“For me, drawing is very political, and it’s also an amazing tool for creating awareness. It’s all about observing the things that you’re seeing,” explains Coco Guzman. Guzman runs Pio! Centre for Drawing, where they will offer
Comics for Queers, a two-day workshop, on August 8 and 9. “I love working with people who are scared of drawing. That’s my main speciality,” Guzman says with a laugh.
The workshop, open to eight to 10 participants, is a small, hands-on seminar where participants will be able to leave with both a finished comic strip and “something that gives people the confidence to continue.” Participants will also leave with a revitalized sense of themselves as creatives, and a larger network of like-minded artists. As Guzman says, “That people have fun is so important. Also, their capacity to share stories, to meet other people, to relax.” The intimate workshops are open to all skill levels, but Guzman says they work mostly with beginners.
In addition to Comics for Queers, Pio! also offers a similar workshop aimed at women and trans people. Guzman, who is queer, says, “I make a lot of comics myself, and I started making them because I didn’t have more comics to read. I find that these populations are usually underrepresented in the comic environment.” Pio!, which opened on Sterling Road earlier this year, also offers workshops about embroidery, nature drawing, and life drawing.
The studio was designed to support the queer and gender-nonconforming people who use the space. The washrooms are all gender-neutral, and the studio is fully accessible. “This space wouldn’t have existed without the queer community and the political activist community specifically,” says Guzman, who credits them with providing financial support and donating the furniture. “I see these workshops as a community outlet, and for me, it’s becoming more and more of my art practice, to share this knowledge.”
Guzman’s workshops have both practical goals—to remind would-be artists not to fear their creative side—and loftier ones. “I hope the workshops help break down the competitive aspects of the art word. I hope it brings out this idea of skill sharing, and the importance of the process. I’m very much into anti-capitalist models of knowledge, so how can we create an art space that is shared by everyone?”