juan, PR. Other projects include: 23+interrogantes, online atn: www.lasinterrogantes.blogspot.com; Coconututopia II, blog at: www.coconututopia.blogspot.com.

In the present, Teresa López is living in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she continues to work as an art professor in Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, artist and freelance graphic designer. She has participated in numerous art exhibitions and events during the last ten years and is currently working on her Doctoral Degree at the Center for Advanced Studies (Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe), all while raising, as a single mother, her last and only female child, Gabrielle, the product of a romance with the late Russian poetry declamer and adventurer Mikhail D. Timofeev.

External links: [Arte online][12]; 2. Santurce_Inn, Media-Rican Collective by Pedro Vélez [13]. External link: 1. Espacio para los artistas [14]; 2. El Orificio de Teresa López [15], [16], [17], [18]